Flowers depend on the birds and the bees

PITTSBORO -- The Chatham Marketplace porch abounded with bees and other insects Wednesday, but for once outside diners didn't wave them away.

N.C. State University faculty and members of the N.C. Cooperative Extension organized an afternoon of events at the natural foods co-op, including a live bee hive demonstration and honey tasting. The events were in honor of the first-ever National Pollinators Week, which ends Saturday.

"I hope it gets people outside and connected to nature," said Laurie Davies Adams, executive director for the Pollinator Partnership, a project of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, which works to conserve resident and migratory pollinators. "That's ultimately what's going to help keep this vibrant environment alive: when we realize it's in our interest to do it."

About 80 percent of flowering plants rely on pollinators such as bees, other insects and hummingbirds for their survival.

Pollinators also account for about $185 million a year in food that requires pollination for development, said David Tarpy, an extension apiculturalist with NCSU.

But these important contributors to North Carolina agriculture development are threatened by human development and colony collapse disorder, said Debbie Roos, a Chatham County agricultural extension agent.

Colony collapse disorder is a mysterious condition wherein worker bees abruptly disappear from a colony. It began destroying thousands of hives last winter across the globe. Theories for this disappearance include environmental-change factors, new pathogens or even radiation from man-made devices such as cell phones.

Scientists may not be able to do anything about colony collapse disorder yet, but much can be done to help increase pollinators' habitat, Roos said.

"With just a little bit of knowledge about plants that are appropriate for pollinators, we can augment that and really help out the pollinators," she said. "We need to be doing our part. And it's not [just] out of a sense of need, it's fun."

Roos, who began working as a horticulturalist before becoming fascinated with pollinators, recommended planting flowers in large blocks so flying pollinators can see them easily. Blue and purple flowers are honeybees' favorites.

After some pollination education, many participants enjoyed cookies made with honey from the hives of Jim Williams, president of the Chatham County Beekeeper Association.

Bees get a bad rap for stinging, but Williams said wasps and yellow jackets are really the ones to look out for. Unless you threaten them, bees can be, well, quite bee-nign. "If you like fruits and vegetables and nuts, you'll like honey bees [be]cause that's what they do," he said.

Improving his fruit and vegetable crops was exactly why beekeeper James Harstad started his bee habitat, but the hobby resulted in other pleasures as well.

"I love the smell of a beehive in sunny afternoon, with the warm wax," said Harstad, who has been keeping hives for only a year.

For many other scientists and beekeepers, it is the creatures themselves that engross them in their work and keep them as busy as ... well, you know.