Are there no apples on your apple trees? Are there few vegetables in your garden? Maybe they aren't receiving adequate pollination. Many plants cannot produce their bounty without help from outside sources. That's where bees, moths, birds, and butterflies come in. In their search for sweet nectar from blossoms, they inadvertently fertilize the female plant with the pollen dust they picked up from the male plant. Thus, the female can then go on to produce seeds and the protective fruit. Perhaps your local habitat isn't conducive to birds or bees or moths.
There are ways to attract them. Sugar feeders and bee houses are simple and effective projects. A bee house can be constructed simply by taking a short length of 2x4 or 4x4lumber and drilling 1/4" holes half-way through lengthwise. The honey bee and other small bees will take residence in this mini-hive if hung on a tree limb. Bumble bees, however, usually nest in the ground.
Sugar feeders can be purchased commercially or easily constructed. The simplest method is using a small, brightly colored bowl. Just set it outside and it's ready! All feeders use a solution of one part sugar and four parts water. Another method uses a small bottle with a tightly sealed sipping tube on the cap. A sports bottle works well for this. Hang it upside down from a tree branch or whatever. Paint the tip of the tube bright yellow and position it so that the solution barely rises to the top. Hold the tube in this V-shaped position with a rubber band. The tube will have to be adjusted as the solution level drops.
Make sure to keep your feeders filled into the fall, as the critters will depend on them for their fall migration reserves. Aiding in pollination is only a small part of having a successful homestead. The flying animals you attract are fun to watch, which is an added bonus.
Little bees are in big trouble
If you didn't harvest many cucumbers, melons, apples, blueberries, or any of dozens of other crops last summer, maybe you can blame the bees... the bees that weren't there. Experts estimate that more than 90 percent of the wild bee population has been wiped out, along with 30 percent of the domesticated bees. That 30 percent is an average: in Maine, apiary inspectors reported an 80 percent loss. In New York it was 60-70 percent.
Two types of mites-the microscopic tracheal mite (so tiny it crawls into the breathing tubes of honeybees), and the tick-sized varroa mite - have devastated both wild and domesticated bees in the past 12 years. Then came an exceptionally cold winter in many parts of the country. Many colonies were wiped out simply because the bees' body heat couldn't keep their hives warm enough. That was followed by a cold and soggy spring, which only made matters worse.
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