I had the privilege to attend the Pollinator Workshop in Manhattan on June 2nd. Dr. Chip Taylor was the guest speaker. Dr. Taylor is the founder and director of Monarch Watch, an outreach program focused on education, research and conservation relative to Monarch butterflies. You can visit their site at www.monarchwatch.org

Eighty percent of the worlds crops require pollination. One out of every three bites you take is a result of a bee's pollination. Those who do the pollinating are a very vital and diverse group including bees, birds, butterflies, bats, beetles and even opossums.

When you think of bees, most people think about the honey bees. Honey bees are a social bee, like bumble bees. They live in a colony with one fertile queen bee, her unfertile daughters (the worker bees), and male bees, known as drones. There are a handful of daughter bees that are virgin queens. The younger bees work in the colony, while the older (or chronologically challenged) bees forage.  Because they are protecting their colony, they are somewhat aggressive,  and will sting when defending their colony. Most honey bees gather pollen on fine body hairs, then use their middle legs to move it to a storage place on their hind legs. Honey bees use the pollen to make "bee bread" to feed their young.

Most bees are solitary. Because of this, they are very easy going. You would have to squish them in your hand to make them sting...although I do NOT recommend this. One of the more well known solitary bee is the orchard bee. They help pollinate their namesake...up to twenty times better and more efficient than the honey bees. Other solitary bees you might recognize are sweat bees, mason bees and carpenter bees. Solitary bees lay their eggs in a tube like structure that they wither find or make. Once the egg is laid, she stocks the tube with pollen and nectar and then seals the entrance with a waxy or cellophane like secretion.

Bats are the only mammal capable of true flight. Like bees, some bats are social, and others are solitary. Bats feed at night. Because they do not see in color, they rely on odor to find the nectar. Bats search for flowers with a large amount of nectar and that emit strong, musky or fruity odors. These flowers include the agave and many other tall, cactus species. Bats help pollination by smashing their faces into the flowers as they are trying to gather nectar.

Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red and also tubular flowers. They use their tongues to drink the nectar. As active as they are, hummingbirds have a very high metabolism. They typically feed all day every 10 minutes, and can consume up to 2/3 of their body weight in a single day. The major source of a hummingbird’s energy is sugar obtained from flower nectar and tree sap. Insects and pollen provide protein and other necessary nutrients.

Some great resources include:

www.monarchwatch.org

www.xerces.org

www.pollinator.org

Remember to celebrate Pollinator Week June 21-27, 2010.