Our friend Bibiana has kindly sent us this note from her bee garden on Livengood Tree Farm , a lovely and productive piece of land set in the tall timber of North Idaho. Bibi is an active member of the Sandpoint farmers market and writes regularly on the subject of bees, botanicals and health for the Sandpoint Daily Bee , as well as The Nickel's Worth from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. There are many insects to observe in the garden now. One of my favorites is bees.
Bees are pollinators.
Their fuzzy bodies carry pollen from plant to plant. Bees pollinate a quarter of the foodstuffs we eat. Bees collect pollen for protein and nectar for carbohydrates. The landscape is full of flowers that must be pollinated by insects in order to produce fruit and seeds. Many kinds of bees visit flowers, but none of them is as efficient a pollinator as the honeybee.