Bee-plus students on the job
Nancy Mclean, assistant professor at Dal AC, is leading a small group documenting owers and bees across the Maritimes. ey’re now in the third year of a three-year study, and Tony Phillips’ property is one of the areas they have been studying.
“Tony’s site is wonderful because it has so many flowering plants,” said Mclean. “We’re trying to gure out what we need to do to support native bees. eir numbers are in decline, and we need bees to produce food. We don’t get things like berries unless plants are pollinated by bees.
“Native bees work in windier and colder conditions than honey bees do. ey’ve evolved with our weather conditions.
“Last year we were surprised to nd about half of the pollinators, when the blueberries were in bloom, were native pollinators.”
She noted there are several varieties of native bees, with bumble bees being the fuzziest. ere are other insects that mimic bees to protect themselves from predators.
e research team will be checking each of the sites, in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, every two to three weeks throughout the spring and summer.
“Bees find a lot of plants by sight,” said Mclean. “ ey seem to know when they see good quality food.”
She said adding white clover to a lawn is one of the best things people can do to help bees, as it has very highquality nectar. Any plants in the rose family are also very good.
When adding ornamental plants, she suggests people use locally grown perennials, in order to avoid harmful chemicals.