by Dewey M. Caron, Communications and Content Specialist for the Oregon Master Beekeeper Program
Blueberry study
Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu, Lauren Baugus, Ethan Eaton, Nathalie A. Steinhauer & Ramesh Sagili 2025. Pollen Production and Nutrient Composition in Two Northern Highbush Blueberry Cultivars: Implications for Pollinator Nutrition. Agriculture 15(5):461 DOI: 10.3390/agriculture15050461
Abstract Specialty crops like blueberries depend heavily on pollinators, particularly bees, for enhanced fruit set and optimized yield. The Northern highbush blueberry, widely cultivated in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, includes several key cultivars such as ‘Duke’ and ‘Elliott’. Given that pollination efficiency is directly linked to the availability and quality of pollen, understanding the pollen production of these cultivars is critical for optimizing pollination strategies and maximizing fruit yield throughout the growing season. Additionally, as bees depend on floral resources like nectar and pollen for their nutrition, the nutritional quality of pollen from these blueberry cultivars plays a key role in supporting healthy bee populations. This study compares key pollen parameters, including production and nutritional quality, between the ‘Duke’ and ‘Elliott’ cultivars. ‘Elliott’ produced nearly twice the amount of pollen per flower by weight compared to ‘Duke’. Both cultivars showed relatively low pollen protein content and comparable pollen lipid levels. The analysis of phytosterol composition revealed significant differences between the cultivars. This study contributes to a more detailed understanding on the quantitative and qualitative differences in pollen, and ultimately provides insights that can inform cultivation practices and enhance overall blueberry production.
Book Review – ‘How Can I Help?’
My former University of Delaware colleague Dr Doug Tallamy has a new book, sure to be a science best seller: How can I Help?: Saving Nature with your Yard. It is his 3rd self-help book, accompanying Bringing Nature Home and Nature’s Bes Hope to inform us how we might do our part to encourage pollinators and wildlife, such as birds, to inhabit our living space. It was published by Timber Press, headquartered in the Kress Building of Downtown Portland.
Doug said the book “almost wrote itself” from questions he frequently received from audiences of his popular lectures and students at the University (when I retired Dr Tallamy began teaching the wildlife ecology courses I was teaching at UD). How can I Help covers things we all can do to change from an “adversarial relationship with nature to a collaborative one.” NOTE: Some of his presentations have been to Bee groups such as Eastern Apiculture Society and just this past Monday April 21th to Chester County PA Bee Association, one of the largest bee clubs in the US.
Dr Tallamy advocates for pollinator gardens, less lawn (a monoculture without plant or animal diversity), more diversity planting, mixing native and non-native flowering plants (his own studies show the benefits of such mixtures to pollinators), more oaks (to benefit caterpillars which bring birds and for their catkins which provide pollen to bees), reducing invasive species and aggressive native plants plus many more ideas. It is his quest to save the world one yard at a time, “One person can do a lot to their little piece of the Earth,” Tallamy says.
PNW survey preliminary numbers
The pnwhoneybeesurvey.com/ is still open until end of April. The following preliminary numbers from 352 hobbyist, 3 sideliners and 1 commercial survey respondents as of April 5th are as follows:
Idaho Hobbyist- 9 individuals, 60 fall colonies (lost 34 colonies) = 27% loss
Oregon Hobbyist – 225 individuals, 1,315 fall colonies (lost 292 colonies) = 22% loss level
Sideliner – 2 individuals, 119 colonies (lost 24 colonies ) = 20% loss
Washington Hobbyist – 118 individuals 616 fall colonies (lost 201 colonies) = 32.5% loss
Sideliner – 1 individual 52 colonies (lost 2 colonies)= 4% loss
Commercial – 15,200 colonies1 individual (lost 3,300 colonies) = 22% loss
NOTE: Ramesh (OSU) is sending survey requests to OR & WA sideliner and commercial beekeepers.
How do you mow?
You may have heard that nature hates a vacuum, but it is true that it also hates straight lines. Put some wiggle in your mowing – bees will potentially benefit says Laurian Parmentier, an entomologist at Ghent University in Belgium. You may have heard that nature hates a vacuum, but it is true that it also hates straight lines. Traditionally, grasslands are grazed by livestock and provide hay. Plants thrived in the sunlight, and pollinators took advantage of microhabitats created by half-nibbled grasses. Irregular mowing can re-create some of those niches while helping prevent shrubs and trees from changing the habitat.
Cutting grass with curved lines were found to be more attractive to bees and butterflies. In the third year of the study bees and butterflies were 25% to 35% more abundant and diverse in the meandering mown meadows. “In only a few years, you can really boost the number of pollinators,” Parmentier says. Why? Well, when grass is cut in straight lines, it is almost perfectly mowed, leaving no random un-mowed patches which might support pollinators. Curvy mowing is more likely to leave small niches where the mower did not reach, and these small patches are adequate to provide oases for pollinators. Another recommended method is to mow in patches or phases to benefit wildlife by providing forage and cover while still keeping grasses under control.
https://www. science.org/content/article/put-some-wiggle-your-mowingbees-will-love-it
Recent podcasts
Check out these new podcast episodes:
Beekeeping Today Podcast with Dewey Caron
March 17th, 2025, Issue 74 Communication Postcard – winter losses
March 31, 2025 issue 327 the bee besties of Southern Oregon have a delightful introduction
BT April 2, Short – Dr. Dewey Caron, “Honey Bee Communications -Foraging
BT April 30 Short Honey Bee Communications – Swarming
Episode 196: The BeeMD and Citizen Scientist with Dewey M. Caron
Episode 198: Honey Bees, Native Bees, and Updates with Andony Melathopoulos