No Honey Bees In Ohio?

The wife has noticed that that our zucchini and cucumbers are getting a couple of inches long and then the flower drops off of them and they stop growing and begin to wither. The plants otherwise appear to be quite healthy. What we are worried about is that we've noticed that there don't appear to be any honey bees at all.
We've seen a few wasps and hornets but not even one honey bee. We are assuming that our veggies aren't being pollenated and we are looking at a general failure of crops in our garden.
Has anyone else out there been experiencing the same thing? Is there any way we can pollenate these plants oursevles? Or are we way off base and these plants don't even need pollenation?
Any help or advice you can give would be great!

Hi greenjeans,
I think you've probably hit the nail on the head. I had that same problem earlier, though the honeybees have finally appeared. Do you have any bumbles, or just no bees at all? Yes, you can pollinate it yourself, and I do it "just in case". I take a male flower, and strip off the petals. Then find the female flower, and squish what's left of the male flower around inside it, letting the pollen bearing organs get, well, friendly *g*. Should work, I've been doing it with all the squashes, and even the sugar babies watermelons. In most cases, I'm probably redundant, but it keeps me busy....
Margo

green
What you are seeing appears to be a nationwide problem. Bee hive farmers in the far west have seen their hives decimated over the past 6-12 months. Some bee hive farmers are seeing 80% of their hives wiped out. Agricultural enterprises are suffering bigtime because there are no bees to pollinate their crops.
Latest info on Google lists a number of states that have been affected. Last time I checked a month ago, Florida was not on the list of those states affected.
But I believe they need to update their list. This past Feb I saw maybe a half dozen honey bees pollinating my lemon tree flowers. As of the middle of March I have seen NO honey bees in my garden.

I have had honeybees earlier on the apples...then bumblebees on the raspberries. There are many honeybees on my white clover in the yard, but perhaps they don't need the squash and melons yet. I do see ants in the blossoms though and they always get pollinated somehow. Anyway I have been hand pollinating things so far and fruits are setting on well.

My dad up in CT was worried too about not seeing bees around in his apple and quince orchard, when I was up there visiting in May. I got back here to our home in SC, and put up my hummingbird feeders, and they were quickly mobbed by honey bees and bumbles. They're visiting so much the hummingbirds are staying away from the feeders, but they have lots of beebalm to visit. I'm glad there are so many people here at Dave's Garden who realize the importance and fragility of the bee poplulation; too many people use pesticides without thinking about the good insects they're killing too. And then there's all this new genetic engineering, Lord knows what impact that will all have on our friendly and helpful insect populations......

I don't know if it is honey bees or some other kind of bees, but my fruit trees definitely got pollenated this year. Unfortunately some of them froze but that is a different problem. I have been watching all of my flowers and have noticed many different kinds of creatures visiting the flowers as well.
I am quite sure that the honey bee problem is real. I just feel very lucky that there are many other kinds of pollinators around in my neck of the woods. This is just a suspicion, but we are far from any urban area and from any farming area except for very small orchards and chile farms. The pollinators have lots of untouched woods to retreat to if times get tough. Perhaps that is what saves us/them.

We have had the same problem here in NJ. We haven't seen any bees. Our backyard is full of clover and not one bee. Zucchinis are not being pollinated (except by us). I am really worried about the bee situation. I will see what kind of information I can find out about the bee problem. Maybe there is something we can all do to help the situation.

Here's a link to the NY Times Science page in April:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/science/24bees.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=c632fbc9df304564&ex=1182571200


I also looked up the NJ Beekeepers Association page. One article suggests mites are to blame, another blames a systemic chemical and one blames a disease "pathogen,"- one even says that it is cell phones (?????).
Cell phones and microwaves are out with me (my 7 year old has a pacemaker so they create interference).

There is no clear answer but I think your local beekeepers association is a good place to start.

I had lots of them when my peach trees blossomed, then we got hit with several days of frost. No more honey bees for weeks. Then my Blue Hubbard and zucchini blossomed and they are back in swarms! Whew, relief! ☺

Red

Feral bees (ones that live in the wild and not established by beekeepers) may disappear this yr. entirely. The freeze we had at Easter killed most of the spring flowering plants and tree blooms that makeup the "spring honey flow" in the east and south. It is especially hard on these bees because they had probably exhausted their winter supplies. If you see bees around your hummingbird feeders, it is because there is nothing else for them. Perhaps if you were to set out a shallow dish of sugar water, it will help them. I don't know what to say to the people that have seen no bees at all except good luck with your gardens.

If the bees disappear, then the human race will eventually disappear. They pollinate most of the crops we eat. LIZ

Sorry, I think I stole all the honey bees.

YOU cannot walk across my yard on the way to my garden, because there's litterally l,000's of them all over the clover on my suppose to be bermuda lawn. I have to keep the clover cut just so I can walk across. They have never stung me but I walk in my flip flops and s cared of getting on on my feet LOL, and they are all over the veggie garden, I have decided, that if I want to pick my veggies, I just have to be brave and shew them off. Their all over the flower gardens too. I have hysops out there that they love.

I wish I could bring some of them to you. There has got to be a bee home somewhere close by to house them all, They are eating quite well in my yard.

So thats where the bees are!

I've seen about 4 or 5 at a time in the clover this week. I was so excited. Maybe they are making a small comeback.

My grass is not suppose to be clover either---But I'll take anything that looks green.

We've put out extra flowers this year to attract the bees. I am going out tomorrow and look for bee balm to add to the perrenials.