by Stephen Barrett

New Pollinator Habitat in East Dayton

      Yesterday, we visited Mission of Mary Cooperative.  MMC is an urban farming cooperative in the Twin Towers neighborhood of East Dayton.  Through a grant from the Levin Family Foundation, and under the guidance of Dwight Wells (a Propolis Projects partner), Mission of Mary has created a beautiful new pollinator garden and bee habitat in East Dayton. To learn more about the amazing work Mission of Mary is doing on the East Side, visit their website.  Interested in installing a pollinator garden at your nonprofit?  Visit the grant page on the Levin Family…

by Stephen Barrett

WPAFB Receives “Bee City USA” Designation

Wright Patterson Air Force Base received the "Bee City USA" designation yesterday. WPAFB is the 48th "Bee City" in the US, and the first military installation to be given this designation. Propolis Projects founder Karen Levin, is pictured above with her son on base. To learn more about the event, read this Dayton Daily News article. To learn how your city or campus can become a "Bee City", and just what being a Bee City is all about, visit their website.

by Stephen Barrett

No More Guessing

No more guessing (Click here to view original article) by Dwight Wells Modern agriculture of all types of uses data obtained from sophisticated technology year round to augment traditional practices and increase their success. Now, beekeepers finally have technology available to assist in their beekeeping practices as they work to sustain the bee population. The BroodMinder weight, temperature, and humidity sensors enable beekeepers to make decisions to help them act to keep their honey bee colonies healthy, productive, and alive. Beginning in October of 2016, several members of the West Central Ohio Beekeepers Association installed…

by Stephen Barrett

GMO Soybean Yield Increases with Honey Bee Visits

GMO Soybean Yield Increases from Honey Bee Visits This is the first report showing that using honeybee (Apis mellifera) and wild pollinators complementary pollination can enhance soybean productivity (Glycine max). Current industrial production of soybean involves autopollination and high loads of pesticides. Therefore, growers have neglected possible biotic pollination despite suggestions that soybean benefit from insect pollinators. Reports advocating possible biotic pollination are based on experiments where bees are caged with flowering plants and the absence of pesticides, thus not in field conditions. Therefore, here we compared in field conditions soybean yield produced (1) independently…

by Stephen Barrett

Don’t BEE Afraid! HoneyFest Saturday, Sept. 10th

This post originally appeared in Contact with Kettering Community Magazine Fall 2016 Research has shown that the bee population has declined significantly since 2008 due to habitat loss, reduced food sources, pesticides, climate change, and bee diseases. But why should the average consumer care about an insect that is commonly feared and thought of as a nuisance? Bees are pollinators--insects that cause plants to make fruit or seeds. They assist plants in reproducing by carrying pollen from flower to flower. Many crops are dependent on pollinators including pumpkins, watermelons, pears, peaches, plums, apples, and blueberries.…

by Stephen Barrett

Countryside Park’s New Pollinator Garden

With financial support provided by the Levin Family Foundation, a new pollinator garden has been installed in Countryside Park on the Washington Township Recreation Campus. Included in the design are seventeen varieties of native plants, three butterfly houses, a bench, and stepping stones. The pollinator garden is located along the northwest edge of Countryside Park which runs behind Rec West, the Recreation Center and east of the Rec Center. Pollinator gardens help restore and maintain abundant and healthy populations of butterflies and bees that are essential to pollination. Why are pollinators so crucial for human…

by Stephen Barrett

37 Million Bees Found Dead After Planting Large GMO Corn Field Treated with Neonicotinoid Class of Pesticides

37 Million Bees Found Dead After Planting Large GMO Corn Field Treated with Neonicotinoid Class of Pesticides Originally Posted By Green Food Magazine on March 22, 2016 Millions of bees dropped dead after GMO corn was planted few weeks ago in Ontario, Canada. The local bee keeper, Dave Schuit who produces honey in Elmwood lost about 37 million bees which are about 600 hives. “Once the corn started to get planted our bees died by the millions,” Schuit said. While many bee keepers blame neonicotinoids, or “neonics.” for colony collapse of bees and many countries…

by Stephen Barrett

Upcoming Community Events

Follow this link to check out these upcoming events in your local Dayton community! Pollinator Workshop at Brukner Nature Center on June 18th Pollinator Honey and Bee Festival at Whole Foods Dayton on June 25th