Beginner Gardening: bees, 1 by easter_lily

easter_lily wrote:
Wow! This has been so interesting and informative. I have found that I, too, have become fascinated with bees and so much more appreciative of them now that I am a gardener. We do have several bees that visit our yard and garden, but not nearly as many as I would expect, given that my yard is mostly clover. We haven't lived here long and this is our first year for a garden on this property, so I don't have a lot to compare it to. It just seems that that our yard should be covered in honey bees, and I usually only see one or two at any given time. Most of what I see are these little bees (that we have always referred to as "sweat bees.") I have an uncle who is a beekeeper (not commercially, just more of a hobby-ist). He and I were just discussing the dangers that are threatening our bee population. I have to say that I am extremely concerned about this crisis and am trying to figure out what we together can do about it. Thank you, Kmarvaso, for the info about Burt's Bees project. I will definitely check that out. Is there anything else that we can be doing to help educate people about this? If this is a pesticide issue, can we be lobbying or petitioning for stores to stop carrying these products?
Thanks, everyone, for your contributions to this thread and happy gardening to y'all. :)