Backyard Bees: A Way to Help Save Colorado’s Bees

Bees face mass die-offs but there are some steps we can take to help save the important pollinators

Honeybees have thrived on Earth for around 50 million years, but now we’re seeing massive numbers of bees dying each year. Why? Bees are becoming more threatened by the day due to factors like habitat loss, changes in weather patterns, and especially intensive farming practices that rely on agrochemicals.

Our bees are becoming more threatened and dying en masse, yet they help fertilize the fruits and plants in our backyard. Without them, we’re in serious trouble. To help combat this growing problem, we have reached out to the beekeeping movement to find out what you can do to keep these important pollinators safe and make your garden pro-bee.

A background of bees

Honeybees may look small, but these tiny pollinators play an important role in biodiversity, which we all depend on for our own survival. They provide us with high-quality food, beeswax products, propolis, and honey bee venom. Honey bee venom has been studied in greater detail for its medical purposes because of its anti-inflammatory properties, and it is even used to assist with multiple sclerosis (MS). In fact, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, about one-third of the world’s food population relies on bees. Dr. Marla Spivak, a McKnight Professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota, explained that bees are “the most beneficial pollinators of our flowers, fruits, and vegetables.”   

The fact that we’re seeing a global decrease in bees is worrying indeed.

AP News reported that nearly half of U.S. honeybee colonies died in 2022 due to a combination of pesticides, parasites and climate change. According to data gathered from Statista, between 2022 and 2023, 48% of U.S. honeybee colonies died, an increase from the previous year’s 39%.

The high mortality rate of bees is a major problem for the beekeeping movement due to a multitude of reasons, and Pontus Jakobsson from Björn’s Colorado Honey admitted that “we can’t really pinpoint to one thing today why the bees are leaving.” One reason may be development sprawl and destruction of natural habitat. Dr. Spivak elaborated further on one of the main causes. “There’s continued high mortality of honeybee colonies yearly, mostly due to a parasitic mite that all colonies have called Varroa.”

The Varroa mite is a tiny parasite that attaches itself to the surface of honeybees and feeds on their blood, as well as transmits viruses. Dr Spivak explained that “without treatment, it’s deadly.” To try to treat the appearance of these mites, Dr Spivak suggests that beekeepers can use miticides that kill the mites but won’t harm the bees. “All beekeepers must be paying attention to the treatment of Varroa.”

Making your garden more bee-friendly

Photo by Aaron Burden via Unsplash.

Whether you’re a budding beekeeper or someone with years of experience, making your garden more pro-bee is something that we should all strive for. For some, this could mean creating more nest sites to house honeybee colonies, and for others, this could mean simple changes like planting native plants, gardening without pesticides, and creating a water source for the bees. In fact, Beth Conrey from Bee’s Squared Apiary believes that you can do “great things for bees without keeping bees.”  

For a long time now, many people have thought that beekeeping has always been for professionals, and for some time, that was true to some extent. Beekeeping has always been a small-scale trade but has gotten bigger with more people now beekeeping as a hobby. Dr. Spivak explained that since the 1970s, beekeeping started growing as “a lot of families kept bees, they taught their kids and neighbors, and there were just many, many hobby beekeepers.”  

Pontus echoed this, and said that many of his professional beekeeping friends “are generational beekeepers and that education was passed along.” He agreed that beekeeping is becoming more accessible now with the likes of the internet and even dedicated YouTube channels. Pontus explained that “people having an easier way to educate themselves from home with whatever you want to do,” which makes beekeeping a growing hobby.   

Backyard beekeepers don’t need all the fancy tools that many think they need to make their garden pro-bee. There’s a growing movement of making your own bee hotels (bee nests). Cob bricks are a popular and easy choice to use. All you need to do is make a variety of holes in and out of the brick, around 3-10mm wide. You’ll also need to keep this nest somewhat dry by creating some kind of roof over the nest for wet weather. Keep a natural pond or a moist mud patch for nest-building materials.

What you plant in your garden also plays an important role in attracting bees the natural way and without having to buy bees from apiaries and breeders. Your ability to pollinate your garden with bees depends on your colony’s size. The larger the colony, the more efficient they will be and the more honey you’ll get. Beth explained, “In Colorado, we have over 950 different species of bees and 11 species of honeybees worldwide. The ability of the bees to produce honey is because of the colony.” So, if you want to get honey out of your bees, you need a colony bee, like the honeybee, and you’re going to need a lot of them.    

Beth advised that you need a blooming plant that is nectar-rich, including trees and shrubs. These plants should also provide nectar for at least eight months of the year. For example, Bee Balm is a low-maintenance, drought-tolerant plant that is common in Colorado, the lavender flowers are a great bee magnet. Other plants like milkweed and Purple Poppy Mallow are also great at attracting beads to your garden. Keeping a variety of pollen-rich plants is good backyard beekeeping practice.

A very important way to keep your garden bee-friendly is to avoid using pesticides because they are extremely toxic to bees. As an alternative, you can use natural fertilizers made from organic materials. Keeping a compost pile filled with organic debris, fruit peels, coffee grounds and eggshells is a great way to make fertilizer. There are even certain plant combinations that can be used to repel insects, like garlic and neem.

Photo by Bianca Ackermann via Unsplash.

Reaping the rewards of your bee-friendly garden

There’s nothing more rewarding than harvesting honey from your bee-friendly garden, and when it comes to honey, there is more than meets the eye.   

What’s interesting in honey making is that the nectar from the flower influences what type of honey you’ll get, and even in your own backyard, you can add some variety. For example, Beth explained that in Colorado, you can get “Clover honey (sourced from clover fields), which is an early season product.” So, if you want to experiment a bit, adding flowers like clovers or lavender can influence the type of honey you’ll get. According to Beth, “Across the country, there are over 200 varieties of honey that are produced.”        

When it comes to harvesting honey, Dr. Spivak explained, “There’s not one ideal time, but at the end of what we call the honey flow, when the flowers are not blooming anymore, and the colony’s not bringing in any more honey for the season.”  Always make sure you leave enough honey for the bees to survive the winter because Beth explained that they “need it for their own nutrition and for their overwintering. So, you have to be cautious and make sure that you leave them adequate nourishment.”    

Overall, backyard beekeeping is something that many homeowners can slowly get into and poses very few extreme risks. Of course, with anything, there are some risks involved that you should always be aware of. When handling your bees or collecting honey, it is best to always pay attention to your surroundings to keep yourself and your bees safe. Beth advised, “If you don’t pay attention, you can make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are more costly than other times.”