Dr. Paul Goldstein did not get stung by a bee last summer. That’s unremarkable unless you account for the fact that he tried to catch every kind of bee on the Island, bagging some 10,000 samples.
A honeybee visits between 50 and 100 flowers during one collection flight from the hive. On its flight from blossom to blossom, honeybees transfer pollen from plant to plant, fertilizing the plants and enabling them to bear fruit.
But what if the fruits and vegetables we don’t even think twice about buying were no longer available? Due to a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder, disappearing bees means disappearing fruit is an increasing possibility.
Chilmark tends to be on the darker side. Edgartown is rather light, and in springtime, the honey produced in West Tisbury and Vineyard Haven is so light in color it’s almost clear.
“They’re all different, and people really like that — they like the local, local, down to the town,” Tim Colon, owner of Island Bee Company says, standing over one of his hives in the backyard of his Vineyard Haven home. Mr. Colon has 130 hives across the Island in every town except for Aquinnah. “The color all depends on what’s blooming.”
Once again, we wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to all those who have participated in the Martha’s Vineyard pollinator project by helping to inventory the Island’s native bees. We are indebted especially to the volunteers who helped sample bees and generate important data—including the first recorded occurrences of over 150 species from the Vineyard.
