Tomorrow! Free Pollinator Webinar...

On September 30, 2015, there will be a free webinar covering the topic of,  Wild Bees As Crop Pollinators: A Case Study In Haskap.  Here are the details...

Native Prairie Speaker Series 

Wild bees as crop pollinators: 

a case-study in Haskap 

Danae Frier, M.Sc. Candidate, University of Regina 

Wednesday September 30th, 2015 at 12:00pm 

This talk will be presented as a Webinar: 

Registration URL: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2480962595540713986# 

In-kind support for the Speaker Series provided by the Department of Biology at the University of Regina and Royal Saskatchewan Museum. This project was undertaken with the financial support of the Govern-ment of Canada through the federal Department of the Environment. Ce projet a été réalisé avec l’appui financier du gouvernement du Canada agissant par l’entremise du ministère fédéral de l’Environnement. 

2014 Haskap Canada AGM (Part 3): Danae Frier & Haskap Pollination Research

Danae Frier is a M.Sc. candidate at the University of Regina. She reported on the pollination biology of Lonicera caerulea at this year's Haskap Canada AGM.

Beginning with plant structure, this provided the ground work for her to speak about the pollination possibilities.  Because of the uniqueness of haskap's two flowers eventually forming one berry study is currently under way to find more precisely the manner in which this mechanism functions. The pollination of this fruit is known to be fully insect-dependent.  The flower is bee-friendly, and given the time of flowering bumble bees and smaller native bees seem important, being inherently more cold-adapted.  Among other things, field studies this year will consider efficiency-compared-to-effectiveness of various pollinators and which factor is more important to haskap fruit pollination.  She also presented on the bumble bee life-cycle, the importance of forage establishment for year-round bee sustenance, and suitable nest sites for native pollinators.

Again, we include her presentation here and ask that if you share them that attribution is included.  Thank you...

 

http://haskap.ca

http://www.fruit.usask.ca/haskap.html

Diversified Pollinator Strategy

Here's a link to an article on diversified pollinator lodging entitled 'Building A Bug Mansion':

http://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk/thingstodo/inaweekend/bug-mansion.aspx 

Haskap Pollination

Haskap Canada member, Hamish Graham, has been considering how to produce better pollination success in his haskap crop.  Two pollination studies have recently been published: (1) Honey Bees Make Poor Substitutes For Wild Pollinators, and (2) Farming For Bees

The new provincial entomologist, Cory Sheffield will be working to identify wild pollinators in Saskatchewan.  Current work is being done by individual Haskap Canada members to identify and nurture native pollinators for better pollination success.

Links:

http://earthsky.org/earth/honey-bees-make-poor-substitutes-for-wild-pollinators

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/farming_for_bees_guidelines_xerces_society.pdf