Many different bee species persist in New York City. One community garden in the Bronx was found to harbor 29 bee species and one in East Harlem had 28 bee species! Many of the large city parks such as Central Park and Prospect Park contain over 60 species. Bees can be observed in rooftop, private, and community gardens, along green streets and in small and large parks--- basically, anywhere in the city that has flowers may have bees. We hope you enjoy investigating the diversity of bees across the five boroughs of New York City. Here are some resources to help you identify bees and understand their behavior.
General NYC Bee Information
http://wfuv.streamguys.us/archive/8091.asx
Listen to Dr. Kevin Matteson's appearance on WFUV, New York City's public radio station, as he discusses the Bee Watchers program and New York's bees with WFUV's Nora Flaherty.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2008/06/02/segments/100258
Listen to entomologist John Ascher of the AMNH on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show discussing the recent bee swarms in New York City and Colony Collapse Disorder.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/nyregion/
28bees.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=bee+swarm&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Read a recent article from the Times for more information about the honey bee swarms in the New York City area.
http://urbanpollinators.com/
This interactive website offers information on urban ecosystems and the pollinators of New York City, which include grasshoppers, dragonflies, and, of course, bees. Insect anatomy and life cycles can also be found here.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105923747
Recent NPR interview with Steve Buchmann in honor of pollinator week
http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?issueID=129&articleID=1735
All about native pollinators
http://blog.thehighline.org/
Blog about the newly opened High Line in Manhattan- a great new spot in NYC for bees!
Read the latest on colony collapse syndrome.
Great Pollinator Project gets covered in NPR Science Friday and by The New York Academy of Sciences!
One of our very own Bee Watchers, Lesley Meurer, office manager at the Greenbelt Nature Center, is featured in a local newspaper.
Videos
Video 1 – Dandelion and Bee (Kevin Matteson)
This video shows bees visiting a dandelion flower and provides an example of data collection for Bee Watchers. "Bee 1" and "Bee 2" simultaneously visit the flower from 7 - 19 seconds. "Bee 3" visits from 35 - 42 seconds and "Bee 4" visits the flower from 45 - 58 seconds. We would like you to record data in minutes so for this observation you would record 4 bees within the first minute of the observation period. Note that this is how the data should be recorded even though one individual bee may have visited the flower twice (i.e. Bee 4 may be Bee 2!). After recording these 4 bees in the first minute, you just would need to wait for one more bee to reach five bees. Finally, once you record your site data and what type of bees you observed, you are done with your data collection! The small bees in this video are not honey bees, carpenter bees, bumble bees or metallic green bees; therefore, they are recorded as "other bees!”
Video 2 – Ground-nesting Bees (Kevin Matteson)
This is a video taken in a small garden on City Island in the Bronx. The bees are plasterer bees that build nests in the soil. Females tend to nest in aggregations although each individual has her own hole, within which larva develop. The species is Colletes thoracicus (Colletidae).
Short video of honey bee swarm in Lefferts Manor, Brooklyn (shared by Timothy Forker)
PDFs and Handouts
http://www.nappc.org/NAPPC_Resources/CCD Response FINAL.pdf
Honey bee disappearances and what you can do.
http://www.nappc.org/PollinatorFriendlyPractices.pdf
Pollinator-friendly practices for your backyard.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=12052
Plants attractive to native bees.
http://www.pollinator.org/Resources/Better with Bees.pdf
The benefits of bees in urban gardens.
http://www.pollinator.org/Resources/Home-Made Sweet Homes.pdf
How to create nest sites for bees.
Insect and Bee Conservation Organizations
http://www.xerces.org/
The Xerces Society is the leader in invertebrate conservation and their site has many resources of value to those interested in preserving bees.
http://www.nappc.org/
Pollinator protection campaign- information on pollinators beyond bees.
http://www.pollinator.org/
Learn more about insect, bird, and mammal pollinators and contribute donations to bee researchers in their efforts to learn more about bee pollination and Colony Collapse Disorder.
http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens/
Learn how to attract bees to your garden, whether it is urban, suburban, or rural.
http://www.beeworks.com/
This site provides information about beekeeping. Information on requeening, feeding methods, and how to determine the hybridization of a colony through morphometry, as well as beekeeping equipment available for purchase, can be found here.
http://www.greatsunflower.org/
Great Sunflower Project- the national citizen-science bee observation project. Lots of information on bee identification and behavior.
Online Identification Guides
Bug Guide - http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740
Discover Life - http://www.discoverlife.org/
What's that bug - http://www.whatsthatbug.com/