Letter: Saving the clover, the honeybees and us

Graphic by Lori Deaton

I am writing about honeybees and their favorite hive survival flower (white clover blossoms).

I have a broken hip held together with bolts. I can’t do much these days. I was sitting on my front porch one recent cool morning. I began to notice many, many honeybees visiting white clover blossoms in my unmown lawn. I can remember about six or seven years ago, during the height of the mysterious hive collapse disease, seeing zero honeybees active on white clover blossoms.

I noticed fewer yellow-abdomen (European) bees, but more all-dark brown and more dark brown with light brown -striped abdomens — perhaps a natural hybridization that occurred by honeybees themselves to allow for their disease survival (cross between wild, dark abdomen and yellow European).

I believe white clover blossoms should become our North Carolina state flower or at least be given (by legislative law) special status from unnecessary mowing off everywhere possible. Honeybees pollinate probably 80%-90% of all human food fruits and vegetables. They should definitely be considered for special status for our survival.

Just think of the millions of bees that are killed under push and riding lawn mowers during each grass-cutting season. Bees we just cannot continue to lose.

To everyone out there, please don’t mow off white clover flowers if you can possibly avoid doing so. Your own life depends on bees.

Old saying: “So goes honeybees, so goes humans.”

— Tom L. Nanney
Asheville (via Bat Cave)

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One thought on “Letter: Saving the clover, the honeybees and us

  1. Mickey Hunt

    White Clover is not a big nectar producer for honeybees. In western NC, the top ones are trees such as Locust (some years), Tulip Poplar, and Sourwood. Bees are opportunists and go where the flow is strongest at any one time, so sometimes, for brief periods, White Clover is what they have available. Right now they are visiting Goldenrod and Aster.

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