Dakota farmer has it right
A farmer in South Dakota tells how he planted a portion of his farm to a variety of clovers, alfalfa and milkweed just to provide food, including pollen, for the benefit of honeybees and monarch butterflies (“ND farmer plants pollinator plots to help bees, butterflies,” June 1). Milkweed is necessary for survival of the monarch butterflies. Honeybees also get nectar from the milkweed. Milkweed is endangered in Iowa.
Currently, North and South Dakota are leading all states in the production of honey. The beekeepers there are not having the problem of losing colonies of bees, as are Iowa beekeepers.
Thousands of colonies (or hives) are transported to California and to Southern states for the winter. Thousands of those colonies arrive in California in time to pollinate almonds. Most colonies return to the Dakotas for another season of honey production.
The colonies of bees that are wintered in the Dakotas are prepared well for winter and, since they have been provided with natural honey, they winter well. Iowa beekeepers have not mastered the art of wintering bees, and the lack of proper nutrition of honey means they are lost by the thousands. Only plants, as the Dakota farmer has provided, will prevent these losses.
— Glen L. Stanley, Huxley