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Point View School Kids Hip-hop Dance - Honey Bee Song

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Dane County announced that pollinators such as bees and butterflies will soon have a new home at the Dane County landfill.

Dane County is taking proposals to plant native prairie grass on over 90 acres at the Rodefeld Landfill along with land owned by Dane County Solid Waste in the Town of Westport. The goal of the project is to use county owned lands to increase habitat for pollinators that have been in decline and are critical to the food we eat.

"Pollinators such as honeybees have seen a devastating population drop due to such factors as lack of habitat and pesticides," said Dane County Executive Joe Parisi. "This proposal to restore our county-owned land to support honeybees and other insects is one step we can take to be part of the solution."

40 acres of the restoration will be done when part of the Rodefeld Landfill is capped off Highway 12/18. The remaining lands being converted (approximately 56 acres) are located in the Town of Westport off Easy Street adjacent to the Dane County Law Enforcement Training Center. Wisconsin has seen significant losses in honeybee colonies in recent years, declining greater than 60% alone in 2014-15.

"This is a really innovative approach to conserving biodiversity in our landscapes. Bees in particular are one of these groups that really have been hurting in the last 20-30 years. So seeing public agencies and local land managers putting effort into the management of wild bees and honey bees is really a great thing," UW-Madison Entomology Professor Claudio Gratton said.

In 2015, the Dane County Pollinator Protection Task Force recommended that the county plant pollinator-friendly plants on permanently capped portions of the landfill. The native grasses that will be planted later this summer will provide both nectar and pollen sources and also provide nesting habitat to 70% of over 400 bee species that nest in the ground. Pollinator declines are due to a number of causes: pests, pathogens, habitat loss, nutritional deficiency, insecticide exposure, and extreme weather events (e.g., drought or winter cold).

Scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of pollinators like bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and hummingbirds. Bees are the primary pollinators for our fruits and vegetables as they gather pollen to feed their young. Three-fourths of the world's flowering plants depend on pollinators to reproduce.

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Dane County to cap landfill, create prairie for bees

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Dane County announced that pollinators such as bees and butterflies will soon have a new home at the Dane County landfill. Dane County is taking proposals to plant native prairie grass on over 90 acres at the Rodefeld Landfill along with land owned by Dane County Solid Waste in the Town of Westport.

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Honey Nut Cheerios is continuing its mission to bring back the bees. This year we've partnered with Page's Seeds to give away a packet of Cosmos Sensation Mix Seeds, in specially marked boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios. Suitable as a garden plant across the country, the seed mix will help to create new places for pollinators to thrive.

We're working toward a goal of providing enough seeds to help five million Americans plant pollinator gardens in the U.S. this year. You can do your part to help us bring back the bees by planting your seed mixture and sharing on social using #BringBackTheBees, so we can celebrate all the new pollinator gardens this spring.

About Our Seeds

Our seed packets, featuring the Cosmos Sensation Mix (Cosmos bipinnatus), can be found within specially marked boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios and can be planted in your home/yard or in appropriate places in your communities. For additional information visit Page's Seeds.

"Cosmos is a lovely garden flower that provides food for bees without risk of becoming invasive. It's easy to grow, cheerful to look at, and hums with activity from gentle bees, says Eric Lee-Mäder, co-director of the Xerces Society's Pollinator Conservation Program. "While it is not a substitute for large-scale protection and restoration of native wildflower habitat, especially on farms where it's needed most, small pollinator gardens like those you can create with Cosmos provide an additive value to bees, making our backyards and urban areas more hospitable and favorable for all pollinators."

Where's Buzz the Bee?

Buzz is missing because there's something serious going on with the world's bees.
Bee populations everywhere have been declining at an alarming rate¹, and that includes honeybees like Buzz.

We Need the Bees

People need bees. And now bees need people.

1 in 3 bites of food we eat is made possible by bees and other pollinators²

44% of bee colonies in the U.S. collapsed in 2016³

More than two thirds of the world's crop species rely on pollinators⁴

Doing Our Part

We're Making Bee Habitats

By 2020 our oat farms will host about 3,300 acres of nectar- and pollen-rich wildflowers, which are full of the nutrients bees and other pollinators need to stay strong. Working with the Xerces Society, we have already made amazing headway by engaging dozens of oat farmers with active work to get more habitat planted on their farms. The first native wildflowers were seeded at some farms beginning in early 2017 with more being planted all the time. This work is literally changing the landscape for bees in some of the major oat growing regions of the north-central United States and central Canada.
Learn More

Plant Like a Pro

Planting Instructions from our partner: Page's Seeds

Cosmos, bipinnatus is an annual for full sun. Cosmos prefer dry to moderate soil. Sow outdoors after danger of frost. For an early start, sow seeds indoors 4-5 weeks before the last spring frost. The first blooms of crimson, white and pink will appear in 7 weeks and continue through summer and fall. Brilliant blooms reach heights of 36"-72″ and are excellent for beds and borders.

Thanks for doing your part!

1. Pollinator Health Task Force, "National strategy to promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators" (White House, Washington, DC, 2015).

2. Klein, Alexandra-Maria et al "Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 274,1608 (2007).

3. https://beeinformed.org/2016/05/10/nations-beekeepers-lost-44-percent-of-bees-in-2015-16

4. http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation

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#BringBacktheBees - Our Mission to Save the Bees | Cheerios

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Honey Nut Cheerios is continuing its mission to bring back the bees. This year we've partnered with Page's Seeds to give away a packet of Cosmos Sensation Mix Seeds, in specially marked boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios. Suitable as a garden plant across the country, the seed mix will help to create new places for pollinators to thrive.

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https://www.perfectbee.com/learn-about-bees/the-life-of-bees/the-role-of-the-worker-bee/

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In a Beehive: Honeybees | Magic School Bus | Scholastic.com

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Field Trip Notes When Tim delivers the last of the season's honey to his grandfather's customers, the jars get broken. Tim's solution is simple: Get more honey from some bees. But Ms. Frizzle sweetens the idea by turning her class into bees and showing them a beehive up close and personal.

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Get the Buzz on Honey Bees is an educational program that aligns with national standards in science and geography. Developed by Scholastic and generously sponsored by DreamWorks Animation, these materials teach critical life science and geography skills, and feature the fun characters from the upcoming animated film, Bee Movie.