>Randy, I think the nectar plant filled roadsides / crop margins
>of the upper Midwest are a paradise for pollinators

Well, I don't know about the US mid-west, but I do know that the
amount of roadside and margin that is unsprayed has diminished 
very greatly in the 40+ years I've kept bees around here in 
Alberta and I don't imagine it is much different elsewhere.

Back then there was a lot of fallow land (up to 50%) and quite 
a bit of land that was not broken.  New breaking tended to be
 full of flowers for a few years, too.

Farmers were unable to knock down whole hay fields in one day, 
or work a quarter section in an afternoon in air-conditioned comfort 
and the work got ahead of them quite predictably.  Bad farming is 
good for beekeepers and we used to check to see which trucks 
were outside the local bar to help guess which hay fields would 
bloom longest.

As a result of more casual farming and smaller machines and 
holdings, there was a lot more diversity of bloom and it was
spread out over the landscape.

Today, there are pockets of bloom and some good forage, 
but nothing like what we once saw, and it was already in decline 
when I began beekeeping.

Additionally, chemical farming disrupts the progression of bloom, 
as well as affecting the diversity.

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