>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. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm