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Mapping Flowers, Watching Bugs, & Building Habitat.
By Claudia & Conrad. INTRODUCTION: Basic Premises. It is perhaps useful to start from a few basic facts: While certainly not necessary for all crop production, many crops require pollinators for the production of the crop itself and/or the seeds of that crop and/or are assisted by the biocontrol provided by the aphid-feeding larvae of…
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A Farmer-Ecologist Research Circle Description and links to Materials about Some of this Summer’s Work
A Preamble (or was that ‘Pre-ramble’?) of Sorts. It can be useful to periodically restate what it is we’re trying to do. The following are a few words that were shared at the 17 Dec. 2025 meeting of the Research Circle. In part, they’re meant to help newcomers understand what we’re up to and to…
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Seen on the Wing: Bees Observed During 2025 Farm Flower Surveys, Part 1.
by Conrad. A Triepeolus bee about to get sucked into a Sunflower vortex (just kidding). These bees parasitize long-horned bees (see below). INTRO During the Summer, we collected data on the distribution and abundance of seeded and uncultivated flowers on and around nine different farms. We also gathered observations of bee visitation to those flowers.…
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June with the Flowers & Bees.
by Claudia & Conrad. Background Deriving from our conversations within the Farmer-Ecologist Research Circle during the winter and early spring of 2025, this season we are exploring a set of questions related to on-farm flowers and beneficial insects. Specifically, wild flower plantings are being promoted for a variety of reasons, including their support of insects.…
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A Taste of What We’re Up To.
by Conrad. We’ve begun our Summer bumbling (both because we’re still trying to find our way methodologically and because I’m counting bumble bees). Basically, on each of your farms, Claudia and I outline a portion, often with your input, that we’re going to focus on. Within that portion, Claudia maps management units (for example, different…
