Hive Mind: Inside the Fight for Saving the Bees in Rhode Island

University of Rhode Island student Emma Tondre collects honey from a beehive. Photography by James Jones

On a sunny summer afternoon, research associate Casey Johnson, graduate student Julia Vieira and a cadre of other grad and undergrad students are slowly combing through a small field of wildflowers at the University of Rhode Island’s East Farm.

They scan clumps of clover in shades of white, pink and crimson and clusters of purple selfheal plants looking for bees. When they find one, they coax it into a small plastic vial for closer observation. They record some information, including its species and what sort of plant it was found on, then release the little critter to continue its vital work of collecting pollen and fueling up on nectar.

As workplaces go, East Farm is more picturesque than the typical office. A tucked-away paradise just a mile or so away from the university’s Kingston campus, the farm is eighty-five acres of orchards, meadows, gardens and other habitats designed as a laboratory for studying all sorts of living things in the plant and animal world.

For Steven Alm, professor of plant sciences and entomology, the farm is home base for researching Rhode Island’s bee population. The five-acre stretch Vieira and Johnson are searching holds a series of meadows filled with plants meant to attract bees and other pollinators. Another area contains a handful of honeybee hives where Alm and his crew are searching for clues about the Varroa mite that’s killing off colonies nationwide. 

Steven Alm, professor of plant sciences and entomology at URI, collects bees with research students at East Farm. Photography by James Jones

Twice a day from spring to mid-autumn, the researchers will repeat the ritual, looking for information they hope can stem a worrisome trend. The bee population — around the world, across the United States and right here in Rhode Island — is struggling for survival. 

Honeybees claim the lion’s share of the attention when discussions turn to endangered species. The concern is real; honeybees are crucial for pollinating crops worldwide. Beeswax makes the cleanest-burning candles. And where would we be without honey? But honeybees aren’t native to Rhode Island — or even to North America — and that presents its own issues.

Katie Schortmann, garden coordinator and environmental educator with the Audubon Society of Rhode Island, confesses to having conflicting feelings about the emphasis on honeybees. “Honeybees were brought here from Europe in the 1600s,” she explains. “Before that, sugar beets, sugar cane and maple syrup were the sweeteners.

“I appreciate and value honeybees and honeybee farmers,” she says, “but they compete with wild bees for forage, and they also spread diseases and illnesses. It’s complicated.” 

It’s tough to find hard statistics about Rhode Island’s native bee population, but one revealing URI study in 2021 turned up only seven of the eleven kinds of bumblebees that used to be found here. 

Alm and research students search for and examine bees at URI’s East Farm. Photography by James Jones

If bees disappeared, we’d have a tough time living without them. “We’d lose half our food supply right off the bat. They pollinate chocolate, coffee, tomatoes, blueberries, squash and countless other crops.” —Julia Vieira

Nationwide, the bumblebee population has declined by as much as ninety percent in the past two decades, according to a 2022 report from Environment America, a national network of state environmental groups.

Bumblebees are probably the most recognizable of our native bees, but there are 250 or more species that are indigenous to the Ocean State, each one serving an essential purpose. Mason bees keep the fruit orchards in business, squash bees pollinate our cucumbers, watermelons, pumpkins and butternuts, and bumblebees pollinate tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, melons and berries, in addition to being the most important pollinator of potatoes worldwide. 

One of the many bee species found at URI’s East Farm. Photography by James Jones

For all the value we assign ourselves, here’s a stark reality about being human: If all 8 billion (and counting) of us disappeared tomorrow, the Earth would barely notice our absence. If bees disappeared, we’d have a tough time living without them. “We’d lose half our food supply right off the bat,” Vieira says. “They pollinate chocolate, coffee, tomatoes, blueberries, squash and countless other crops.”

Recent studies have shown that, of the seven bumblebee varieties that have been spotted in Rhode Island in recent years, three are doing well, three are holding their own, and one, Bombus fervidus, is in serious trouble. “That one is vulnerable to extinction in fifty years if we can’t do something,” Alm says.

Examining the hives at URI. Photography by James Jones

A host of factors figures into the precipitous decline of bees, but chief among them are pesticides, climate change and habitat loss. Nationwide, large-scale agriculture and urbanization have forced bees into smaller and smaller spaces, while higher average temperatures are making life tough on bees in Southern climes.

If all of this seems too depressing, it might help to know there are steps we can take to help support our native bees, starting in our own backyards.

URI’s pollinator garden. Photography by James Jones

• If you have the space for gardens, plant colorful flowers such as bee balm, black-eyed Susans, purple coneflowers, sunflowers and zinnias. Even pots of zinnias on the deck will help if you don’t have a large yard. “If every house in a neighborhood had a pollinator garden so the bees could cut through from yard to yard, it would be like having a big
  national park,” Vieira says.
•  Avoid purchasing plants from businesses that use pesticides. “Ask your nursery if they use pesticides before you buy,” Vieira cautions. “Look for plants that have bees on them. Those will be pesticide-free.”
•  If you have a lawn, stop working toward perfect, weed-free green grass. “Let your yard be a little messy,” says Vieira. 
•  Bees love clover, Alm notes. Leave that ubiquitous white clover there among the grass, where, besides feeding the bees, it serves to create nitrogen-rich soil. “You can mow your grass and the clover will grow back the next day,” Alm says. If you can find crimson and red clover, add those to the mix.
•  Don’t be in such a hurry to rake up those leaves in autumn. Some seventy percent of bees build their nests in the ground, and rotting leaves make for a rich, nutritious soil for nest-building. Leave a few piles of leaves around the perimeter of the yard and at the base of trees and hedges. Other bees will nest in stone walls, the hollows of tree trunks and wood you’ve gathered for winter fires.
•  When spring arrives, hold off on the cleanup until temperatures are reliably in the mid-fifties, Vieira suggests. Bees often overwinter in dead plant material, emerging in spring to do their good work. By removing dead leaves and fallen twigs too early, you risk killing those sleeping bees. 

A bee collects liquid from a plant. Photography by James Jones

All these steps will help those non-native honeybees, too, Alm says, but becoming a beekeeper doesn’t actually do a lot to save that declining species. “Get a honeybee hive if you want your own honey or you’re interested in an expensive, time-consuming hobby, but don’t think you are saving the honeybees by doing it,” he says.

Much as you might want to encourage bee activity in your yard, they don’t always choose the most convenient nesting places. If you have bees in the eaves of your house, the chimney or next to a high-traffic spot like the front door, enlist a professional to remove them. 

Honey from the school’s Bee Lab. Photography by James Jones

Jeff Mello, owner of Tiverton-based Aquidneck Honey, gets called frequently to relocate bees’ nests around the state and in nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut. “We make every effort to take the whole hive, rather than terminate the bees,” he says. He has several private property owners who are happy to take honeybee hives. “It’s a good fit, because they want the pollinators in their yards,” he says. He might even bring native species to his own one-acre property. “I let them go so they can do what they do naturally.”

Aggressive pests, like yellowjacket wasps or white-faced hornets, also call for professional help. Spraying the area with a toxin will kill beneficial insects, and, Mello says, could pose a danger, especially if a family member turns out to be allergic to a sting. “Trying to take care of them yourself could be life-ending,” he says.

For bees to thrive, it will take global changes in farming and pesticide use, climate mitigation and a focus on creating habitats within urban environments. But meanwhile, Rhode Island’s experts agree we can all do our part to help things along.

An Audubon educator hunts for insects with a young camper. Photo courtesy of the Audubon Nature Center, Bristol.

For Schortmann and the Audubon Society, that includes cultivating awareness in the next generation. 

On a fine morning in late spring, a yellow school bus pulls up to the Audubon Nature Center and Aquarium in Bristol, disgorging thirty-nine excited second-graders from Portsmouth’s Hathaway Elementary School. Schortmann welcomes them as they explore the Palmieri Pollinator Garden, part of the Audubon Society’s twenty-eight-acre Claire D. McIntosh Wildlife Refuge. 

They use magnifying glasses to search for bees, bugs and butterflies among the milkweed and bee balm and foxglove. They check out Buggingham Palace, an insect hotel where carpenter bees, butterflies, moths and other bugs check in to lay their eggs. They swish nets back and forth along the perimeter of a meadow to see what insect species they can catch and identify. And they play a tag-like game that shows just how tough it is for a monarch butterfly to get through its lifecycle without being gobbled up by a predator. 

Buggingham Palace is located among the gardens at the Audubon Nature Center in Bristol. Photo courtesy of the
Audubon Nature Center, Bristol.

There may not be a future entomologist in the group, but Schortmann hopes programs like this foster a lifelong awareness of and concern for protecting bees and other pollinators. 

“There’s going to be a tipping point where nature isn’t going to be taken for granted,” she says. “We have to be stewards of the land again. We need to change our habits.

Casey Johnson collects a bee to identify and release at URI’s East Farm. Photography by James Jones

The Buzz on Bees

Rhode Island has an amazing variety of native bees if you know where to look for them. Here’s a handful of species common to the Ocean State.

Bumblebee 

Easily recognized by its plump, fuzzy body and yellow stripes, the bumblebee lives in colonies, building nests underground, where it favors burrows abandoned by other animals. Most bumblebees are drawn to a wide variety of flowering plants, but the endangered Bombus fervidus is a victim of its own finicky tastes. “The common eastern bumblebee is a generalist,” Alm says. “It likes almost all plants; fervidus only likes a few.” To help the struggling variety, introduce clover to your yard.

Miner Bee 

This small bee with black hair on its abdomen, legs and head and yellow fur on its thorax is named for its tenacity in digging through dry earth, clay and even mortar to make its nests. They’re attracted to fruit trees and berry bushes.

Mason Bee 

The pretty mason bee can be identified by its metallic shades of green, blue and black. While bees in general are quite docile and will only sting if they feel threatened, mason bees are the calmest of all. Mason bees love lots of plants, especially fruit trees, berry bushes and roses.

Sweat Bee

If you’re working in the garden on a hot day and find yourself surrounded by tiny brightly colored bees, you may be attracting sweat bees. If you let one of these docile creatures settle on you for a moment, it’ll drink a bit of your sweat and head off happy. They pollinate sunflowers, apple and stone fruit trees and
alfalfa, and especially love to forage on asters.

Squash Bee

If you have a vegetable garden, you may well find these chubby bees snoozing among the squash blossoms. They pollinate pumpkins, winter and summer squashes and gourds.

Carpenter Bee

These bees, which nest in dead trees, logs and stumps, look a bit like a bumblebee but without the fully yellow belly. You don’t want them getting too close to your house, as they can do considerable wood damage. If you need to get rid of a nest of carpenter bees, call an expert to remove and relocate them, rather than killing these valuable pollinators.

URI’s Bee Lab holds previously collected specimens for study. Photography by James Jones