Man, I want a garden.

This is cute, although their site is infernal slow. I signed up, anyway, and now if the groundhogs will allow my sunflowers to actually grow, I will go out and count bees in a month or two.

It's a really neat idea, but it sound like the organization behind it is a little behind and unprepared. The poor germination rates of the seeds they got isn't their fault (in fact, kudos to them for testing the seeds). However, they're sending seeds out waaaaay too late for a lot of the country. There are sunflowers on my block that are already blooming, and the volunteer sunflowers that came up in my garden are already 5 feet tall.

I'm also kinda curious about how they're going to extrapolate data. IIRC, the activity of any given bee hive fluctuates depending on the hive's current task. So, what are they going to make of a count in Seattle of 2 bees, when on the same day in Atlanta it could be 15? Maybe the local bees are up to different things on those days. It doesn't necessarily mean that the Seattle population has been decimated.

It sounds to me like they have an insanely large sample size and suspicious organizational skills.

But again, it's a really neat idea, and I hope some good info comes from it.

AND FURTHERMORE!

I'm no scientist, but the more I think about this, the more I think it's really cute and somewhat educational, but it can't really produce good data.

I wish they'd just talk to beekeepers and get hard facts from people who know bees. I'm not liking this at all. No sir.

Pup, you should read the rationale and the supporting groups. This is meant to generate initial data to help fund further study. They are acknowledging, in particular, that very little is known about urban and suburban bee activity and hoping this will help them find hot spots or surprise populations.

they're sending seeds out waaaaay too late for a lot of the country.

I won't be able to put mine in for another 2 weeks. I only found out about this right now, but it's running for a while. Still, they're not interested in the fully grown sunflowers, remember - only the pollination stage.

Also, TPS, if you know of a sunny spot you can grow them in a container! I bet you could get into (or start) a community garden near you in the city, too.

Still, they're not interested in the fully grown sunflowers, remember - only the pollination stage.

But but... How can they be pollinated before they bloom?

They're also going to get a lot of bad data. I read some of the forum posts and whooo, hey, yeah, so this is what the people who populate Yahoo answers do in their spare time. So I'm inclined to agree that this is of little if any scientific value - I mean, hell, I myself, no scientist, am just going to go count bees twice a month. I am not going to worry about whether my sunflower is the wrong one - I plant tons of different kinds - or whether my bees are also incorrect. So they're not going to get great data from me, since I'm lazy and yet I bet my data is better than some of the stuff they're going to get from the how is babby sunflower formed crowd.

Do this, sure, hope it provides something of some use, even if it's just awareness raising, but I think it would be easier to do it more like the Backyard Bird Count - across the country, one day this summer.

I'm signing up. The girl has a bit of a bee fascination and is just distraught that the bees are "in trouble." This will help her feel like she's doing something.

But but... How can they be pollinated before they bloom?

What I mean is they're not worried about taking it to full seed stage. Even in Northern New England they'll bloom before the next frost.

I agree this is a casual sort of way to gather data, but dollars to doughnuts what they're going to do is use the data they DO get to relay into a more involved grant application using this as an indicator that further study into urban/suburban bee populations would be worthwhile. It bolsters my esteem to note that the American Museum of Natural History, which is a well-regarded research organization, does see some utility in this.

I'm inclined to write the prof who's on the Sunflower website and challenge her with some of our questions about the data, but I've been sitting writing email for Slow Food all day and my hands are tired. I'd be interested in what she says if anyone else feels motivated, though.

In any case, I was like,

1. Hey, free seeds.
2. I need to learn about bees and this is a good way for me to learn to ID them and watch them do their thing.
3. Sitting for a half hour twice a month watching a sunflower is something that any sane person, viewing my usual state of manic ridiculousness, would recommend for me to do.

I forgot to say, "Thanks, Miko!"

And thanks MGL for the link to the bird count. We'll definitely have to participate next year.