My interest in bees began when my 4th grade teacher took me to her farm, put a bee veil on me, opened one of her hives and showed me the queen, the drones, and the worker bees. Later when I was 14 years young I got my first hive and have been fascinated with all bees ever since.
My first experience with pollen bees began when I was about 19 or 20, when I received a wooden block from a Dr. Parker at the USDA Bee Biology and Systematics Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan Utah with instructions to return it to him after the holes were filled late in the Fall of that year. I followed his instructions and this was the first time I observed solitary bees and realized they lived in holes. After I returned the block I didn't think much about it until sometime in the early 1990's when I received some Hornfaced bees from the USDA in Beltsville, MD for testing in my area. I have been involved ever since. I now use hornfaced bees for fruit trees and early pollination and alfalfa leafcutter bees for all later pollination.
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