Cooperative Living July 2015 - 7

HISTORY MYSTERY
Each issue, we will publish
READER ENCOUNTERS
MINER BEES
Such a coincidence to find the letter
from Bill Danner about the blue
orchard bees in the June issue.
We had just encountered unusual
bees at our property in Lively that
weekend and were amazed at the
extensive " mud hut " village they had
constructed in a bare area of ground
(see photo above).
Having never heard of or seen
these bees before (having lived in
Virginia for 50 years), a Google search
informed us that they were " miner "
bees and, as Bill notes about the blue
orchard bee, are good pollinators. We
were glad to know they are not likely
to sting as the colony looked rather
foreboding. Never too old to learn
something new in nature - and in
Cooperative Living.
Patricia Ables
Lively, Va.
a photo of some person, place
or thing (or a portion thereof)
of historical significance in
Virginia, and readers will be
invited to submit their best guess
as to the identity of the photo.
Send it in writing with your
name, address, and phone
number to HISTORY MYSTERY,
c/o Cooperative Liv ing, P.O. Box
2340, Glen Allen, VA 230582340;
or guess online at
www.co-opliving.com under
" Contests. " Deadline for entries
is July 10. All correct entries will
be put into a drawing and a winner
announced in the September
2015 issue. The winner will re -
ceive a check for $25. n
 DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?
The May 2015
HISTORY
MYSTERY (r),
was Eyre Hall,
located in
Northampton County on the
Eastern Shore and continuously owned by the
same family for 12 generations. Reader Bonnie
Quinlan (l) of Luray was our $25 winner.
Congratulations, Bonnie!
COST INFORMATION WOULD
BE HELPFUL
Cooperative Living publishes many
interesting and informative articles related
to the wise use and conservation of
electrical energy. For example, the June
2015 magazine features articles on ceiling
fans, thermostats, ways to build a
sturdy home, summer lighting and cooling,
and use of natural gas as fuel for
power generation.
All very well written and easy to
understand. However, what would be
even more informative to your readers is
if the articles, when applicable, included
cost information so readers would have
some idea how much it would cost them
if they decided to implement the technology,
or how much co-ops could save
if they implemented newly available
forms of energy generation; e.g., natural
gas instead of coal for power generation.
Such information is valuable to all
your readers.
Mike Wedge
Woodbridge, Va.
HOW YOU CAN HELP THE
HONEYBEE
Thank you for the very important
article entitled " The Plight of the
Honeybee " in your May 2015 edition.
Even if I didn't have a beekeeper for
July 2015/www.co-opliving.com
an uncle, this issue would still be
very near and dear to me since bees
and the work they do are so very
important to the ecosystem.
I can only hope that it pulls at the
heartstrings of everyone else as it
does me when I hear about CCD
(colony collapse disorder). What a
devastating impact to the delicate
balance of Mother Nature!
I just thought it important to add
one more piece of information to the
article - something that we all can
do to help honeybee survival: when
planting flowers beneficial to pollinators
(as mentioned in the " What You
Can Do to Help " section of the article),
let's make sure we do not plant
flowers that have been treated with
neonicotinoid pesticides.
Many of our plant retailers sell flowers
in this manner and it is suspected
that this ingredient is especially harmful
to the honeybee. Lowe's and Home
Depot have promised to stop selling
plants pretreated with this pesticide in
some future year, but in the meantime it
is up to the consumer to do the
research, ask the questions, and refuse
to buy these types of plants if we care
about the future of the honeybee.
Jamie Casey
Chantilly, Va. n
5
http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living July 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living July 2015
