Beekeeping and Bees

Sorry for the delay. I can see three avenues for helping bees locally. 1) Very bee friendly plants on your porch if you have one. 2) Providing a steady water source for bees. This one I think is better as most people have no knowledge that bees require water especially in a heat wave. 3) Support local beekeepers by buying local honey, like from your particular region, county or city. I used to sell honey by zip code.

If you have a porch there are a number of plants that bloom ridiculously often or even continuously, African Blue Basil is a great example, blooms constantly and doesn't produce seeds as it's a sterile hybrid. Bees are insane over it.

Watering is a bit trickier. Getting bees to recognize and interact with a stable water source long term is difficult. Often they know of a leaky water hose or A/C unit to draw water from. I've had success getting bees attracted to a water source by adding just one or two drops of lemongrass oil to freshly poured water. The lemongrass is a natural attractant and then they find the water, and tell the hive. Do this on really hot days for a best chance at attracting them. You can do this anywhere, just sneak a bowl or container around the grounds of your apartment building or get tricky and hang something from a window. If you have a porch then you are set. DON"T LET IT DRY OUT! They won't return once they have figured out another source. Consistency is best.

Buying honey from local beeks is an obvious and easy way to help.

Hope that helps!

Put bee hotels in places you have access to.

Great question. Supporting habitat conservation is the most important thing any of us can do for pollinators. That can be as simple as becoming a member of a local park system, volunteering to help remove invasive plants, donating to a nature preserve, etc. Then someday when you have a yard, plant natives instead of grass.