Abundant Bees and Berries

Observation: We are having an abundance of bee's this summer. This is important for our community because of pollination of flowers, trees etc. I noticed for almost every pushki Heracleum maximum flower patch there must've been at least 2-4 bee's on each one. There is defiantly more this year than last year. Last night there were even more. My son was picking salmon berries and we noticed that on some of the pushki flowers there were as many as 30 bees. I've also enclosed a picture of the salmon berries. There has been a lot more salmon berries growing as compared to last year. We had a late frost a few years ago and now the bushes are growing back very nicely. The berries are large and ripe and it seems like they are a little bit earlier then normal. We had a mild winter and everything starting growing early. We count on these berries for food such as jelly, jams, syrups, etc.

LEO says: Heracleum maximum, cow parsnip (also known as Indian celery, Indian rhubarb or pushki) is the only member of the genus Heracleum native to North America. Native American tribes had many different uses for this plant. A common use was to make poultices to be applied to bruises or sores. In addition, young stalks and leaf stems were used for food, where the outer skin was peeled off giving a sweet flavor. The dried stems were used as drinking straws for the old or infirm, and to make flutes for children. Source: Wikipedia (M. Tcheripanoff)