I have a small passion for bees. One of my lifelong loves. My local paper ran this article which I wanted to share. It was a broad look at the current status of bees. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2011861539_honeybeetips15.html If you want to help with data in a fun and easy way check out this site http://www.greatsunflower.org I am sure many members have already and probably participated. Every year I watch our native and domestic varieties of bees in my yard . It always surprises and pleases me to see such a variety of pollinators visiting the garden. My blueberries would never get pollinated if it wasn't for the bumble bees that come out in the foggy, rainy weather to do what comes naturally. Butterfly Bush and bee ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) bees in the white winter heather ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Bumble bee was too cold to move...how'd she get there???? ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) These are old bee photos some from earlier this year and some from last year. I need to find time to get out and take a few more photos of the other varieties of bees I see working in the yard. So much to enjoy and so little time.
I have seen quite a few bee varieties here too Jewell. I even have a nest under my thrift this year. :-D I garden organically so there's never anything in my garden to harm bees and other useful insects. I just hope bee numbers begin to rise again as we really can't do without these beneficial little creatures.
Nice pictures Jewell. I really haven't noticed too many bees in the gardens yet. Maybe I just haven't been paying attention, but I will be now!
Happily, I've been watching, and I've seen a good number of bees so far this year. An acquaintance keeps bees and he lost his hives over the winter so I didn't know what to expect. There is a link within Jewell's link that I think is wonderful. It's from Pollinator Partnership called Ecoregional Guides. You type in your zip code and it gives specific info about attracting pollinators in that region. There are some tables toward the end of it that I'm going to print out and use to ramp up my pollinator environment. (Thank you Jewell!!). PS -- Here's the link from Jewell's link: http://pollinator.org/guides.htm moderator's note: combined two posts to prevent double posting see point 3.6 of usage rules
There has been a lot of bumble bees here this year and we saw a green bee yesterday. We had to rescue it from drowning but it revived well in the sun. I also hope that honey bees come back this year. Last year was the first time I have seen any real numbers of them in a long time. Maybe it is a sign that they are on the path to recovery.
DB sorry to hear about someone loosing their hives. Seems the commercial keepers are the ones suffering. I'm glad everyone is seeing lots of bees. We don't have many domestic bees here, but lots of different native bees. I don't think many people keep hives in town anymore.
Today I spent most of the day in my gardens. There were plenty of blooms and I watched all day. I saw 2 bees all day. That's not good. We had lots last year.
