Is super dry here, but see to it there's water out for the insects and birds. I have YET to SEE a honey bee around their favorite flowers; did have swallowtail butterfly's coming in every morning; now THEY are GONE and even the nasty yellow jackets; haven't even HEARD a broadtailed hummingbird fly overhead! Wyoming.. this year..is "no man's land" due to extremely DRY conditions, just wondering if anyone else from here (or upper Colorado, Utah) has been witnessing the same? Been hand-pollinating vine crops to make SURE they are; tomatoes? Who has to really worry about THEM with winds..they get pollinated and looks like it'll be an EXCELLANT crop there! Weather's all out-of-whack world wide, but sure DON'T LIKE to SEE the disapperance of BEES (including the Mason's) here! OR anywhere! Would just like some input on bee observations in DRY climes..is it ME?
Bees will leave if there is nothing to feed on. I throw all my old and overripe fruit, melons, tomatoes along my fence and in dry years they will feed on them, I also set shallow trays of sugar water out for bees ect in dry years. You might try setting out sugar water and if one or two find it, they may bring the others back.
They disappeared from around here last year because of our heat and drought. I put out hummingbird feeders and the bees and wasps emptied them in hours but at least they had something to hang around for.
Very few bees this year in my garden despite all the flowers they usually frequent. No dragonflies, butterflies, wasps or even hoverflies around this year as we've had soooo much rain.
I will give the sugar water a try. I will see what happens. Hummers and bees too. This should be interesting. I hope the hummers don't mind sharing their food. Jerry
Thanks all for the input! I have flowers for bees and hummers; water out in several places and the little guys just aren't here! There's usually ants that make mounds between the stones on a back patio, and there's no sign of those either. I believe it's all due to lack of ANY moisture, has been a very strange year so far in this locale, ground's like well-aged concrete! Container/raised bed gardens are doing well however; get heavily watered every morning or there'd be nothing GREEN to enjoy..it IS that BAD! Anyway..GOOD GARDENING to everyone, ENJOY!
I have plenty of bees. But it worried me to hear from those of you who do not. I do keep a bucket of water in the garden. There's a couple of boards floating in it and when those get saturated and sink, I trade them out for dry boards.
I kept the hummingbird feeders up and filled all last summer for the bees since the heat either killed my blooming plants or sent them into dormancy. Bees at hummingbird feeder last year ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden ) I left them up all through the winter too since we had a very mild one, the critters were out and hungry but nothing was blooming. Butterfly and wasp ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden )
