My pear trees are in full bloom and I have yet to spot a single bee. What is happening! Where are they?
No bees in sight
I believe there is a virus. Really, I'm not making this up. Check the web for more info. I have seen lots of bees here.Ruth
usually the virus resembles an exterminator, the bees were living in a rent house, and the exterminator not only kills the ones in the rent house he also poisons the honey, thus poisoning every pollinator for 5 miles. Get your feather out or buy a hive, but it may be too late for your pears by the time you can get bees in there.
That is what happened in my neighborhood in 2010. and I became a beekeeper in march 2011.
Message me if you need bees, I know a keep in the Roundrock/Bryan area who can probably lease you a hive. MUCH easier than buying one and learning to keep alive.
Gypsi
This message was edited Mar 9, 2013 2:55 PM
Just wondering what zones all of you are in? There has been a much publicized decline in the bee population, attributed to many different causes, including a fungus and herbicides usually I have bee by now but they have yet to show up this year. I really think it has something to do with the weather, only time will tell.
I am in Fort Worth, North of both of you. I have 5 hives. All are flying on warm days, have been bringing in pollen since my elm tree came in bloom, were carrying in pollen sub on warm days before that. (they prefer the real thing, my pollen sub is untouched now. Your weather forecast for Liberty Hill, TX today gives a high of 77, with a 30% chance of thunderstorms. If it isn't raining, the bees should be flying. I am in touch with beekeepers in various parts of Texas via a bee forum. You can go there if you like:
www.beekeepingforums.com
Gypsi
(If you want the truth about bees, stay out of mainstream newspapers and yahoo news and ask a beekeeper. There are about 29 viruses. Then there are humans with pesticides. That last one is the worst.)
This message was edited Mar 9, 2013 3:53 PM
Thanks for the link. ATM it's 68 and drizzling or raining. I'm 5 miles N of DT LH and I don't see it hitting 78 at all. We froze here a couple nights ago. We are always 2-4 weeks behind here.
It froze here twice last week, is warm windy with rain coming in today. The bees are at my pond swiping water for the hives, and all over my forsythia. It will freeze again tomorrow night and monday night. On good days, they go to work, on bad days, they stay home and eat their honey. Enjoy the link. There are good people on there. Tell them Gypsi sent you.
The bees habits sound like mine. I've never had this many freezing nights this late in the year.
We have. As late as April 13, froze my nectarines that year. I want to set stuff out but won't, not yet. Not much, not unless it is very cold hardy
I live in zone 8b, about 30 mins. north of Houston. Thanks everyone for your informative inputs. I thought it's the mosquito spray that killed bees. I also noticed that there's not as much green tree frogs and green geckos. I never use pesticide and am totally organic and so are my neighbors. Since I wasn't working today I took time to looked closely at my pear trees. I saw what looked like flies and a total of three bees. I don't think that's enough to polinate four trees. Luckily there's a few butterflies and the wind. Last year I didn't get very many fruits either and the squirrels got most of them! I'm not home during the day so I'm blaming the squirrels. Suggestions anyone? (On how to prevent "squirrels" from stealing your fruits)
Everything from pie tins in the wind to overfeeding them so theyre too full to nibble. Best is a bb gun or larger, called wildlife management, before you are overrun. Some folx live trap and turn em loose in the country on poor ol country folx to deal with like unwanted cats an dogs. But shooting is a no no inside city limits since Tombstone true. Ok. i am just bored...
Gypsi, I don't mean we haven't had freezes this late in the yr. I mean consecutively. I've had to cover stuff a few times but not night after night this late until this year. I never plant out until the end of March begin of April maybe a couple tomato plants just for kicks...
Ytnpham-that is the age old question. I've never had problems with them but my dad and a pecan tree...I could write a books.
None of my trees have started to bloom not even my crepe myrtle, that maybe why I don't see any bees, only the type that hang out by the water trough.
Lisa, you have crepe myrtles that bloom in March????
She needs forsythia, dogwoods, redbuds, rain, chuckl. Theyre on the way...
You know, I'm not sure when they bloom. Lol I just know they are a bee magnet. But looking around nothing here has started to bloom not even the redbuds. I guess my point was maybe I don't see any bees bc nothing is blooming.
Where you are stuff should be greening up, but the hill country can be colder than the zone usually calls for, wont be long, itts just a wierd month this year...
That's what I mean we are always a lot later then then our zone says. My yellow Bells don't even bloom until Oct.if they get a chance to at all.
Kittriana, you're hilarious! I think I will share my fruits with the critters. Beside, bullets are too expensive! I probably hit the fruits instead of the squirrels.
Here I am seeing a small bee working the Henbit it does not appear to be a regular honeybee lots of Daffodils blooming but only notice the bees in the Henbit..I curse the henbit every year but it is the only color we have in abundance right now
henbit and daffodil keep the bees alive until the mainflow starts. I used to cuss it, but anymore I let it grow. Your not regular bees could be mason bees (some are blue). Hornfaced bees and other species of annual bees are good pollinators where honey bees can't consistently live.
Gypsi I will take a pic of one tomorrow and post it here then maybe you could educate me a bit as I know nothing about bees
it may be an education for both of us. Shortly after I bought my first hive I walked through my wildflowers admiring my bees. And I saw a blue bee. And I called the gal I bought my hive from and told her I had a defective bee. Needless to say she was ROFL.... told me to search Mason bees on the internet. I don't know whether I had them before the extermination wipeout, I spend a lot of time in the garden and had not seen one before. But they are pretty.
My wife also thinks that our mason bees look like flies. :)
mason bees are very good orchard pollinators, and mine work my cantaloupe when the honeybees are off chasing something else.
Gypsi, you're awesome! You know so much about bees, my favorite insect. Some day I will attempt to have a hive but for now I love watching and reading anything pertaining to bees and bee keepers. I think it's just absolutely fascinating.
What are the bees that hang out by the water trough? I was told they were European bees...
european honeybees? If there is a hive nearby, they would be the workers gathering water for the hive.
I don't see mason bees at my ponds nearly as often, they don't have the water requirements, as they just live 3 weeks, pack eggs and pollen in paper tubes, then die, the eggs hatch next year.
Gypsi it was a lot warmer today and I got a good look at the bees in the henbit they were all honeybees and it seems to me there were a lot of them ,there is a small forested area close by so there must be a wild hive there Talihina is covered in henbit every spring,so if there are the same number of bees in the equal amount of henbit there is a lot of bees here
I have no idea if there is a hive near by. I don't pay much attention to the bees, they do their thing and I do mine.
I have a neighbor that is a retired beekeeper He had planned to move a few hives to his new home but he had a heart attack last spring The best laid plans ya know,, here one of the worst pest in the hives are the Racoons one of my friends lost 2 hives last year to the Racoons No one hunts them anymore and only a few trap ...
Right now we have both mason bees and honey bees at work in our yard/pasture.
Raccoons are an urban problem too. One of my pond customers trapped and relocated nearly 20 that were after his koi. Not many coons near me, but I suspect the coyote count keeps them down.
First BUMBLE BEE spotted in my garden today.
You are SO lucky to have bumble bees. I have put out a nesting pot for them but they didn't like it or I don't have any left out here. I'm thinking they were all killed off.
But bumblebees don't make honey, right?
I have to ask. Where is Cut and Shoot?
bumblebees do not make honey. And they only live in a location for one year. The queen lives through the winter, chooses a nest site in the spring and starts laying eggs. They like low spots, but dry ones, so a hole in a box on the ground with some nice mossy grass or hay might work, where water can't get in, but they have more than one exit. Honey is overrated when we have drought. I fed my bees 150 lbs of imperial sugar last summer.
CutNShoot is off of I45 and just east on the northeast side of Conroe
I have lots of Bumble bees each year. They work my Desert Petunias all summer. The honey bees favor the Lantanas and the Gomphrena. Im going to have Queen Anne's lace this year. I know they like that as well.
Our bumbles go after the esperanza and the basil. ESPECIALLY the basil. They also loved my wisteria...