Bees Please

Easybake - it's hard to tell the size of the bees in your photos, but if they are smaller than honeybees, then I suspect they are some kind of native bee. There are so many native bees, I don't know which are which. I have several kinds that visit my garden - ALL are welcome.

they were slightly larger but not by much,of the regular honey bees that were around the same flowering plant.
like this one,which is the best pic of a bee i ever took.

That is a very nice pic! Love when I get something like that.

Easybake - that photo made me say "Wow" - what a perfect shot!

I was reading recently about Russian honeybees that are resistant to the mites that now plague honeybees. Perhaps that's the ones you have. I don't know if they are larger than the Italian honeybee.

There is also a fly that looks like a bee, and it is larger than a honeybee. Here's a link...

http://www.gardensafari.net/english/hoverflies.htm

Easybake, what kind of flower is that? Thanks!

If you must use pesticides please spray as late in the day as possible so the honeybees don't get on them. My bees forage in the garden till about 6 pm right now.

I have Agastache (Hyssop) planted in my sun perennial bed. Every year it is covered in bees. They literally fall asleep on it.

This year it has few bees. I live in a suburban environment where everyone sprays their lawns. I worry that those chemicals are effecting the bee population.

dervish2 - when you refer to bees falling asleep on the Agastache, I assume you mean bumble bees. This is normal. When I go into the garden early in the morning, I frequently see sleeping bumble bees. Honeybees will, on occasion, sleep in the gaden overnight, but their normal habit is to return to their hive.

Bumble bees nest in the ground, so yes, chemical sprays could affect their life cycle. You might want to do some research into bumble bee nests and supply suitable homes for them on your own property. If I remember correctly, only the queen bumble bee survives the winter. She has to start from scratch each spring to build a small colony of bumble bees.

I'm fortunate to have lots of bumble bees present in the garden. I assume they nest in the nearby woods.

Thanks HoneybeeNC.

The ones that fall asleep on the Agastache are bumbles. They seem drunk.

Good idea about supplying habitat. I will look into it. I do mulch which I just read inhibits their nesting. But the worms and soil love it.

A new plant I used this summer was borage. It has a lovely blue flower that is actually edible and is beautiful in a salad. The bees, both honey and bumble were all over these blooms. The leaves of the plant are also edible. They taste like a mild cucumber, but the leaves are fuzzy. The first leaves that open are not as fuzzy and can be used in a salad. All my borage seeds germinated easily and it grows best in full sun. I will try to post a picture tomorrow.

Littlechickadee - I've been toying with the idea of clearing out my bed of iris that only bloom for such a short time in May, and replacing them with all kinds of herbs.

I have Greek oregano, Rosemary, sage, and basil scattered throughout the garden and they attract honey, bumble and native bees.

Mornin' bee lovers! I too have hyssop, the anise type which has lovely lavender blue fluffy flowers in a kind of long puff(plus the anise/licorice scent), they attract tons of bees. Right next to it is some catnip, the plain type with white flowers. The bees AND little white butterflies are on these flowers all day long! I counted 12 butterflies and 8 bees, both bumble and honey one time. It is only a small plant, maybe a foot high and 9 inches in width. Next year, both of these will play a larger role in the garden. Funny the cats are kind of non committal about the catnip plant, but if i pick it they are just silly over it.
Zinnias! i see bumble bees like crazy on my regular ole zinnias. I love the sleepy ones in the early morning, especially when compared to the busy honeybees. I imagine the honeybees have great disdain for their larger out all night cousins, the bumblebees. "humph! SOME bees have to WORK for a living!" I guess the bumblebees just give them the bee equivalent of an eye roll. Tee hee!
Another big hit with the bumblebees...red pentas.

I'm delighted with the interest everyone is showing for all kinds of bees. They really are the unsung heroes of the garden.

I see bumbles come to my zucchini plants more often than I thought. I have zucchini popping up all over the plants, to many that i know what to do with lol! The bees really worked hard with my plants, that's for sure.

Yep, bfly22...it seems any kind of squash blossom gets the bees out of bed in a hurry! I like to see the fuzzy bees dusted with pollen doing lazy circles around the zukes, pumpkins and yellow squash. Here in Tn I still have 1 zuke plant, but i doubt it will produce anymore this late in our season. In fact, it was cold enough to put a bumblebee out of commission yesterday, it was just laying on a zinnia. I brought it in in a pitcher, let it get warm til it got sunny out. It was interesting to watch it revive and have a sip of sugarwater. As soon as it got outside in the sun it flew off. Nice.

THese are some photos of my Photina shrub. It is covered in bees this time of year, and smells good.

Blast, the photos won't come up...