More Bee Action

We have a lot of bees this year, which I'm very happy and relieved to see.

I recently took this series of photos of a bee enjoying the Dusty Miller blossoms. We severely cut this plant back this past spring and the result is about three times as many flowers.
I thought that the worrying events surrounding the Colony Collapse Disorder were solved, but it turns out that only part of the story is understood. There is a virus, first discovered in Israel that affects the colonies drastically. But unfortunately that isn't the only cause, there may be a lot of other factors, such as pesticide use (surprise surprise right?!).
Here is a cool video about Better Bees.
I hope that the scientists working on this issue figure it out a.s.a.p.! I sure would miss bees.
Wouldn't you?

Macro View

Out in the garden this week, attempting to capture the close-up view. I noticed this large bee on one of my pincushion flowers.
After many many attempts I got this picture using macro zoom! I'm so thrilled to have captured a bee with no blurriness. Usually they are always in motion and hard to get a still of without a special shutter on your camera. But this particular bee was resting, punch-drunk on the pollen. Or tired. Shortly after this photo, the bee plopped off down into the grass. He righted himself but just kind of sat there. So maybe it wasn't such an achievement after all. But I still like the picture a great deal. Click to see it larger if you want to.The iris patch is taking off, bursting out with a lot of blooms. The jasmine is exuberant as usual. I had to pull it off of several adjoining plants and trees, as well as the second story deck where it was attempting to strangle one of my rose bushes. That stuff is relentless, but it sure smells good.
A closer view of an iris. These pictures were hard to get as there was a bit of a breeze and these long-stemmed irises were waving about. I like the hard edge of the iris' shadow on itself.
If you click on this photo you can see the beard really closely, it reminds me of a sea urchin! The beard gives pollinators something to hold onto as they climb down into the flower for the pollen.

Bee Story

A very strange bee story,

ripped from the headlines by yours truly:

(the picture above is gorgeous isn't it? I wish I'd taken it, but it is from an internet stock photo outfit called pdphoto.)

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Big rig full of bees flips over; swarm closes highway

Associated Press
Millions of swarming honey bees are on the loose after a truck carrying crates of the insects flipped over on a California highway.The California Highway Patrol says 8-to-12 million bees escaped Sunday from the crates in which they were stored and swarmed over an area of Highway 99 and stung officers, firefighters and tow truck drivers trying to clear the accident.CHP Officer Michael Bradley says a tractor trailer flipped over while entering the highway on its way to Yakima, Wash. The flatbed was carrying bee crates each filled with up to 30,000 bees.Bradley says several beekeepers driving by the accident stopped to assist in the bee wrangling.The bees had been used in the San Joaquin Valley to pollinate crops.

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That bit that I highlighted there seemed, well, a tad unlikely. Thanks to the fabulous internets...a better version of the story fleshes this part of the tale a little more fully for those curious to know exactly how many beekeepers are driving up and down highway 99.

Were they in formation?

Just happened to be following a truck carrying beehives? hmmmmbzzzzhmmmmm.

Anyways, I hope the people who are stung are ok, and that the bees are happy in Sacramento instead of back in Yakima. It sounds like they were going back there, after their gig pollinating in the Joaquin Valley. Now, what will the farmers in Yakima do for replacement bees? I know that supplies of bee colonies are quite scarce due to the colony collapse disorder...This may affect the early fruit harvest people, serious business!

I think I noticed this story because bees interest me quite a bit. Not just because I'm a gardener, it goes beyond that really. I know I've mentioned this here before, that I'm fascinated with the idea of beekeeping, and always say "someday I'll be a beekeeper." My favorite beekeeper (and only one I've met in person) is Jim from our local CSA farm, Camp Joy, and I love reading about the exploits of Neil Gaiman's bee wrangler BirdChick.