I was a little worried because the leaf cutter bees moved off my lot and usually there are signs much earlier. I was so pleased to see this today because they usually build their nests much earlier. Very smart bees. They only take out about a third of a leaf so no stress to the rose. They use the cutting to line their nests. Thought I'd share for those who don't have leaf cutter bees- easy to recognize becaue perfect semi-circle cuttings out of the leaves.
I have heard from an expert in bumblebee decline, who advises against the commercially-raised hives, as they are suspected of harboring pathogens that might infect the existing populations.
[sigh]
I did notice a few bees in my lavender plants which are in
another rather distant area of our yard. Perhaps next year I will
plant some lavender near my veggie garden and see if that
encourages the bees to explore.
o I'm sorry to hear that LTilton. I guess the only thing we can do is try to keep an everblooming garden with things they luv and pray.
that's sad. i saw some bumblebees this morning. maybe i'll point some of them in your direction. the people i garden with have milkweed to attract monarchs, and a few bumblebees and honey bees were hard at work on them. i hope they make it 'round to my squash and cucumbers too.
I think the bees had a slow start this year because it was so unseasonably cold in my area. I was really worried this spring. I have seen the numbers grow quite a bit in my yard recently.
One of the reasons bumblebees may be having problems is that the Dutch brought American bees over to study and breed them for green house work and now it is possible that the reintroduced green house bees have transmitted some virus or something. They also think that the urban sprawl and changes in farming practice has also hurt bees because they have less food. One thing is certain we know at least one species Franklins bee has gone extinct before we could even get it on the endagered species list.
The fact is we are not watching the native bees closely enough so people don't have the information as to which species are loosing ground and how fast they are decreasing. That Illinois project Bee Spotter http://beespotter.mste.uiuc.edu/topics/beegarden/ someone mentioned earlier is a great idea. I hope they expand it to other states. I also recommend the Xerces Society. Saving our pollinators is their mission. http://www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Insect_Conservation/backyard.html
Anyway Tilton I just read a book put out by the Univeristy of Minnesota called "Befriending Bumble Bees" they have some information on making little bumblebee homes. What they suggest is if you want to raise them is to get them first thing in the spring because the very first bees out in spring are the Queens and they are already fertile. Then you put them in the home you make for them. You put the home out once they settle in. You have to feed them pollen balls though that you buy commercially or from a bee keeper until you get them out. This company in the UK makes premade boxes http://www.nestbox.co.uk/bumblebeebox.shtml but you could make your own easily. Since they do nest undergound the book recommends either burying the box or making sure the temperature is stable in some other way.
Some people just make the nests and put them out but the success rate of getting the bees to adopt the nests is apparently very low.
Yes, those are the bees I was thinking of getting, but not if they will be introducing parasites into the wild population.
You actually catch the bees and put them in boxes? Could you be more specific? I can see the cartoon, running around me now...trying to catch the bees and put them in boxes.
Actually the bees don't fly away so fast as the butterflies. They are harder to catch, but I don't do that anymore. My mother actually taught me how to catch the butterflies with a net. Then, later on we both decided that is is best not to do it. They didn't have enough money to give me a camera with an unlimited amount to spend on film and developing. Aren't digital cameras great? No film, no waiting! (I am going to try to take pictures of the butterflies, not catch them!)
Let me know about the bublebee house. That really sounds interesting...
You only catch one bee for each nest - the queen. Thats why you have to do it in early spring. If you tried to catch them now you might not get a queen, and if you did remove a queen now her colony would die I believe. In the spring the first bumblebees are always fertilzed queens. Now that I think about it that method of making sure you get a queen might not work in areas that are warm all year. The bees here (Minnesota) die each fall except for the queens so you know when you collect first thing in spring that you will get a fertilzed queen.
Then you introduce her into your bee box (nest). You feed her pollen and nectar substitute - like you feed hummingbirds. If she doesnt start laying eggs in two weeks they say to let her go. You probably want to try several to make sure you have a success. Once she lays eggs you have a colony and can allow them access to the outside.
This is all from the book "Befriending Bumble Bees" and I haven't done it yet.They have lots of specfic information. I think I will try it next spring. The house is basically a box. There is the link posted above showing a manufactured bee nest and there are some instructions in the book if you build your own.
http://shop.extension.umn.edu/PublicationDetail.aspx?ID=1902 A library could probably get a copy as well.
I doubt I could manage to catch a queen bee. Also doesn't she have drones who protect her? Look there's a course in Austrialia that includes how to do it. http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/profarm/courses/livestock/queen-bee-breeding
dahlianut I think that is for honeybees. I dont believe Austraila has bumblebees - at least not as natives anyway.
I'll have a better idea how well this all works after I give it a shot next year.
This message was edited Jul 21, 2008 9:41 AM
Thanks for the info. Please keep us posted grik on your beecatching. I'm sure many others will be interested in your experience. ps don't forget to get tested for allergy to bee venom if you haven't done so already (not to jinx you but it is a very serious life-threatening allergy if you have it).
I'm not sure that catching a queen bumblebee is a good idea. You might be taking her away from her already-established nest.
That's likely true, Tilton. I bought a bumblebee house but it has never been used. I think the main idea of getting a queen to nest in the house was to move it to your window to observe them closely.
I just saw my second honey bee of the year. It was working my peppers. When I first saw him, he was on a low blossom and fell to the ground. He did a few awkward moves then got back on the same flower and I watched him fly around to several more. I don't think he was normal but I'm glad to see him.
Yeah I've seen a few sick bees this year too. I heard that most bees carry around a pesticide load. They also arn't as genetically equipped to develop resistance to challenges like pesticides as are bugs like say mosquitos for some reason. Just are luck its the nasty critters that we'll be left with.
I found a really weird thing in my garden this year - it was a small beetle riding on the antennae of a seemingly healthy bee. I removed it and I'm going to get it identified. The bee was unharmed. They told me it might be a mite but it seems too big for that to me.
I volunteered to help a graduate student at the bee lab capture (and release) this summer - hopefully I can learn to identify them. She's looking for B. affinis. Because it is declining in this area. I've tried to use the pictures online to tell them apart in my garden but frankly I have to say to me they just look like bumble bees to me so far. http://www.xerces.org/bumblebees/affinis.html
If anyone sees Bombus affinis they should contact info@xerces.org
This message was edited Jul 24, 2008 7:50 PM
This message was edited Jul 24, 2008 8:02 PM
I'm way out of your loop to help grik but thanks for the great work your're doing. We're already getting reports of lack of polination on tomatoes here. By the way all, this is a great thread. If you look at the contributors LTilton has captured interest from quite a few regions of the lower 48. Would anyone mind if I posted this on the Canadian Forum and send to a fellow DG dahlianut in Alaska and a DG herbie buddy in France?
This message was edited Jul 24, 2008 8:29 PM
k with me.
If you're going to pass this on, I'll copy the reply I received:
"The Bombus impatiens colonies produced by Koppert Biological are meant for
use as captive colonies inside greenhouses; they are not supposed to be
used as free-foraging colonies of bees allowed to visit flowers outside
greenhouses. They may harbor pathogens that could add to the problem of
declining bumble bee species."
Fascinating thread! I'm in our state Master Naturalist training program and we have had a speaker on the decline of bees. The governor of Texas recently declared Pollinator Week in early June due to efforts of Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. and state Master Naturalists. (like Master Gardener training, but focused on local wildlife and ecology) Our chapter and Texas Parks and Wildlife held Pollinator Week at this time, to promote education about pollinators and their decline. Unfortunately I was out of town for this first-ever event.
The Xerxes Society has published a great book, Pollinator Conservation Handbook - in 2003. I just received my copy, and will be reading with interest. We have a place north of Houston with still many bumblebees, and some very small bees, but no honeybees. (They love our native Vitex and I sit and watch them without fear). I'll be doing research on all the great links everyone has provided above. Thank you for all the great knowledge and curiosity here.
One of my volunteer initiatives in the fall is to help an elementary school with a butterfly garden. I think I'll promote renaming it to a pollinator garden.
bookworm please share what you info/knowledge you acquire that might help us. I'm sorry to say but I think this will become one of our greatest threats to food production and horticulture. Thanks.
Question #2 Does anyone think we should ask Dave to move this thread to the Dave's Garden Community Section. I've asked the Canadian and European forums to contribute too and it affects most plants so its not specific to any forum. If so, what do we call it? Bee Population Decline? Bee Colony Collapse? Thoughts please.
The question was also raised in the Beekeeping forum
I used to work at an apiary and was told this year they lost half of their hives, but I don't know what it was from. :(
I found a spot on the corner of my garage that a bumblebee (or more than one) appear to be frequenting. My marjoram is blooming, so I have been moving it by the hole with hopes they will stay there. I wish the flowerbeds here were better established and blooming more.
This is a important worldwide issue, and Dahlianut - it will be affecting us all for sure - as you said.
Maybe we can call the thread Pollinator Promotion/Survival or something of most global interest. I'd love to share what I learn - now I'm a pollinator promoter/habitat maintaner.
Thanks redhead. LTitlton do you think that's the place for this thread? I'm asking cuz I don't know. I think it should get exposure to as many members as possible and it doesn't seem to fit into a specific forum.
I don't see why, if it really is of such importance to all aspects of gardening, it couldn't be copied.
Agreed, dahlianut. We are indebted to our pollinators - no matter where we are. Where can we do the most good with our research?
Thanks bookworm. Some (like me) aren't as educated on the scientific side as you. If I hadn't become involved in this thread and a similar thread on the UBC forum I'd probably be lost. Well to be honest I am lost. I'm just aware that its happening: bottom line once there were bees now there's none or very few. Perhaps a more laymans title that every gardener could identify with and then we could have threads for the science/botany and field work like grik is doing and home trials like LTilton was looking into. Thoughts all?
I was just thinking about as much exposure as possible to all DG gardeners LTilton that's all.
Update. thread link gone to Canadian forum, dmail to Alaska and France contacts. I didn't post it on the European forum cuz sometimes 'dahlianut' works against me when popping into a forum on a serious topic. I thought it would be better to be posted by my DG buddy in France who is an active participant in that forum.
I'm confused - this thread is now on the Canadian forum? I'll check it out. After I read the Pollinator Conservation Handbook, I'll post what I learn. I'm still pretty new at this subject.
Here's another potential concern about pollinators.
I'm wondering how many bees are caught in the yellow sticky traps people use for pests. I know that when I used to use the red sphere traps on my apple trees, an occasional bee did get caught - and quite a few wasps. But I suspect that yellow is more likely to catch bees for the same reason it's used to trap pests - the color attracts them.
I was happy to see that there is now a cucumber beetle lure that's sold to be used with the yellow sticky traps, but I hesitate to use it because of the bees.
This is another subject on which I think more information is needed.
This message was edited Jul 26, 2008 8:30 PM
Interesting thought. I'd guess that would be a problem. I've not had to use those in my gardens.
o sorry bookworm. I just put a link to this thread on the Canadian fourm. This thread is still in the Veggie forum where LTilton started it.
Ok - I get it, dahlianut! The pollinator issue is a big one for all of us. I need to stay off DG tomorrow and read the Pollinator Conservation Handbook, so I can report back. It may take a few days... it's not short!
Just posted this on the Canadian Link and thought I'd put it here as well . www.pollinationcanada.ca. We got the info from Seeds of Diversity - this is a project between them and Environment Canada - info on different kinds of pollinators, attracting them, how to make your garden pollinator friendly also info on how to be an observer. Thought it might interest someone.
That's so great growum. Hopefully we will all participate in this program.
