Provide A Home For Native Bees

 

 

A great way to attract native bees to your garden (besides planting native plants) is to buy or build a bee house. Secure your bee house to a flat surface. Make sure that it is in a protected area away from high winds. Hole-nesting bees need the house to face the morning sun as it provides warmth and therefore energy to fly.  Remember that most native bees prefer afternoon shade; however, too much shade attracts hole-nesting wasps. For the best results have more than one bee house and face them in slightly different directions.

THE COLOR PURPLE

Guess what are the most likely colors to attract bees? According to scientists, purple, violet and blue. This is probably because a bee's color receptors are ultraviolet, blue and green.

They can also see reddish wavelengths such as yellow and orange, but bees don’t have a red color sensor so they can’t see red light; therefore, what is vivid red to us is unseen by bees!

Add bright white and yellow flowers to a bee’s favorite color list. However, they are less likely to be drawn to light shades of any color, especially pale colors.

To “Bee Sure” which flowers your local bees prefer, ask your local nursery which plants attract the most bees in your climate zone. Most of all, have fun planting beautiful flowers to attract one of nature’s most beneficial insects to your garden!

Photo of bumblebee by Melissa G. Edwards

Fun Facts About Bees

 

A honeybee can fly up to 15 miles per hour.

A pound of honey is made by two million visits to flowers.

A worker bee makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

Bees can see in ultraviolet light.

Bees have five eyes: Two large compound eyes and three small simple eyes called ocelli on top of their heads.

Honeybees have a sense of smell fifty times greater than a dog.

Bees In Winter

 

Unlike other insects in the winter, honeybees don’t hibernate. Instead, they cluster together in a ball, staying awake all winter inside their hive eating honey while “shivering” their flight muscles to keep warm. Native bees' parents don’t survive long enough to overwinter, but the brood cells of larvae metamorphose into adults before winter arrives. The food supply left for them is enough to keep them fed until they hatch as adults in the spring to reproduce again.

Number Four Fact - Bumblebees Aren't Always Yellow And Black!

The No. 4 fact that most people don’t know about bumblebees is that not all of them are just yellow and black. Some bumbles have orange and black stripes, whereas others have white stripes in addition to yellow and black ones. Bumblebees are always fuzzy, so it is easy not to confuse them with carpenter bees that are smooth and shiny. You can see the difference between the two types of bees in the photo above; the shiny black carpenter bee is flying on the right and the fuzzy, striped bumblebee is drinking nectar from a flower on the left.

What's The Buzz? How Bumblebees Pollinate Plants

Bumblebees have a special technique for pollinating flowers.  Number three of one of the ten things that you probably don’t know about bumblebees is that they grab the pollen-producing part of the plant with their jaws while their vibrating wings loosen the trapped pollen. Bumbles are able to perform this task called “buzz pollination” because their wings beat over 130 times per second!

A Talented Illustrator

 I’d like to thank my illustrator, Jonathan Woodward, for his wonderful and whimsical insect illustrations. My book, “Can You See If I’m A Bee?”, couldn’t have won the SF Book Festival award without him. Check out his website to view all of his other captivating illustrations; he also sells books, puzzles, and beautiful calendars at jonathanwoodwardstudio.com.

Book Award

My book, “Can You See If I’m A Bee?”, won the runner-up award for the best children’s picture book in the San Francisco Book Festival Contest. I am honored to win this award, as thousands of authors compete for it. I’m thankful that organizations like this exist as it gives authors the opportunity to get recognition for their hard work. It is nice to know that the judges recognized that bees are endangered and that there needs to be more publicity and education regarding this disturbing fact.

Bumble Bees Are Highly Efficient Pollinators

 

Number two of the ten things that you probably don’t know about bumblebees is that they are native to the United States. They are also more efficient at pollinating flowers than honeybees. Having larger bodies allows them to carry much heavier loads of pollen. Even though they seem to fly much more slowly than their honeybee relatives, they can move more quickly from plant to plant and transfer greater loads of pollen to the flowers that they visit.

The Friendly Bumblebee

 

Today I’m going to start with one of the ten things you probably don’t know about bumblebees: They are fuzzy, friendly bees!

Until about 1910, bumble bees were known as “humble bees”.  I wonder if their original name came from the fact that bumble bees are the gentlest of bees? Generally, they are very docile and don’t form swarms like honeybees. Besides, only female bumble bees have stingers and, because they are so good-natured, it is difficult to make one angry enough to sting you.

To test this theory out, I gently touched a bumble bee while she was hovering and busy pollinating flowers in my garden. (I don’t recommend that anyone allergic to bee stings try this!)  A light touch didn’t seem to threaten or make her angry, which goes to show how amiable bumble bees are towards humans. However, I wouldn’t do this near her home, as she will be aggressive towards someone who is threatening her nest. More interesting information about bumblebees will be in my next blog. 

 

May 20^th is World Bee Day! This international day celebrates bees and acknowledges their significant role as pollinators for our ecosystem. Bees are responsible for pollinating three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants as well as most of our food crops. So today, don’t take these small creatures for granted but give thanks to what they do for you and the rest of humankind!

Happy Earth Day - Plant Milkweed for Monarchs!

 

Happy Earth Day! One way to help Mother Earth is to plant native milkweed. Once planted, monarch butterflies will lay their eggs and soon you’ll discover caterpillars eating the leaves. Don’t worry, the caterpillars pupate and before they hatch, the milkweed grows back in time for the mature monarch butterflies to feed on the flowers’ nectar. Adult butterflies lay their eggs and the circle of life begins again!

Earth Month - April 2023

Happy Earth Month, April 2023. Do your part to help our planet thrive by helping our Earth’s pollinators! Support science-based groups like the Pollinator Partnership that promote practical ways to help pollinators in trouble through conservation, education, and research.

Munching Monarchs

 

Monarch caterpillars are voracious eaters because it is during their larval stage that Monarchs do all their growing. They even eat their shell after they hatch and their molted (shedded) skin as they grow! Look at the mini monarch caterpillar near his giant friend who shows how large they must become before they pupate and hatch as bright orange and black butterflies who are great garden pollinators!

Do Bees Hibernate In Winter?

No, although they stay in the hive as much as possible and eat honey stored for the winter. 

The female worker bees form a large cluster and vibrate their bodies to generate heat to stay warm. The fortunate queen bee is in the center where the temperature is warmer than the outside of the cluster – an advantage to “bee-ing” royalty!

Bees Buzz Over Rosemary

 

Bees adore rosemary, but who wouldn’t? With its fragrant needle-like leaves and flowers rich in nectar, this evergreen plant has white, pink, purple, or, most commonly, blue flowers. It has a long blooming period, spring through summer or sometimes late winter. So go ahead and add rosemary to your garden and watch the bees buzz!

Hummingbirds Pollinate Plants too!

Hummingbirds make fantastic pollinators because they feed so frequently. They visit up to 2,000 flowers a day. With their needle-like bill and long, forked tongues, hummingbirds can lick nectar and draw it up into their throats. Pollen gets stuck to their beaks and heads and is transferred from one flower to the next, aiding in plant propagation. Attract hummingbirds to your garden with plants that have brightly colored, tubular-shaped flowers, such as these natives: Salvia, Penstemon, Firebush, Honeysuckle and Carolina Jessamine. (Hummingbird photo by Dulcey Lima).

Nectar Robbers

 

Theft isn’t limited to our society; crime also exists in the world of bees in the form of nectar robbing. Carpenter and bumble bees are the most common thieves in this respect as they sometimes find themselves too big to fit inside tubular-shaped flowers. When this happens, a bee will bite the base of a petal and insert its tongue (proboscis) to drink the nectar. Scientists call this “robbing the nectar” because these clever insects are “cheating” pollination. But who can blame a hungry bee for performing this ingenious maneuver?

Do Bees Sleep?

 Bees need to rest and sleep at night just like we do! Male bees find a cozy flower to rest on since they don’t have a nest for a home. They hold on to flowers with their mandibles or legs and stay there overnight. You might be lucky enough to catch a bee sleeping on a flower if you take an early morning walk in your garden. A bumblebee sleeping on a daisy-like flower called Gaillardia or blanket flower. 

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