got the little bee at last!!!

Well done on this buzzy pic :o)

lol took abotut twenty pics, this is the only one the I can defintely say has a bee in it!

prob is, i mostly have peripheral vision. while they're flying, i can hear them and catch movement out of the corner of my eye. when they settle, no sound and no movement!

i always thought bees were stripier than this, if it hadn't been for the pollen baskets I'd hae thought I'd got something else . so maybe the "what is this?" pic that I posted was a bee as well

Bees vary ... some bumble bees have very obvious stripes.

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/photo-gallery/1

thanks dear, will buzz over there immediately *s*

great picture well done:)))))

thanks Mark. it was ery much more by luck than judgement: I only have periperal vision, and hearing, so I can hear the m buzzing and see the moemetn from the corner of my eye. but when they settle, no sound and no movement! so i have to sor of aim where i think the sound last came from - and when I've got the pictures on my pc, I have to zoom in and check them layer by layer to see if I can find the bee that I'm pretty sure is there.

Lol maybe I'll do a "spot the bee" contest!

Triumph at last Fran. Iv'e seen quite a lot of black furry bee bottoms sticking out of flowers so far this year. Must be a good black bottom bee year. My pears and one apple are straggling into blossom and not too many bees about. Have to get the cobweb brush out and tickle em up a bit. The petals on the flower are splendidly sharp too. A lovely blue sky morning here in Essex. My trees have been pruned at last as arranged some time ago.

lol indeed, Dorjac - I think I can retire now, I doubt I'll ever get a pic better than this - so close-up and so clear. Doubt that'll stop me trying to match it, at least.

I heard two or three bees around my Quince the other day, couldn't manage to find any of them enough to snap, but at least they're about. And this morning I saw a bee around the primroses - I was about six feet away and actually saw it, so it must have been a pretty big one. Of course, the buzzing helped!

Cobweb brush? a paintbrush? do you have to pillinate that way? (lol don't mean you getitng pollintated!)

Do you have pics of the pruning before and after?

Lovely photo Fran and she's been working hard with those full pollen sacks. I've looked at my pocket guide to Bumblebees, and she could be a member of the Cuckoo bee family. They have a few bands at the back with not a lot of colour.

Thanks, Linda, that's very helpful. Terratoonie kindly gave a link to a bee site, but I was still having probs matching the exact type; so many variations on a theme, even within a single species!

The queens are working hard at the moment building up their nests and laying eggs to get the workers going to bring in more food for more larva to be fed. They are only small colonies. I used to keep bees but they were very large colonies of honey bees and lived in hives. These usually live in holes in banks or under hedgerows.

I would sort of love to have a hive (sort of = would probably be too scared to go near it!) A bee home is different; they can do their own thing in their own way - the actual "looking-after" bit seems to be hard work, with all the protective clothing, and the equipment, expecially if you're as short-sighted as me!) but mmmm, fresh honey ...

I'll have to check the Bee website to findo ut how much pollen a bee can carry, relative to her body weight - those wings don't look big enough to support even the bee, let alone a load of shopping!

I really enjoyed having two hives of bees Fran and the honey was lovely. I used it in my cooking instead of sugar. I made wax candles as well from the scrapings from the frames after taking the honey. There is quite a bit to learn about the hive, what to do when and looking for bee diseases, taking swarms when they appear etc, but you get used to it. I read books and joined a bee keeping group to get started and they are always there to listen and give advice if you aren't sure about anything. Gerry's uncle kept bees and gave us our first colony of bees and hive. I kept them for nearly 30 years. Had to give up as Gerry became allergic to the stings. He used to help me out sometimes especially at harvesting the honey as the frames were quite a weight to bring back to the house.

Really interesting Lindak. There's a lot to bee keeping I think. Swarms would worry me. I suppose it depends where they settle down. Last year there was a colony of some sort of wasp or bee going in a hole in the soffit board. Waited until February as advised by the local beeman and then taped it up in March. Fingers crossed. At least you now have a bee name Fran.....the value of GoY. The cobweb brush is an ancient delicately bristled screw on an extended pole thingy. Ideal for pollinating or even pollintating(like this better than the usual spelling). Epecially the apple trees.

That’s fascinating, Linda, I’d forgotten about the wax – making one’s own beeswax candles, another whole new art!

How much yield of each did you get? Do you still have them? And, lol, did you “tell the bees” when anything happened?

There’s a lot to learn about what to do, and (I should imagine) an even bigger list of what NOT to do – so many things one could do wrong, but that applies to learning any new skill.

My vision adds another level of problem: I think I’ll look to see if there’s any local group to link up with, to look from the outside, as it were.

I remember you saying about the stray swarm, Dorjac. Wasps are another thing altogether! Fingers crossed here, too, that they don’t try again this year. I know that some wasps are also useful to the gardener, but they’re usually better at a distance.

Oh, GoY is fantastic (and GoYers, too!). I don’t know where I’d be now without it – no one to share triumphs and troubles, no valuable advice or information, no inspiration or encouragement.

Hand-pollination sounds hard work, even with an extendable pole! I’ve seen “self-pollinating” apple trees advertised, not sure how “self” they’d be without bees.

Gerry uses one of my soft artist brushes to pollinate the tomato plants in the greenhouse with at this time of year.
Wasps can sting and sting again...horrible little beasts, as they have a straight stinger, whereas the bees can only sting once with great reluctance as they lose their lives. Their stinger in curled. Wasps do a good job of ridding the garden of small caterpillars and small pests as they take it back to their nests to feed their young with. We used to get between 40 and 70 jars of honey from the two hives. I used to take the swarms. A white cloth was laid underneath them with a box containing drawn comb frames, use to smoker across gently then knock them on to the cloth. usually the queen went in and the rest would follow. Only once it started to rain and they got upset with me but I carried on and got them boxed ready to site for the hive.

Fascinating Lindak. I always think of beekeeping as a real long time domestic art. Lots of skill and knowledge, long time garnered to back it all up. What a shame your husband became allergic to bee stings. Fran I took a look at the pears to see how many had 'taken' by the swelling at the stalk end and they do seem to have been pollinated pretty well, so apologies to the bees and other insects! So I will reserve the cobweb brush for the apples, if needed later. I saw the Channel 9 programme on Botany last night at Nine. Well worth a look Fran on iplayer. Another next week.

Wow, Linda! I don’t know what I’d do with 40+ jars of honey – maybe I could start with a bijou hive-ette and work up!

I was surprised to learn that some bees have “repeat stings” – Wiki is a mine of information on both bees and wasps.

Thanks, Dorjac, I’ll check that out – there is a downside to not watching TV, but with so many channels there’s a chance I’d have missed it anyway.