So, are the Bees back? Bee Watch Thread.

The past few days sitting in my backyard, I notice that I am surrounded by bees.
BIG Bees!
Everywhere I look, I see bees.

I am on the East coast of Canada.

Some of them have orange butts, or should I say orange hairs on their abdomens, all the other ones are your typical black and orange types.

A personal note of interest; bees as big as they are require a lot of thrust to fly, it's interesting to see how the grasses and leaves blow around as a bee flies over them, like a helicopter.

Bees are our friends, like them and Earthworms we'd be dead without them, yet they would do fine without us, but then again us humans do breed a lot of bees, and worms.

Nice to see a lot of bees!

How is your bee observations coming along?

I'm in the Highlands of Scotland, and we've had LOADS!! The biggest bees I can ever remember seeing, and maybe as many as 5 or 6 a day finding their way into the house. This has lessened recently though, but about 2 weeks ago, they were driving me nuts. We get the ones with the red bums too, but the ones I've been seeing this year are all black and yellow stripes.

Ive certainly noticed more so far this season in oregon than I have in the past couple of years.

I also hae noticed that they seem bigger this year than when I saw them in abundance a few years back. I wonder if it relates to controlled breeding of them, or if we are just seeing a progression thanks to a couple years of near "dormancy", for lack of a better word.

I am in Europe and haven't seen a lot of bees.

But I have seen more bumblebees this year.

i saw a bee yesterday and thought to myself wow now thats rare lmao then whilst i was running in my garage i saw another 4 fly by and my mind started to think there back, they are after for eating their honey
Sorry

lol anyway its good to see they are back.

high 5 bees

I'm in Florida and have seen exactly 2 bees this year.
They look like regular bees.
I'm just hoping that they are not the African Bees.
When they come around I'll have to cut down all my flowering trees.

Ridiculously few here in South Texas but then again they are spraying the cotton fields almost weekly for "weevils" and no doubt have all but pushed them to extinction.
Very,very,few for Spring.

West coast of US here.
I have still seen large ammounts of dead bees ever since this thing started. I do not think that we would be "dead" without them i really think that everyone would be okay. But i would hate to see them go.

Hey its good they seem to be coming back in places,

Although some of the "farmers" if you can actually farm bees lol are still saying this year looks back with colony collapse disorder.

I am sure you will all find this interesting:Disappearing Bees Threads Index-All you want to know about the Bee situation

Really hope to update it soon.

Busy as a Bee no time lol at end of day.

Kind Regards,

Elf.

N/E Arizona.

About ten days back, a large swarm of honeybee's was removed from a house in the city.


I'm seeing more individual bee's, black and yellow ones, typical of the usual Arizona and California honeybee's.


I drive a roadster with canvas top and no side windows.
Airflow tends to pull insects in when they just miss the windshield posts.

It's common to have a slightly injured - or worse - bee walking around on the floor or seat of the car.

Typical too is the clear "splat" (for want of a better word) against the flat windshield which is typical of a bee to windshield hit.

Getting more of these this spring than last.

I have seen a good few here in London, So i took some piccys of these wonderfull things.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/de1f1178f7a6.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/67dd74cb8762.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by asala


Cool excellent Pics Asala,

I try and encourage people to plant flowers they like, to increase both Fauna and Flora diversity and spreading through pollination, to help keep our old knowledge alive, and the help the lovely bees, and therefore most of life, a good resource is below:

In the US:

What types of bees do you see in your garden? At first glance you may observe some honeybees ducking in and out of flowers, perhaps a bumblebee or two. Did you know that there are actually 81 known species of bees in urban Berkeley alone?

Berkeley Edu Bee Friendly Gardens How To

In the UK:

Most double flowers are of little use, because they're too elaborate. Some are bred without male and female parts, while others have so many petals bees can't get to the nectar and pollen to collect it. This is the main reason why single dahlias are popular with many bees, while doubles are usually ignored.

Gardeners World BBC Flowers for Bees

And I tried to get the "queen bee" lol to join ATS and help out when all this started, but I dont think she wanted to be associated with ATS, but this is an AMAZING site with a very very expert lady of Bee Hall lol in charge:

Bumblebee.Org Everything You could Ever Want to Know About Bees

And her region flower lists, for Europe:

Europe Bee Flower List

Plant away guys please!

Oh and as I quoted in one thread about them, and it is an fact

About 40% of the worlds tomatoes are pollinated by the vibrationary embrace and dance of bees making love

So about 50% of every tomato eaten in the world only came to be as two lovely bees, got together, danced and vibrated their wings and feet in a certain way....Its in the Bees Index somewhere lol.

Honey is cool,
Honey is good,
Give your Kids some Honey today,
Its So tasty and sweet,
And is good for their tummy,
Those E numbers and Sacharins will just make them run around in circles and go funny! lol

Kind Regards

Elf

[edit on 20-5-2009 by MischeviousElf]

I'm in East Texas and have been painting my house this week.
I have mature holly hedges and huge magnolia trees along with other flowering plants. The bees are here from sun up to sun down. Quite a few of them. I get buzzed once in a while, but no stings. They are pretty calm.
They seem happy and industrious to me.

reply to post by asala


I have to tell you, those pics totally blessed me!!! What a beautiful little creature, and you have quite the eye!! Thank you so much for sharing these!!!

reply to post by asala


Me too, I've noticed them more this year than last year.

Good sign right?

I am in Ontario, Canada
I have seen quite a few bees here
The black and yellow ones
They havnt stung me or anyone I know yet, just buzzing around
and doing their thing.
I really like bees, I think they are quite facinating!

I've seen tons of them around my house so far this year, and yes, some of them are huge and have alot of orange on them. They are 2-3 inches long. Flying all around the house looking for a place to build hives. I've gotten rid of three wasps nests in the last week.

I have seen some really big bees this year, bigger and more of them then I recall in previous years. I am near Toronto in Canada. Weird thing is some of the really big ones I have seen have big black shiny bottoms.

My daughter was looking out the back window today and one came barreling into the window and scared the crap out of her.

On the other hand I am seeing less wasps which I normally see tons of.

we have these super tall "tower of jewels" plants out here that produce a billion little blue flowers and i've seen quite a few bee's enjoying them so far this spring.
i also planted a ton of wild flower mix that specifically draws bees and hummingbirds.

can't wait for them to bloom!
nice to see the bees back in action!

[edit on 5/20/2009 by zooplancton]

Kent England here... Seen a few Bees flying around.

About 2 weeks ago i was visiting my mum (who lives in Essex) and found a Bee on her garden path walking around in circles. I watched it for about 5 minutes to see if it would take off. Its wings were not moving and it looked sluggish. Not sure if it’s related to the Bee's vanishing but it did make me think.

Actually, now i think about it again, it reminded me of when my Nan would spray a fly with fly killer. The fly would drop to the floor and walk around a bit confused before kicking the bucket. Hmmm...

And for the record... I NEVER use fly killer... but back in the 70's it was the norm.