Confused bees

The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.

- Elizabeth Lawrence

In June, this forest of tall allium flowers is a wonderful bee attractant. But even on the warm days last weekend, it seemed to us there were fewer bees than usual. A posting from the Northwest nature blog Field Notes explained how this long, cold spring may have confused the bumblebees.

The biggest, fattest bumblebees we see now are queens just out of winter hibernation. They hover along the ground because they are searching for a new nest site. Some of them are waking up late this year because of the cold weather, while the other hardier queens have already gone out and established their nests. The smaller bumblebees collecting pollen are workers from this earlier hatch. Apparently it's unusual to have workers and queens out and about at the same time. I suppose it will even out in the end. Once the queen has hatched sufficient workers to collect food for her larvae, she will put her feet up (so to speak) and never leave the nest again.




The plums and apples we take for granted don't just "appear" like magic, and this will not surprise anyone who knows the basic facts of life. Unless there are other orchard trees blooming nearby and helpful insects to cross-pollinate in the spring, there will be no fruit. This becomes a problem in the big city, where few people bother with messy fruit trees anymore and often spray pesticide around, killing bees and other hapless creatures.

We're lucky, because our neighbor in the next block has an Italian plum just like ours. He happens to be a nice man named Bill, who also happens to be Tom's brother and Amanda's brother-in-law. So the bees and plums are all in the family, so to speak.

I took this picture yesterday. When our trees bloomed back in March, it was cold and wet. These flowers are not pollinated so almost all of them turned brown and dry and fell off, instead of forming adorable, baby green fruit buds.

All is not lost. Many people still care about bees and other useful insects. Of course honey does not come from bumble bees, but there are other types hives tucked away in the city. I have an old friend who lives on a secluded lot in West Seattle, and he carefully cultivates a hive of honeybees. And at Christmas, he generously shares delicious jars of local honey from this urban hive: