Friday, March 24, 2017

beekeeping tales, 3: the purple deadnettle buffet is open

I'm woefully behind in blogging and have several posts lined up, but today I got sidetracked in the back yard when I noticed a fairly huge group of honey bees foraging the purple deadnettle that has volunteered as our garden ground cover through the winter.

My bees should be here in May but for now I'm thrilled to see honey bees, an assortment of native bees, and at least one ladybug enjoying the feast of nectar and pollen.


Below you can see the red pollen from the purple deadnettle in a nice clump on the bee's head. 


This is my favorite shot. See those tiny grains of pollen? 






I admit it. After bee school and a terrific workshop on natural beekeeping with Michael Bush I'm starting to "bee" smitten! And I passed the written portion of my certified beekeeping exam so am ready to start working on gaining the basic skills for the experiential part of the test. I have the bee suit and now that barn construction is done will be getting my hives situated and ready for the bees.

4 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

Sounds like everything is moving right along. Love the pictures. It won't be long now before the bee project is in full swing. I also can't wait to see the new barn construction.

billie said...

The barn photos are next in line - the construction is done and I have photos for this phase to share soon. Then a final post once we get the spring spruce up painting done. Hope all is good up your way! I've been so busy I don't think I even know what the weather is doing up there from the news.

Matthew said...

Love the pictures of our little visitors!

billie said...

It was fun taking them. It's amazing how well the iPhone did!