Honeybees in January?
The temperature was in the mid 60's again today as it has been for the previous two days. I noticed a couple of honeybees yesterday on the camellia flowers and again today. I guess the unseasonable warmth brought them out of hibernation and into a foraging mode only to find very few flowers blooming at this time of the year.
I had to lighten the photo to be able to see the bee in the dark interior of the flower so the color of the petals are washed out.
posted by Ki at
5:59 PM
7 Comments:
You captured that bee beautifully, Ki! I've seen bees and butterflies on warm days here no matter what the month, but haven't the technology or skill to prove it ;-]
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
[The verification word is 'akuui'... sounds kind of Hawaiian, doesn't it?]
Hi Annie,
Actually the bees were so intent in gathering honey that the closeness of the camera did not deter them from their industry which made the photography pretty easy. Unfortunately the flowers that were blooming were in a dark spot and the yellow of the bees blended almost perfectly with the color of the stamens ...so the overblown light areas. Indeed the word verification does sound Hawaiian. Still working on trying to get IE to display the page. :(
Must be nice; our hellebores are under so much snow and ice, I wonder if I'll ever see them again. Something I've always wondered about is that every year I see lots of honeybees in the very early spring in the garden, then they disappear and all I see is bumblebees and yellowjackets.
Don
Hi Don,
Several years ago we rarely saw honeybees but they seem to have made a comeback. Like you we saw one or two bees in the spring but last year we saw honeybees all year. Even the bumblebees, wasps and native bees seemed to be more abundant than usual.
We've had a very mild but wet winter. Only a dusting of snow so far but up to 2" is forecasted (or not)for Monday. In fact it been so mild the tulips and crocuses are starting to come up.
It's a lovely change to see a bee - at least the Camellia has lots of pollen to enjoy.
I dearly want a Camellia!!
Hi Kate,
I don't know how feasible it is but maybe your next project would be to build a small greenhouse as an extension to your home so it gets some heat from the shared wall with the house as well as heat from sunlight. If you build it with a concrete floor painted black to act as a heat sink or some rain barrels to absorb heat during the day and release it at night you may be able to moderate the temps enough to grow Camellias. :) Seems like a lot of work though but you could grow a lot of other plants too.
Oops, sorry, going off the deep end in the winter gloom.
It was quite amazing that the bees seem to prefer the shriveled or stunted flowers rather than the newly opened fresh looking ones.
Maybe it's a moth.
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