Denise's blog

I know this doesn't have anything to do with bees, but check out this cool article from the 8/28/10 issue of the New York Times:

"Humans and songbirds are the only creatures that automatically feel the beat of a song." 

Ouch

I'd never dream of killing an insect outside, since it's obviously their natural habitat. But when I see spiders or camel crickets or stink bugs inside my house, I'm sorry to say that I have very little tolerance = thwap with a shoe, and they're toast.

I read the coolest article in the July 19th issue of Science News:

Scientists in northern Finland put [really small] radio chips on foraging bees in order to monitor their movements during the 24/7 light of the Arctic summer.  They were wondering if constant daylight would mean that the bee foragers would remain active during the entire 24-hour period.

The tens of thousands of native pollinator species in the U.S. are hard at work, but lots of times growers don't appreciate just how much pollination they perform - free of charge.  Dr. Suzanne Batra, of the USDA's Bee Research Lab in Maryland, conducted a 3-year study to discover the natural mix of bees in a West Virginia forest.  She found that, of the 1,700 bees trapped in the first year of the study, only 34 (2%) were honey bees. 

This means that native bees were performing almost ALL the pollination.

Wow.  My bees are nesting like crazy, taking full advantage of the glorious, sunny weather we've been enjoying in the east.  I've taken literally hundreds of photos, but posted only my favorites in the 2010 Spring Hatch Gallery, so hope you enjoy them.

It's Bee Time!  One of my most favorite times of the year.  I think it's safe to say that, if you live anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains, now is the time to put your bee cocoons out near your clean nesting tubes.  [If you're not sure how to do that, I've posted some pretty explicit instructions on my web site under Beekeeping 101, In Spring.]  My bees started hatching yesterday (northern Virginia) and today it was total, fabulous wilding.  I took a zillion photos [of which I saved about a d

But I've got a really good reason for it! People often ask me why I just don't leave the bees in the bee houses over the winter, as Mother Nature designed, rather than 'babying' them by letting them comfortably hibernate in my temperature-controlled fridge. I think the unseasonably warm temps we've experienced in the eastern half of the country this past week provide a perfect excuse for doing so. Here's why . . .

Yup, I say pollen can be an amazingly interesting thing, not to mention stunningly gorgeous (and no, I have not been drinking).I finally got to read the February issue of National Geographic and the awesome article by Rob Dunn and Martin Oeggerli entitled Love is in the Air. Trust me on this - it is so interesting and the images from a scanning electron microscope of different grains of pollen are so beautiful, you won't be able to put it down! Check it out.

What a wild ride of a winter it's been on the east coast this year, but the snow is quickly melting, daytime temps are edging up towards 50F, and it'll be March in less than one week.  Soon it'll be time for our little native bees to start munching out of their cocoons, so now is the time to prepare for their arrival!  Here are some things I recommend:

I think it's pretty obvious that the main culprit is - drum roll - Chemicals!  Just their names sound evil:  chlorothalonil, mycobutanil, simazine, glyphosate, chlorpyrifos, to name just a few of those that are commonly found in beehives.  In the December, 2009 issue of Bee Culture Magazine (I love to read it, even though it's mostly about honey bees) the Editor, Kim Flottum, writes about the results of a U.