Help the Honey Bees

“Clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees.”

- Leaked EPA Document, November 2, 2010
We SFGers need our bees find out more. Our poor honey bees need all the help they can get. How many honey bees have you seen this year so far?

This pesticide is sold and known as Poncho and manufactured by Bayer. Poncho info Clothianidin has been banned in Germany since 2008 and is suspected to be a contributor to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The estimated losses of colonies this year is greater than 40%. Please read and follow all label instructions.

Clothianidin is also in some inocculents, mainly corn, read your ingredients. It transfers through the plant to the bee when they come get the pollen. Very unlikely it is in small gardeners innoculents, but check anyway.

It also persists and acummulates in the soil. Very bad stuff, needs to be banned here as well.

Have you seen any honey bees? I have only seen bumble bees so far this year. that's me looking for honey bees.

We have some, but we bought a hive, then hubby started getting calls to remove hives in barns, trees, and houses, we currently have 3 on our property and 2 elsewhere. The ones he extracts are going to his dads, the ones he buys can stay here, and I don't want more than 2 on our 1 acre. We want them for the garden, but not too many, and we have goats, are getting chickens, and rabbits. Both of my parents are allergic, dad deathly so, and I am allergic to red wasps (not deathly, just swells up pretty bad and cannot use that arm or leg for 2-3 days) so I am cautious of the bees. My dad was not allergic as a kid and developed the allergy over the years.

On a slightly different note, I was stung by a wasp the other day, darn thing just flew into the back of my arm, and on day 2 it was swollen (huge) tight and itched like crazy. I could use that arm, but not much, my elbow and wrist hurt, but not my shoulder, I also had fever in it. On day 3 I washed it with goats milk soap, put some anti-itch cream on it, and took my benadryl, within 18 hours the fever was gone. The only thing in my routine for caring for the sting was the goats milk soap. It immediately took the itch out. If you get the chance to get some goats milk soap, get it and add it to your arsenal for first aid. Do I really know for sure it was the soap, no, do I care, no.

It is 25F here this morning but the forecast is for temps in the 50s today. There are no blossoms out yet so if the bees fly today they will be looking for early pollen from trees. I have not yet seen any feral bees out and about. I did go to a beekeepers club meeting the other night and the members as a whole probably lost about 40% of their colonies this past winter, which was long and cold.
Last year I saw few honey bees here in my yard, I had lots of bumbles and a few masons were noted.

Still no honey bees here even though the weather is fine. Thanks for the GM soap tip Val.

Was out admiring the Crocus's yesterday afternoon and saw about a dozen honey bees flitting from flower to flower... cute little guys. Last year was the first year I had seen them in quite a while, so hopefully there is a nice hive nearby.

Mark

That is good news.

I've got a few honey bees flying around but not many. In my area, you aren't going to see honey bees unless you live within several miles of someone who raises them. Even then they have to find you first.

I have bumble bees and carpenter bees though and they are zipping around my azalea and holly bushes and dogwood and red bub trees!

I used to see them all the time in AK growing up and not a person around me had a hive. Here in FL. there are many more bee keepers but I have only seen bumbles and carpender bees the last 4 years with one or 2 honey bees per season.

My hubby is extremely allergic to them so although I loooove growing those giant sunflowers I have been torn between maybe just ONE little giant sunflower or my DH....some days it's a tough call

I've got 'em .... and probably enough for all of you

So far our encounters have been friendly & amicable, since they have the day shift & I have the night shift, so we only cross paths at sunrise.

Usually when the plants start buzzing at me, I know it's time to get a shower and head out for work.

I just hope they don't start working nights !!

Seriously though, I've always had bee's (cute little brown/yellow), but this year I've got these fluffy black/gold steroid bee's that look like they weigh a half-pound each.

Not sure what I'm doing different ....but the bee's are no joke this year.

Do they look like they are wearing little black biker jackets? Those are carpenter bees. Mostly harmless. They are the most popular here. I talk as much to them as I do my plants.

At a gardening meeting over the weekend they talked about carpenter bees, and how social they are - they referred to them as being like dogs. You can even name them. They said the carpenter bees seem to like human company.

I don't know that I've ever seen one, but if I do, I'm calling him Max.

I finally saw one of hubby's honey bees in the garden yesterday, it was hovering over the radishes that really need to come up, but I promised my grandson he could pull them, he'll be here this weekend. Anyway, it was pretty cool to see it out there, the only thing blooming is my 2 chives plants, but they were checking out the area.

NHGardener wrote:I don't know that I've ever seen one, but if I do, I'm calling him Max.

Alas, that's how it starts ....

You start namings small insects ....

Then the next thing you know your naming the plants ....

Suddenly you wake up one morning, only to realize that you've hit rock bottom .... and started naming the statuary .....





It's really a pitiful downward spiral ...... save yourself the pain & suffering and "just say no" to naming small insects that visit you in the garden....... it ends badly

NHGardener wrote:

I don't know that I've ever seen one, but if I do, I'm calling him Max.

I'm going to have to google image search bees because to be honest, I'm not sure I know the difference between any of them. The only one I know for sure is the carpenter bee because I always used to see them coming out of their little holes they put all over my fence. jerks

Glendale-gardener wrote:I'm going to have to google image search bees because to be honest, I'm not sure I know the difference between any of them.

Same here.

okay, I did that and decided it's probably been years since I've since an actual honey bee outside of the zoo. I see lots of carpenter bees, bumble bees, and paper wasps. And the occasional yellow jacket.

I call the carpenter bees, bully bees because they zoom over and get right in front of my face and stare me down. They are like bullies it is all about the intimadation. I am alittle afraid of bees anyway so I just keep saying to myself "they just buzz, they just buzz,..."

Shannon - they're just coming over to say Hi!