Honeybees and Ladybugs

[chrysanthemum]

The last several days when I’ve been in my garden in the late afternoon, I’ve been astounded by the amount of bee activity in my little asparagus patch.  I’m not sure if the species is a honeybee, but that’s what they remind me of.  I notice them first because of the buzzing when I’m nearby, but then I just watch as the work so avidly on the little bell-shaped flowers.  I wasn’t able to capture great pictures because by the time I was focusing, they were moving on, but here are a couple of shots I took yesterday as they were finishing up for the day.









Today when I was walking around in the garden, I noticed a Ladybug on my potatoes.  At first I wasn’t sure what it was, but when I got a good view, I was delighted to see the spots.  (I can’t see the order of the pictures, so I hope that the first three are bees, and the last is a ladybug.)




I thought I’d also include in this post a helpful blog post by an entomologist who gives some good pointers on distinguishing helpful and harmful garden insects.

laidbackgardener.blog/2016/06/09/friend-or-foe-a-closer-look-at-insects/

[heavyhitterokra]

George and I just caught a swarm of bees out beside the garden, yesterday afternoon. I think it was the largest swarm I've ever encountered. It's hard to imagine there are any bees left in the hive where they split off from.
These were so close to the ground that I thought they would be hard to box up.

They decided to land in a pile of surplus tomato cages, so it looked way worse than it really was.

the first thing we did was decide we needed to move the pile of tomato cages so we could get to the swarm.  While doing that, we accidentally bumped them and they all fell off on the ground.

George just sat the Nuc on the ground nearby and I shook a few bees off inside it.  Once they got started, all the bees marched right inside.  All George and I had to do was stand back and watch them go. 




It took all night and half the next day for all of them to find their way in, but all we had to do was wait patiently, then come back later to put the lid on top. 

[macmex]

Chrysanthemum, 

Yes, those are European honeybees on your asparagus. My asparagus is only just starting to come up, so it shows what a large difference there is between your location and ours. Here, I'm seeing lots of flowering with redbuds, which are about to start waning. There are wild plum, apple and pears blooming. The bees are still working dead nettle and henbit too.

Bon, I think we missed a freeze this morning. Jerreth and I spent much of yesterday at a wedding. We got home late and I did remember to make sure the heater in the greenhouse was on. But in the dark, I forgot that I had left all my tomato seedlings outside. Woke up with a start this morning, remembering them, and went right out. Though the internet reports 36 F. it didn't feel even close to frosting. It could still dip a bit before sunrise, but I put the plants back in the greenhouse, where it was 51 F.

[john]

Ron what a massive swarm! I tried bee keeping a few years ago and the first year I was doing very well and they swarmed on me, pretty much leaving me with an empty hive. I tried them again the next year and they didn't make it through the winter. I gave up after that. It is good you have a friend like George who knows about beekeeping and can assist you.
Nice pictures Chrysanthemum, I am still waiting for my first spear of asparagus here in the northeast.

[chrysanthemum]

That is a massive swarm of honeybees.

Thanks for the confirmation of the identity of my bee, Macmex.  I appreciate it.

Can bees get nectar from dead flowers?  I wondered after our big freeze in February because it killed off a lot of buds and blooms.  A few days later my dead peach blossoms were buzzing with bees.  I tried to google it, but didn’t find an answer to that specific question.

We have two types of asparagus in our one bed devoted to it.  We just planted it in February of 2020, so we haven’t harvested any except for one shoot that popped up in early February.  We knew it would die with the big freeze coming, so I broke it off before it got too big, and each of the six of us got one bite.  The next shoots came up toward the end of February.  They are a positive forest now.  The purple variety has been slower to emerge and is thinner overall, but it is ferning and flowering as well, and the bees are enjoying it, too.