The good swarm
I discovered an unexpected benefit to negligence when a very large swarm found some of my equipment sitting around unoccupied. The hive bodies stacked in my yard awaiting a fresh […]
Category Archives: What’s blooming?
Flying at last!
Yesterday’s mild temperatures saw the first bee flights in my valley for many days. I also saw my first bumblebee queens of the year–two separate species right on this colony’s […]
What’s Blooming, October 2, 2016
This week we are fortunate to have a special guest writer, pollinator enthusiast Anne Schatz, contributing to the bloom record. Anne has been a Master Gardener since 2008. She is […]
What’s Blooming? September 15, 2016
It’s really satisfying to the gardener in me to have planted a plot that is buzzing with bees in mid-September. In spite of light frosts and our normal late-summer drought, […]
Fun with Queens
In the course of making my inspections over the past couple of weeks, I noted that my largest, strongest colonies still had significant drone populations. In my little valley, we […]
What’s blooming? July 22, 2016
I spent the week participating in a really inspiring workshop put on by the dedicated folks at Lane County’s School Garden Project. Our group visited the Camas Ridge Elementary School garden, […]
Beautifully diverse
This gorgeous pollen palette attests to the amazing diversity of plants blooming right now. Blackberries, cascara, bread seed poppies, roses, black locust, Dutch clover, vetch, borage, spurge, and chives are […]
