It's thriving! I have no clue how many bees are in this particular nest, but it must be plenty. I can't imagine it's the only nest of it's kind in the gardens, just the only one I'm aware of.
They are clever little gals. A couple of weeks ago I saw that the daffodil blades were pretty toasted and gave the access hole very little shade.
So they built their own! Look at the little grass thatch they wove over their door.
Eventually, with wind and weather the roof fell in. No problem for these girls.They just built another.
That side of the stump bed is quite the production. Every now and then I'll see new air tunnels open (or close). The grass mulch gets re-arranged. And there are bees flying in and out all day long.I can't even estimate how many of this type of bee are on the blooms this year. Hundreds and hundreds. It's gotta be the many plantings of agastache this year (more on my Flower page). There's not one bed that doesn't have it's share of busy bees.
Up on the deck there are regular patrols on the many coleus blooms.
There's even a big container of agastache. I love sitting there in the a.m., me with my pot of coffee, they with their pot of agastache.
We both get on our morning buzz. :-D
Love your bee stories; I don't know much about them. I did check this morning and the large bees I am seeing do not have fuzzy butts.
ReplyDeleteI do know I used to see piles of sawdust in one of the open sheds in the yard....haven't checked there lately.
Glenda - yep, definitely carpenter bees. They dig long tunnels in wood, then lay an egg, plug it with pollen, lay another, etc. etc. Then next year they hatch one at a time (closest to the entry hole then further back) and fly out. They can do some serious structural damage - like my poor shed. Carpenter bees are no longer welcome in my gardens.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise they are harmless, don't have stingers and are good pollinators for larger blossoms. I'm going to put flashing on the shed so they can't dig anymore. I just have to make sure all last year's eggs have hatched and there are no new eggs for next year.
Hey, this is almost a post in itself. LOL
Kris, come rescue me! I have a beehive on one of the low trees (I mean very low) in my garden! Help! What should I do with it??? (See my blog).
ReplyDeleteThanks.
That's awesome...so cute! I agree about the Agastache...I've never seen bees go crazy after a plant as much as they do my Agastache...particularly the blue-ish ones (Golden Jubilee, Black Adder, Blue Fortune) I love getting up early in the morning to catch the bumblebees napping on the plants.
ReplyDeleteGreetings, Scott. Yeah, it's almost unreal how they swarm those blue flowers. I've noticed that the Golden Jubilee seems to attract more honeybees than the lavender agastache. You'd think the blooms were identical, but I guess not to the bees. Glad your garden is buzzing! :-D
ReplyDelete