Posted on 05/07/2013 8:16:38 PM PDT by Veggie Todd
If you want bees, plant some Mexican Heather. If none show up, you're in trouble.
Yes, I am suspecting the temperatures.
We have had warm days, but very cold days followed them.
We had a little frost after the 1st of May. My father is 87 and never remembers a freeze in May. (this was light frost, not a hard freeze)
“If you want bees, plant some Mexican Heather. If none show up, you’re in trouble.”
This is great advice! I noticed this a few years ago, and just today I planted some Mexican Heather around my garden. Within ten minutes a half dozen or so bees and a butterfly were present.
Thanks
Kidney cleaner - Pis-en-lit. The entire flower is useful. Leaves for salad or tea, flowers for wine. I'm sure the root is healthy too.
Dandelions are so cheerful! I have an entire field of them. Neighbors frown upon that.
Yes, less birds also.
I bought 50 lbs less bird seeds this past winter and have about 5 lbs of thistle seed left. I refilled that feeder only once.
I thought that had this blamed on a virus and a fungus last year.
We had a frost May 4 as well. Prior latest frost my 78yr old dad could remember was sometime in mid April. And that one was regarded as highly unusual. I was so glad we hadn’t set out any tender annual stuff yet. Or planted anything that needs warm soil. Like corn or peanuts.
Dad has bees because a good friend of his is a beekeeper and has 200-300 hives scattered about in that locality. I’ll have to ask if he’s had a problem this year. He keeps a hive at my parents because they have a lot of blueberries, pears, blackberries and the like that bloom early. Frost followed by a heavy freeze got a lot of the blueberries this year so maybe there are fewer bees because of fewer things to feed them when they woke up.
Looks like the midwest and upstate penn and ny will have a potentially record breaking freeze this weekend or early next week. I’ve heard that might be devastating for their fruit trees as well.
Poor bees.
I’m not to worried, a hive moved into our garage last year about 10 feet from our garden. I keep an eye on them when I’m out there and they are, so to say, “busy bees”. In and out with lots of pollen. We’re in town away from agri-chems.
Honey bees are not native to North America.
They SHOULD be eradicated!
(Hope everyone knows I left off a /SARC tag...)
Let me send you some of the moles from my yard, then you will forget about your grass problem.
Those bees are most likely trucked in for pollination. When they are take back to their fall and winter apiaries the beekeeper experiences at least a 30% hive loss. Here in Ohio it is more like 50% for many. My best friend lost 12 out of 12 hives.
I lost 10 out of 12 hives after feeding them extra sugar water, treating for mites and other attempts to keep them alive.
This is a pretty big deal
Most folks think it is the neonicitinoids and systemic insecticides that are causing much of the problem. Add to that long winters, delayed springs and the varroa mite.
I thought this was tracked down to genetically modified plants modified to produce their own pesticides. It kills the pests dead and oops...the BEES...
Also, it is not just honeybees. Bumblebees and other pollinating insects are being affected also. A number of varieties of bumblebees are suffering huge losses.
Bees may be the canaries in our coal mines. If systemic insecticides are causing problems for them, what happens if we ingest the same systemics? I am far from a tree hugger, but I do worry a bit.
The forces of nature are pretty amazing. We are still suffering from the worst drought in 120 years, 2 years in a row with record low rainfall and extreme heat. Now the temps are way below normal for the spring,
Most farmers/ranchers have sold their cattle. We sold all of ours 2 years ago and have not restocked because of poor winter grazing. I have not seen a stat on how low the cattle herds in Texas are, but it must be less than 25% of what it was 3 years ago.
The same thing is happening with wildlife. Quail population is very very low. But I recently seen signs of resurgence. I saw a pair that hangs around our orchard and another where we go into the pasture across the road from my home at the farm (son lives there). We have not shot a quail in several years. Normally we have many large coveys. Have not seen the number of rabbit that we normally have.
But not all wildlife seems so depressed. The middle eastern dove seem to be doing very well.
My hives are going nuts
I need more bees for my fruit trees. Amazing little creatures and comical when they plop down on the hive landing board. They get so weighted down by the gathered nectar they make an awkward landing
That might have something to do with it.
Its cold, there are no bees, so the world is ending. If it were hot, then it would be Global Warming, and the world would be ending.
Sometimes, it's hard to read FR for all the gloom, despair, and excessive misery.
My dad and I used an old sulfur candle to get rid of ours (the 50's packaging touted it has having "Secret Ingredient 'S'!!!"). Light it, stuff it down a mole hole, and cover with a brick. Be ready with more bricks, because the rest of the exits will start smoking.
We used to have real mole problems - dozens, if not a couple hundred holes and paths dug all over our lawn. A couple of 'S' treatments solved the problem.
If you can't find "Secret Ingredient 'S'" (I've not seen it anyplace other than the 100-year-old hardware store where we used to buy it) ... a satisfactory substitute for me has been those little round smoke bombs that you can get at the 4th of July. They work fine, just are a little bit messier.
Your lucky, I found only one in my yard. This one was growing in my front yard next to my street. It is not a busy street. I have read that you shouldn’t eat Dandellions by heavy traffic due to pollution. I am debating on whether or not to eat this dandellion. LOL.
Parsley and Cilantro are also really good for you and help detoxify the body as well. I added these two herbs to my salad and it didn’t taste to good. I need to find another way to prepare them.
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