GBBD: Busy Bees




If the embedded video above doesn't work, then try this link instead.

The bees seem to be much busier than usual in my garden this month. Perhaps the rainy spring and summer means they're trying to make up for lost time.

They're so busy, even NAH noticed. Not only that, he then fetched his camera to take a short movie of them on my Echinops - thanks NAH :)

Note: if anyone buys any Allington honey from our local farm shop over the next few months, you could be getting a taste of my garden :)

It was interesting to see that honey bees were almost exclusively feeding on the Echinops and ignoring the other delights on offer. Elsewhere, various species of bumble bees were gorging themselves on the Dahlias, Eryngiums, Echinacea, perennial sunflowers and lavender but were curiously absent from the Echinops.

Further close observation is required to see if this was a one-off event or a distinct preference...

Garden Bloggers' Blooms Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Comments

  1. Lisa15 August 2012 at 08:57

    Honey bees love to find one source that's big enough to tell the hive about so they often will concentrate on one spot. The big honey bee buzz on my allotment at the moment is the raspberry forest (needs radical thinning next spring) with salvias and thyme being completely ignored and left to the other bees and butterflies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP15 August 2012 at 09:27

    Lisa - welcome! The other flowers I've mentioned are next door to the Echinops, so I'd expect them to forage on everything. However, I suspect my observation was also a coincidence and they eventually moved on to the other goodies :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Esther Montgomery15 August 2012 at 11:52

    It's encouraging. There were many bees in my garden (not honey ones) earlier in the year but more recently - none. (Though I saw a whacking great bumble bee in a hollyhock flower this morning.) Still pretty low on butterflies.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LINDA'S15 August 2012 at 16:30

    lovely post and nice to see the bees around have had 5 bumble bees in the front garden along with butterflys

    ReplyDelete
  5. Janet/Plantaliscious16 August 2012 at 10:53

    Mobbed! In the nicest possible way. I've noticed loads of bees of various sorts in this garden these past couple of weeks, they love the fuchsias, but thank you for reminding me that I have always wanted to grow echinops but have never had enough sun. Until now!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Donna@Gardens Eye View17 August 2012 at 01:08

    Amazing video of some very hard working bees...

    ReplyDelete
  7. VP17 August 2012 at 08:45

    Esther - we seem to have plenty of cabbage whites, but very little else :(

    Linda - thank you. We've had lots of bumbles too :)

    Donna - NAH did a very good job :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. scottweberpdx18 August 2012 at 05:34

    I've noticed the same thing...different bee species seem to really have a preference for certain plants...others are a free-for-al for every pollinator around!

    ReplyDelete
  9. VP18 August 2012 at 14:55

    Hi Scott - interesting. I wonder if anyone's done a scientific study of this?

    ReplyDelete

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