Sunday, October 31

Panicing about bees ...

... the lack of them, I just don't see bees anymore.
No bees means no tomatoes or lemons or limes or pomegranates.
Mr Brown & I have always had some flowers in the garden, many neighbours don't. I suspect they are considered "untidy".Still, we've been adding flowers here and there in a desperate attempt to bring on the bees. We've even let the herbs go straight to flower/seed, rather than pick of the first flush or two of flowers, because I read that bees like herb flowers. I don't know if bees like Solomon's Seal. But this little fellow does. This is the new double dragon wisteria, it won't be bee-attracting this year, but look at it go! That's about three-weeks from being a stick in the ground.
This afternoon, before the massive rainstorm, I spotted these. Perhaps we get a few bee visits while we're at work.

13 comments:

Zoomie said...

Bless you for worrying about the bees.

Roo said...

Stealth bees.. that's it!

cookiecrumb said...

I don't have a bee hobby like you, but I care a LOT.
Stupidly, it hadn't occurred to me to plant flowers back there for the wee pollinators. Next spring, fer shur.

Pink Granite said...

You and Mr. Brown are very good stewards.
Keeping my fingers crossed for the bees!

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Zoomie, I love them, especially the little native ones :)
Roo, with little black ninja pjs?
Cookie, it was wandering home one afternoon I noticed, almost none of our neighbours have flowers, it's all bit of lawn and a box hedge, or pavers. Very bee unfriendly.
Lee, ta, we cross ours too :)

Wendy said...

fingers crossed word spreads and the bees come flocking. This tear I let a lemon thyme flower and the bees went crazy for it so I can vouch for the herb thing.
Wendy

Sue said...

I've also noticed a lack of bees over here. We have a very fruitful veggie patch when we were living with my folks a while back, but learnt very quickly that we needed to play a role in polinating flowers ourselves. It feels a little rude, but you have to touch the boy flowers on the girl flowers to get fruit (try explaining that to a 5 year old). Anyway, we planted lavender in the old veggie patch and some wild basil, which we always just leave to flower (it grows like a weed here) and they both attract a lot of bees to the garden.

Good luck!!

Sue X

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Wendy, the ordinary thyme is flowering little pink flowers :)
Sue, I was thinking I'd have to get a small paint brush out this year :) Never had to do that before !

Roo said...

What happened to all the blue bottomed bees?

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Roo, I've yet to see one this year, it makes me sad.

e said...

The lack of bees is concerning. I read an article recently that it appears the bees are being decimated by a fungus/bacteria disease of some sort.

Ms Brown Mouse said...

E, you read all sorts or worrying stuff and the no-show makes it seem real *worries a bit more*

Zee Poodle said...

Yes, the beelessness of the earth is quite worrisome and I hope it is something that can be fixed quite soon. We have done our part too, by planting lots of wee flowery things with lashings of pollen. I don't know if it will help, but it is better than nought I suppose.

A friend of mine is making a documentary about bee colony collapse and its possible causes/remedies. I'm so looking forward to seeing it & learning what can be done.

Poor beesies.