On 8/8/2014 4:09 PM, Paul Drahn wrote:
On 8/7/2014 9:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 7/24/2014 8:18 AM, songbird wrote:
Ross@home wrote:
Without going out and actually counting them, we have roughly 50 fruit
trees on our property. Mostly apples, some pears, a few peaches, a few
sweet cherries, a couple of plum varieties and one apricot tree.
We've had off years in the past and that's to be expected but, this
year, there is a total of no more than a dozen fruit to be seen out of
all those trees.
I spend a lot of time outdoors and I can honestly say I have not seen
more than two or three honeybees so far this year.
Rachel Carson was right. All these damn sprays being indiscriminately
used are taking their toll.
Also, this time of year, when our alfalfa fields are in bloom, they
would normally be alive with Monarch Butterflies. This year, none so
far.
A pox on Monsanto and their ilk.

sadly it's not just the big companies
and big-ag that use these poisons, there's
also the regular consumer which also
spreads them around. (read the lawn care
group and you'll see that most requests
there are how to kill off which weed or
how to restart a grassy lawn)

the other thing is that many people with
orchards do not usually leave flowering
understory plants which will attract and
feed bees during the times when the trees
are not in bloom.

our season started slow but picked up
after the honeysuckle started blooming.
now there are plenty of bees around (with
most of the gardens now in bloom it's
humming out there). we put in crocus,
early iris, daffodils and some other real
early bloomers to keep the bees fed in
the early spring when not much else is
blooming.

as for encouraging wild or native bee
species you can do so even in the 'burbs
because the types of places they like to
nest are not commonly seen as such so
the HOA's eyeballs probably won't notice
an odd contraption of hollow odd sized
sticks and mud if it is placed out back.

there are certain plants which seem to
really attract bees: cosmos, mints,
oregano, thymes. the mints and oregano
may be invasives, but i'd much rather
have them around than grasses so it's
no problem with me to have them replace
the mowed lawn areas. the cosmoes need
disturbed soils to keep going, so i harvest
and replant those seeds, but the bees love
'em so much and they are an excellent later
summer flower.

whatever else you can do is to make sure
there is clean water available to the bees
on the hot days.


songbird

If you can grow salvia in your area it will definitely attract bees. We
have no bee keepers in the surrounding area that we can find. Plus our
HOA says no bee hives.

The large salvia plant in our back garden attracts honey bees, mason and
carpenter bees, and lots of bumble bees. So many that at any given time
they are all over the vegetable garden getting their own. In addition we
have had, off and on, bee flies. Look like tiny little bees but actually
are pollen eating fly's. A time or two they have saved our crops,
particularly when European honey bees have been in decline.

I worry about all the bees though, a new builder is destroying the woods
behind us to build another subdivision. I think most of the bees we see
are coming from that former wilderness area.

We go out during the day and use a hose with a sprinkler head to put
water on all the plants. Bees seem to love it and we don't have to worry
about birds and other critters eating the bees off a bird bath, which I
have seen before.

George
More than bees and flies contribute to pollination. After sundown, moths
come out of hiding to begin feeding on nectar and pollinating plants.
What do you do with tomato horn worms? they will mature into hawk moths
that do a lot of pollinating in the evening.

Paul

Mostly we move them to the weeds behind our fence. Our home backs upon a
retention pond area and a natural gas pipeline. Lots of tasty weeds. So
far we haven't seen any tomato horn worms, may just be luck. Stink bugs
and aphids do their thing on peas and tomatoes and we generally hose
them off with a strong water stream.

George