"John Bachman" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:18:46 -0400, madgardener
wrote:

Ook wrote:
I have hundreds of bumblebees in my garden, and they are gentle like
honey
bees and love my sunflowers and squash. Good polinators. I have noticed
that
in the evenings, a lot of them find a nice cozy leaf or flower and curl
up
and spend the night there. In the morning, I have a bunch of sleeping
bumble
bees all over the garden. According to wiki they have colonies, but I'm
guessing they do not always spend the night there? Anyone else ever see
this?



I've taken many digital pictures, and PETTED very very carefully,
sleeping bumble bees in the early hours of the day as they slept on
flowers. I love how they turn their leg backwards as if they're some
reluctant teenager who just can't wake up for school...........I
carefully stroke the fuzzy back and guess they're not warmed up yet.
I've done this for years, after noticing it myself once I moved into
this house and have so much nature around me.
madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36 where I found
three sleeping bumblies on my willow leaf rudbeckia's this morning after
the intense thunderstorms and rains of last night

No need to wait for them to be sleeping. Bumbles are pretty docile.
You can pet them as they work, just do not squeeze.

I have shown my grandchildren how to do it, when my stepdaughter is
not looking. She would be horrified.

I want them to learn that 'bees' are not necessarily something bad
even though Mom goes screaming across the yard at the sight of
anything that might have a stinger. That includes dragonflies for
cripes sake.

John

She would've needed sedation if she saw what went on in my boat this past
weekend. I was fishing and a dragonfly landed on my shoulder and just sat
there for almost 5 minutes. If I'd seen it before my friend, it would've
been a shock, but I was warned beforehand. Very cool creature.