Have yet to see first bee this season. Seems like a number of wasps
are buzzing around garden and apparently ants are pollinating my
squash and cucumbers and both seem to be doing well here in Atlanta.
Tomatoes planted mid March are bursting with fruit some of which are
about market size but still green. Good supply of bush beans are ready
every day.
Johnny

Great resource for gardening articles:
www.raised-garden-bed.com

"Johnny" wrote in message
oups.com...
Have yet to see first bee this season. Seems like a number of wasps
are buzzing around garden and apparently ants are pollinating my
squash and cucumbers and both seem to be doing well here in Atlanta.
Tomatoes planted mid March are bursting with fruit some of which are
about market size but still green. Good supply of bush beans are ready
every day.
Johnny

Great resource for gardening articles:
www.raised-garden-bed.com


I haven't seen any bees either but so far everything is producing.

Johnny wrote:

Have yet to see first bee this season. Seems like a number of wasps
are buzzing around garden and apparently ants are pollinating my
squash and cucumbers and both seem to be doing well here in Atlanta.
Tomatoes planted mid March are bursting with fruit some of which are
about market size but still green. Good supply of bush beans are ready
every day.
Johnny

Great resource for gardening articles:
www.raised-garden-bed.com


An older guy at my in-law's retirement comm. keeps a lot of hives and is
seeing MASSIVE amounts of honey. No 'hive collapse' PLUS vastly
increased production.
Last year was drought conditions but so far thois year we've had a lot
of rain.

Carl


--
to reply, change ( .not) to ( .net)

On Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:38:14 -0500, Carl 1 Lucky Texan
wrote:

Johnny wrote:

Have yet to see first bee this season. Seems like a number of wasps
are buzzing around garden and apparently ants are pollinating my
squash and cucumbers and both seem to be doing well here in Atlanta.
Tomatoes planted mid March are bursting with fruit some of which are
about market size but still green. Good supply of bush beans are ready
every day.
Johnny

Great resource for gardening articles:
www.raised-garden-bed.com


An older guy at my in-law's retirement comm. keeps a lot of hives and is
seeing MASSIVE amounts of honey. No 'hive collapse' PLUS vastly
increased production.
Last year was drought conditions but so far thois year we've had a lot
of rain.
Same here in NH. My beekeeper friend is reporting a good year with
30% winter loses - normal for him and below normal for others in the
area. The colonies he keeps on my property are busy, busy, busy.

The reports of bee problems may be isolated to areas that use single
crop practices. Our honey bees are happily servicing the clover that
I use for ground cover, the raspberries and strawberries. Of course
they covered the fruit trees when they were in bloom. My friend
believes that provided a varied and balanced food supply has much to
do with the good results.

For those who think that I am a heathen because I use insecticides, I
do so right next to the bee hives with no ill effects. Maybe I ain't
such a bad guy after all.

John

John Bachman expounded:

Same here in NH. My beekeeper friend is reporting a good year with
30% winter loses - normal for him and below normal for others in the
area. The colonies he keeps on my property are busy, busy, busy.

New England in general didn't suffer as much from colony collapse,
more from the strange winter. All of our hives (in MA and ME) are
doing extremely well.

The reports of bee problems may be isolated to areas that use single
crop practices. Our honey bees are happily servicing the clover that
I use for ground cover, the raspberries and strawberries. Of course
they covered the fruit trees when they were in bloom. My friend
believes that provided a varied and balanced food supply has much to
do with the good results.

The need for variety is true, however, there is also no proof that the
bee problems are isolated to areas of single crop practices. The
experts have not spoken, the internet rumors are rampant.

For those who think that I am a heathen because I use insecticides, I
do so right next to the bee hives with no ill effects. Maybe I ain't
such a bad guy after all.

Depends entirely on what kinds of insecticides. No matter, I'd still
not be very pleased with a neighbor who uses insecticides. We're on
the no spray list with the county, also, so they won't be spraying for
mosquitos near our hives.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

In article
.com,
says...
Have yet to see first bee this season. Seems like a number of wasps
are buzzing around garden and apparently ants are pollinating my
squash and cucumbers and both seem to be doing well here in Atlanta.
Tomatoes planted mid March are bursting with fruit some of which are
about market size but still green. Good supply of bush beans are ready
every day.
Johnny


My understanding is that tomatoes are wind-pollinated.


--
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http://www.cardreport.com/
Credit Tools, Reference, and Forum

On Sun, 10 Jun 2007 21:54:05 -0400, Ann wrote:

John Bachman expounded:

Same here in NH. My beekeeper friend is reporting a good year with
30% winter loses - normal for him and below normal for others in the
area. The colonies he keeps on my property are busy, busy, busy.

New England in general didn't suffer as much from colony collapse,
more from the strange winter. All of our hives (in MA and ME) are
doing extremely well.

The reports of bee problems may be isolated to areas that use single
crop practices. Our honey bees are happily servicing the clover that
I use for ground cover, the raspberries and strawberries. Of course
they covered the fruit trees when they were in bloom. My friend
believes that provided a varied and balanced food supply has much to
do with the good results.

The need for variety is true, however, there is also no proof that the
bee problems are isolated to areas of single crop practices. The
experts have not spoken, the internet rumors are rampant.

For those who think that I am a heathen because I use insecticides, I
do so right next to the bee hives with no ill effects. Maybe I ain't
such a bad guy after all.

Depends entirely on what kinds of insecticides. No matter, I'd still
not be very pleased with a neighbor who uses insecticides. We're on
the no spray list with the county, also, so they won't be spraying for
mosquitos near our hives.



story in Today's (Sunday) LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/...ck=1&cset=true

On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 05:58:37 GMT, Charles
wrote:



story in Today's (Sunday) LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/...ck=1&cset=true


also

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/...ck=2&cset=true

Charles expounded:

On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 05:58:37 GMT, Charles
wrote:



story in Today's (Sunday) LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/...ck=1&cset=true


also

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/...ck=2&cset=true

Well, I don't register with these things so I can't read the article.
Can you sum it up?
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

My understanding is that tomatoes are wind-pollinated.

Well, not exactly, this is a somewhat complicated story. See for
example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato#Pollination

The short version is that outdoors, it is unlikely to be a problem,
but if growing tomatoes indoors, you may need to shake them (or do
something else, as described in that article), to get them to
pollinate themselves.

On Jun 10, 3:33?pm, Johnny wrote:
Have yet to see first bee this season. Seems like a number of wasps
are buzzing around garden and apparently ants are pollinating my
squash and cucumbers and both seem to be doing well here in Atlanta.
Tomatoes planted mid March are bursting with fruit some of which are
about market size but still green. Good supply of bush beans are ready
every day.

Along with many other insects I have lots of hummingbirds... I feed
the hummers their sweet juice but they are very busy among all the
blooms too.