Return of honey bees

[b54red]

The last couple of years I have seen a noticeable uptick in the number of regular honey bees showing up in my garden in spring and early summer. This year I have seen the most in over 20 years. When I was out watering yesterday I was amazed at the number of honey bees on my squash bloosoms. Hopefully the population around here will continue to grow. Has anyone else noticed this uptick the last couple of years in their area?

Bill

[Gardeneer]

We have some HB up here. But we have a lot more Bumble Bees. BB love big flowers and don't bother much with tomatoes. But I have seen them like tomatillo flowers.

-Gardn-

[Worth1]

I have too, it isn't that they weren't around it was they didn't have anything to feed on at my place.
It took me planting all of the flowering plants to bring them in.

Worth

[PhilaGardener]

I have seen a number of native pollinators using resources around the garden. Always glad to see a honey bee or two as well, but numbers are still well below where they were 10 years ago.

[Gardeneer]

I like to see thme around but I don't depend on them anymore.
My tomato plants either self pollinate and/or I am using an electric tooth brush.
FoR my cucumber I do it ALL BY MYSELF.
I pick male flowers and bring them to the females and let them kiss and then in the power bestowed on me, I pronounced them "Married "

-Grden-

[joseph]

I have lots of bees in my squash flowers in the appropriate season, but they are usually not honeybees, they are squash bees. Superficially, they look a lot alike.

As a beekeeper, I've never lacked honeybees in my garden.

[dustdevil]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

We have some HB up here. But we have a lot more Bumble Bees. BB love big flowers and don't bother much with tomatoes. But I have seen them like tomatillo flowers.

-Gardn-

Bumble bees basically pollinate all my tomato and pepper plants. Size doesn't matter...they are equally content going from one small Dutch clover flower to another. They are very strategic going from one plant to another...I give them A+ for effort

[fonseca]

Last year I believe I saw a single honeybee the entire summer, and my yard is mostly clover that flowers all the time. The previous few years there were few honeybees to be seen as well.

I am happy to say that this year I am seeing dozens of honeybees daily, and they are visiting my garden! I hate to say it, but my neighbor, who always had his yard sprayed several times in the summer to be free of insects, passed away earlier this year. He was very generous when it came to spraying my yard as well, despite requests that he refrain.

I am also seeing lots of solitary bees and hoverflies. I don't think I will be forced to hand-pollinate at all.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by fonseca

Last year I believe I saw a single honeybee the entire summer, and my yard is mostly clover that flowers all the time. The previous few years there were few honeybees to be seen as well.

I am happy to say that this year I am seeing dozens of honeybees daily, and they are visiting my garden! I hate to say it, but my neighbor, who always had his yard sprayed several times in the summer to be free of insects, passed away earlier this year. He was very generous when it came to spraying my yard as well, despite requests that he refrain.

I am also seeing lots of solitary bees and hoverflies. I don't think I will be forced to hand-pollinate at all.

I know the poor guy passed away and all but it infuriates me to see people mass spray for insects.
The always seems to kill off everything.

Some place on line I read about the barren urban yard syndrome.
Where landscapers dont put in the right plants and chem lawn and Orkin comes in and kills everything.
No birds or anything.

I have been in some neighborhoods where they smelled like the Home Depot chemical section.

Worth

[Starlight]

I am happy as can be this year. Usually I just have one or two carpenter bees for pollination. The other day I saw my first honey bee in the tomatoes and today when I was scouting there was three.

I haven't seen any honey bees around here in forever. The hummers are not liking these couple of bees as they try to get a drink from feeder and the honey bees will try and run them off.

I do have Agastache Honey Bee White plants blooming and they are by the tomatoes, so maybe it is helping draw them in.

Just hope I get more.

[M.SeanF.]

I planted nice, wide border of wildflowers all around my new garden this year. Lots of Phacelia tanacetifolia, california poppies, Clarkia unguiculata, Godetia(Clarkia amoena), shirley poppies, moth mullein, purple vetch, etc... The garden has been full of native bees since the end of February when the cover crop started to bloom. Lots of bumble bees and the beautiful metallic green and blue euglossine bees. The first week of May a friend placed two hives on the property. Now with the warmer weather everything is blooming like crazy and you can hear buzzing all around. I even saw a wild swarm the other day.

[SteveP]

I still rarely see any bees around here. I saw one about a week ago in the front yard hoping from clover to clover. I need to make plans to establish a more bee friendly lawn and garden.

[swellcat]

Entering the spider wort . . . before it's really open for business.

[berryman]

The amount of bees at my place is staggering. They don't come around to entertain humans-they need food. Most popular are:
P virginiana chokecherry-masses of HB's and natives
Honeysuckle-I have several huge bushes that are best to stay away from during the day.
Fruit trees-Apple, pear, plum etc-I have one group of native P americana that you can hear from 200 ft away, literally vibrating.
Dandelions- this year have also been watching small birds (house finch, white capped sparrows, warblers and goldfinches) eating the seeds right off the flower stalks.
Strawberries and raspberries- I think the bees have some kind of memory about where the good stuff is from year to year. I see many bees anxiously checking out the buds on my yet to bloom purple raspberries.
For big bees, Our native golden currant and comfrey.

I agree heartily with Worth about spraying. I have even seen people who have bought ladybugs because of an infestation of some sorts and then they dust and spray and wonder why the good insects don't stick around.

[b54red]

I don't think the numbers are due to the type of plants because we are growing the same things we have had for decades. I still apply Sevin dust to the lower part of my squash stem like I have for years and use Permethrin when it is necessary but it is not often necessary. I am still growing the same crops year after year after year in the same garden. For the past twenty plus year and maybe longer the honeybee population has been scarce to non existent. There have been many of those years where I didn't see a single honeybee and many where I only saw one or two the whole year. The big old bumble bees or carpenter bees have been more than plentiful during this whole honeybee disappearance. I have just missed watching them buzz certain flowers every morning during the season and am glad to hear that they may be coming back for real in other areas also. Thanks for the replies.

Bill