Do It For The Bees

musashi

Site Moderator
Staff member
No honey bees around here any more. When I moved here 10 years ago there would be thousands of bees per flowering cherry tree here. Now there are none when the trees bloom. They all died of CCD. I built a bunch of bamboo tube nests (100s of them) last year for orchard bees. They pollinate my fruit trees and berries now that the honey bees are gone. On hot days there are tons of orchard bees here now.

Growing males can also be messy... even though the pollen is good for the bees. Also a problem with feeding bees by growing males if you have more than one strain of males for breeding with. Or if you are growing sinsemilla. I grew all males one year here to full size. I had yellow dust everywhere. I still have a bunch of that pollen frozen in one dram vials. It seems to go off after 2 years. I got about 20% pollination rates using enough pollen to dust the females with last year with 2 year old frozen bone dry pollen. Maybe I will thaw it all out and feed it to the bees this year. I have about 50 full dram vials. The orchard bees can fit into the vials though and they may want to lay eggs in them. The dram vials are the right size and shape for blue orchard mason bee brooding nests.
 
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If you want to see bees, go to southern Arizona.
Thick as thieves....dunno why, but they are everywhere.
 
No honey bees around here any more. When I moved here 10 years ago there would be thousands of bees per flowering cherry tree here. Now there are none when the trees bloom. They all died of CCD. I built a bunch of bamboo tube nests (100s of them) last year for orchard bees. They pollinate my fruit trees and berries now that the honey bees are gone. On hot days there are tons of orchard bees here now.

Growing males can also be messy... even though the pollen is good for the bees. Also a problem with feeding bees by growing males if you have more than one strain of males for breeding with. Or if you are growing sinsemilla. I grew all males one year here to full size. I had yellow dust everywhere. I still have a bunch of that pollen frozen in one dram vials. It seems to go off after 2 years. I got about 20% pollination rates using enough pollen to dust the females with last year with 2 year old frozen bone dry pollen. Maybe I will thaw it all out and feed it to the bees this year. I have about 50 full dram vials. The orchard bees can fit into the vials though and they may want to lay eggs in them. The dram vials are the right size and shape for blue orchard mason bee brooding nests.
I too have many native bee's here in the suburbs. Mason Bee's, both blue's and green's bumble bee's and a few other species. I am a monster and partial to wasps and hornets. We are friends. bald face hornets set up shop in my neighbors tree, I see way less tomato horn worm's now.
 
This one is NOT your friend. Trust me...

Yellow Jacket (Vespula spp.) (insectidentification.org)


yellow-jacket.jpg


All female yellow jackets can sting. And they tend to be more aggressive than other stinging insects. Yellow jackets can even bite before they sting — grabbing hold of the skin just to get a better grip with their stinger.

Yellow jackets are insects that quickly mobilize into a swarm of yellow jackets, give chase for several yards, go around obstacles, and even wait--in a frenzy--for anyone who thinks it is a good idea to jump in the water to hide from them. They can wait longer than you can hold your breath.

Avoid yellow jacks when possible. If one flies near you, do not strike at it or run rapidly as quick movements will provoke an attack. Although humans can outrun the wasps, which have a top flying speed of 6 to 7 mph, you could suffer more than a dozen painful stings triggered by your movement before you could run out of range. Don’t strike or crush a yellow jacket against your body. This releases an alarm pheromone that can incite a frenzied attack. If yellow jackets are bothering you, your best defense is to cover your face with your hands and back away slowly. Don't step on the ground nest.


Cover your face with your hands and back away slowly? Don't run, it makes them mad? Summer vacations in east Texas buddy.... lol
 
No honey bees around here any more. When I moved here 10 years ago there would be thousands of bees per flowering cherry tree here. Now there are none when the trees bloom. They all died of CCD. I built a bunch of bamboo tube nests (100s of them) last year for orchard bees. They pollinate my fruit trees and berries now that the honey bees are gone. On hot days there are tons of orchard bees here now.

Any improvement on the CCD?
 
Any improvement on the CCD?

No. Its worse all over with CCD apparently. I have started making tubes for orchard (mason) bees to nest in, and they are going nuts this year with the trees in bloom. They are solitary bees, but they do a good job of pollinating my fruit trees and berries here. I also have a lot of bumble bees here now. Not as many wasps this year for some reason. Supposedly the giant hornets from Asia have arrived just north of me in Washington now. They are called murder hornets.

The yellow jackets here are highly variable. The ones that build small nests in the eves are rather mild. I have never been sting by any of them. The ones in the ground are the bad ones. They build huge nests and they will attack if you get close to them. I ran over a nest of ground wasps once on the tractor and they came after me in droves. I had to floor the tractor and I had 4 stings by the time I got away. I went after them that night with gas and a match. Only effective way to get rid of those types of yellow jackets. If bald face wasps nest in trees here I burn them out as well. I am not allergic, but people I know are. One sing and w/o an epi pen, they can die. I have an epi pen handy here just in case.
 
No. Its worse all over with CCD apparently. I have started making tubes for orchard (mason) bees to nest in, and they are going nuts this year with the trees in bloom. They are solitary bees, but they do a good job of pollinating my fruit trees and berries here. I also have a lot of bumble bees here now. Not as many wasps this year for some reason. Supposedly the giant hornets from Asia have arrived just north of me in Washington now. They are called murder hornets.

The yellow jackets here are highly variable. The ones that build small nests in the eves are rather mild. I have never been sting by any of them. The ones in the ground are the bad ones. They build huge nests and they will attack if you get close to them. I ran over a nest of ground wasps once on the tractor and they came after me in droves. I had to floor the tractor and I had 4 stings by the time I got away. I went after them that night with gas and a match. Only effective way to get rid of those types of yellow jackets. If bald face wasps nest in trees here I burn them out as well. I am not allergic, but people I know are. One sing and w/o an epi pen, they can die. I have an epi pen handy here just in case.
Really nice of you to do that for the mason bees, the little things add up. A friend of mine keeps about 30 hives on my property, feels good to help out.

I've come across those subterranean hornets every once in a while, usually on a scorching summer day with my hand brush cutter or bucking logs. Fortunately I'd have my enclosed tractor nearby. I swear hose motherfuckers look for trouble. Be that as it may, I consider all living things awesome/miraculous, go out of my way to let them be. Unless they happen to be infesting my home or bothering my personal space.
 
I tried an IPM method of getting rid of ground yellow jacket nests. Make a Caesar salad and throw a couple extra anchovy slices around your yard, with one or two right next to the nest. A skunk will smell it and come over to investigate and have a nice snack. When it sees the nest it'll dig it up to get at the larvea. Problem solved. It has worked for me.
 
This one is NOT your friend. Trust me...

Yellow Jacket (Vespula spp.) (insectidentification.org)


View attachment 50971


All female yellow jackets can sting. And they tend to be more aggressive than other stinging insects. Yellow jackets can even bite before they sting — grabbing hold of the skin just to get a better grip with their stinger.

Yellow jackets are insects that quickly mobilize into a swarm of yellow jackets, give chase for several yards, go around obstacles, and even wait--in a frenzy--for anyone who thinks it is a good idea to jump in the water to hide from them. They can wait longer than you can hold your breath.

Avoid yellow jacks when possible. If one flies near you, do not strike at it or run rapidly as quick movements will provoke an attack. Although humans can outrun the wasps, which have a top flying speed of 6 to 7 mph, you could suffer more than a dozen painful stings triggered by your movement before you could run out of range. Don’t strike or crush a yellow jacket against your body. This releases an alarm pheromone that can incite a frenzied attack. If yellow jackets are bothering you, your best defense is to cover your face with your hands and back away slowly. Don't step on the ground nest.


Cover your face with your hands and back away slowly? Don't run, it makes them mad? Summer vacations in east Texas buddy.... lol
so, IDK about you, but those guys, and bald faced hornets do not bother me. they often land on me, drink my sweat, and then go kill some tomato horn worms for me. I have moved multiple nests up into the trees in my back yard from off of the house.

I have yet to stumble on a ground nest of hornets or wasps, but, back when I was a kid, then entire back wall of our 2 story house got colonized by a yellow jacket colony, ad we didn't know they were there until we felt the wall vibrating. or the time mason bee's decided to move THE ENTIRE COLONY under our porch over night one summer. that was a good removal.
 
They are only a few ÂŁ .

When I searched I expected 40+.
Probably find them cheaper.

Maybe shanti could franchise a few with the Genniebaba . MNSs environmental side.

 
I tried an IPM method of getting rid of ground yellow jacket nests. Make a Caesar salad and throw a couple extra anchovy slices around your yard, with one or two right next to the nest. A skunk will smell it and come over to investigate and have a nice snack. When it sees the nest it'll dig it up to get at the larvea. Problem solved. It has worked for me.

Eh, then you just trade up and have a skunk problem. I do not have a table scrap compost pile here as that just attracts skunks and raccoons. Bad enough with the squirrels and rabbits. I trap the red squirrels, and my cat hunts the rabbits. He is 26 pounds and considers rabbit a delicacy. Same with voles, moles, mice, shrews and rats. Wood rats he kills but does not eat. Same with red squirrels.

They are only a few ÂŁ .

When I searched I expected 40+.
Probably find them cheaper.

Maybe shanti could franchise a few with the Genniebaba . MNSs environmental side.


I make orchard (mason) bee hives out of bamboo poles. I have a bamboo nursery here and cut the dead poles every year. Then I chop the narrower ones up into 8 inch long tubes with the nodes in the center, and bind a dozen of them up with bailing twine. Then I lash them to a fence along the back porch of the house. That is north facing and in the shade. For whatever reason that is the location that they prefer. They have not nested in any other location I have put the bamboo bundles. Anyway, they are done this year and they have dobbed up the bamboo nests with eggs and pollen that will be next year's grubs and food. They come out only when the fruit trees and flowering plums and cherries bloom here every year. I have a lot of them on my property. My Cascara trees are in bloom now and they have attracted a few honey bees from a neighbor that has hives. Those trees really attract the honey bees for whatever reason, even with small flowers.
 
OSBeehives is an open hardware and free software project for the beekeepers, I guess you might be interested in it.

OSBeehives is on a mission to technify the beekeeping industry by building a global network of beekeepers and identifying causes and solutions for colony health deterioration. This mission is founded on the principles of citizen science, open data, and collaboration between beekeepers.

Preserving bees it is important.

I am not affiliated with this project, it just happens that I am a nerd about free as in freedom of speech projects.

I did not put the link to the website, but just search for "OSBeehives"
 
some of my wildflower seeds blew over into the neighbour's yard
and apparently they got offended cuz she cut them all down, yes that's the dog kicker family..
 
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