let's talk about the bees

[Spiritwolfe]

I grow trees and plants that attract bugs, bees, and butterflies....it helps my garden eco system. But honestly..... Until the world understands in depth what permaculture is and how it effects the trees, animals, and all of life....and it is just not the honeybees we have to worry about .....we are all doomed. If the industrial honey growers would stop feeding those bees corn syrup which cause weak and diseased bee we would have a part of the issue resolved. I have carpenter bees, and boy they love drilling big holes and major tunnels into your wood parts of your house. I do not make houses for the bees and wasp. They are plentiful here including the honey bee. Yellow jackets are the worst, those nest underground or ones bigger then your head in the trees,....you need to run and fast.....

I agree with you completely Dileon. Industry can make a huge impact on our wildlife, all in the sake of profit. Corn syrup is cheap.
Its actually really sad what we do to our wildlife. Luckily there are those on the opposite side of the spectrum. One day hopefully we'll all be on the same page but somehow I doubt it. Not in my lifetime.

[Brian T]

Don't buy food contaminated with high-fructose corn syrup.
Just don't.
Dig up all your weird shrubs and plant bee-friendly bushes.
Dig up your shrubs and lawns and plant bee friendly flowers (sure looks nicet than dumb old grass, anyway.)
I've done that. Nobody could justify stopping me. By Sept 2017, I will have no grass to mow.

[Nomad]

Here's a short video I made of some mason bees just after hatching. Not the best quality but the bees and the inside of their nest are visible. Actually, I don't know if you will be able to see this because of my server but I'll try it anyway.

http://faculty.gvsu.edu/triert/misc/MVI_0856.wmv

[Spiritwolfe]

Don't buy food contaminated with high-fructose corn syrup.
Just don't.
Dig up all your weird shrubs and plant bee-friendly bushes.
Dig up your shrubs and lawns and plant bee friendly flowers (sure looks nicet than dumb old grass, anyway.)
I've done that. Nobody could justify stopping me. By Sept 2017, I will have no grass to mow.

Great advice unless you have acres of grass. Lol

Terry! Unfortunately your video doesn't show up

[Nomad]

Great advice unless you have acres of grass. Lol

Terry! Unfortunately your video doesn't show up

It downloads on my computer and then I have to save it than run it.

Try this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1uh...m-upload_owner

[sappy]

Terry, that video was great! For those planting for insects, consider plants native to your area. Except for my butterfly garden, that has been my goal, and I can't believe how much easier tending them has been. I had to search the mason bee, as I wasn't sure and I found a great website that shows one of the nest. Very much like Terry made, but with chicken wire wrapped around it. I thought that was a good idea. Does any one know what the really tiny grey and white striped bees are? They are very good at playing like a helicopter and move around my hands in the garden, very fun to watch. I have not been able to find them in my insect book.

[Eddy-Smiles]

But we can't lose our "Honey Bees!" They are too important! Why, how else will I sing my little ditty? "I eat my peas with honey. It keeps them on my knife. It makes my peas taste funny, but I've done it all my life!" Hee! Hee! Hee!

[Brian T]

Sappy: the little striped "bees" might not be bees at all but Syrphid "hover flies."
I see them in my spring grape flowers but they don't seem to be as industrious as the bumble bees.

Anyway, I've added another 80' row of grape vines a few years back. I let them flower/fruit this year.
The bees(?) found them. No big yield but a start.

[DiLeon]

I've done that. Nobody could justify stopping me. By Sept 2017, I will have no grass to mow.

Actually part of it all is sitting under the fruit trees ....and enjoying nature.....the bees, butterflies and flowers. People coming to visit major enjoy the scenes. But mowing grass..... I got rid of all the yard but a five minute mow.. filled it all with wood chips, cement pathways and whole backyard cement, and terraced hills full of trees. When storms come through the plan was that ...the trees knock my damage almost to zero. Last year when seven of my neighbors lost their roofs due to tropical storm....... my house ....wind did not even touch the tarp work area. I am starting to get rid of trees that do not wind block, or produce food. Trees are cut yearly to with stand hurricane weather.....ones that are not cut much are the ones to block serious weather. Here fruit on an average is 2.99 to 5,99 a pound, I figure when the trees start producing I will have an extra income.

[sappy]

Hey THANKS RV! I looked them up and they certainly describe how they move around. The things one learns on a carving forum....

[Brian T]

sappy: I thought that I could leave the Biology professor stuff behind when I retired. Not.

Dileon: you might as well have multipurpose plants, trees in your case, that you could make a $$ from!

I start the very best of my grapevine prunings as new vine cuttings and sell those in the Farmer's market, 2/$5. Not much of a gamble. 70 - 100 every year = sold out again.
I'll guess (as I keep no records) that I have sold less that 300 new vines over the past few years. Carving tool money source.

The really big old vines (2001) shade my house in the summer afternoons. Trellis is 14' high x 40' long. Leaves all gone now for winter!
I sell off the grape crop after I pick what I want. 100% gone again as usual.
I pick early leaves for Greek Dolmades that I make with local ground lamb.

Parent birds park their babies, hidden in the vines, while the adults forage for bugs.
While there's nothing that you can see from the yard side, from inside the house, those babies are 24" from the windows
so you can watch all the feeding business. Hummingbirds roost in there at night and shelter from storms.

[Nomad]

The easiest way to tell a bee from a syrphid is to look at the wings. Syrphids are dipterans, i.e., flies, and therefore have only two wings. Di meaning two, pteron meaning wing. Bees have 4 wings, like most insects. Another common name for syrphid flies is flower flies and they do a lot of pollination. They are harmless but they mimic bees in coloration and therefore reap the benefits of protection from the yellow stripes of warning coloration found in bees, wasps, and hornets.

[Spiritwolfe]

Just wanna add that this is an awesome thread . It's very comforting knowing that the wood carvers I socialize with have an awareness and appreciation of what's around them both big and small. Nature lovers are the kindest people . It's all so humbling.

[sappy]

Thanks, Nomad. I knew that about the wings, but didn't have all the scientific words for it (and I probably won't remember them). Old mind, space is limited.To look at the wings of these fast moving little fellas I would have to stick them to the honey and peas on Eddys knife! Ha! I can't blink fast enough to see the wings! Interesting though, the ones we have are white or silver and black, not yellow for sure. But I think they are the same kind of fly.

[Nomad]

Thanks, Nomad. I knew that about the wings, but didn't have all the scientific words for it (and I probably won't remember them). Old mind, space is limited.To look at the wings of these fast moving little fellas I would have to stick them to the honey and peas on Eddys knife! Ha! I can't blink fast enough to see the wings! Interesting though, the ones we have are white or silver and black, not yellow for sure. But I think they are the same kind of fly.

LOL! Yeah, it's pretty easy for me to lapse into tech talk about these things. I've been teaching biology for nearly 30 years and this is everyday stuff for me. But you might try collecting a specimen sometime and then you can tell if it has one pair of wings or two using a hand lens.

I learned early on in my academic career about syrphids. When I was an undergrad I was taking a bunch of macro slides of flowers for a project I was doing and when I got them developed and looked closely, I saw a lot of different bees on the flowers. My advisor was an entomologist so I asked him if he could identify these bees for me. I gave him the slides and then a week later I asked him if he had identified all those bees. He said "Yup, and none of them are bees." LOL!