Honey Bee Mortality

[Mike777]

There are a ton of hypothesis on this but that is Not what this post is about. My nephew is an entry entimologist at WSU and is working on this very thing in the colonies there.

This is a more or less observation poll. Do you have plants that Honey bees frequent and have you seen any this year?

So far we have a few hundred thumbnail bumblebees which is about twice last years count, and several yellow jackets although the largest group in the several hundreds have been trapped out on our half acre over the last three years here, so we have a normal amount for the area. I am checking daily and it appears for the middle of may that we may have 100% mortality for honey bees, and this apears to be the same for black hornets and mud daubers, here on the mountain. I will be looking hard when I get down into the low ground and in the cities where they were last year around here.

So no theorys. Have you seen them yet or not and what is your location?

 

[NorthernWinos]

I have been worried that there would be no bees to pollinate all the fruit flowers that we blooming right now in Northern Minnesota....I go out looking for bees everyday...


I see lots of Bumble Bees...I think I've seen some honey bees [not sure tho,other yearssee more that were for sure honey bees...we had honey bee hives before, so I know what they look like], mostly I see many little dark bees or other insects pollinating the flowers.


I had a bee one day that looked like a honey bee...it kept landing on my hands...I had just put on some hand lotion and this bee was crazy for it...I put on gloves and it went away....****actually it didn't go away....it went inside my baggy shorts and stung me3 times till I swished it...not sure anyone really cares to hear about that.


The flowers are getting pollinated...I do see fruit setting on....but not sure how many flowers are pollenated yet as some petals are still hanging on, but there is some tiny fruit out there already.


I am concerned about the bees as well and will keep looking everyday...I can say that usually I see more that I am sure are honey bees....It has been terribly windy so the bees are in the protected areas...When I mowed off the lawn [dandelions] I saw many Bumble Bees and I shagged them offthe ground and hopefully into the trees.....


I will be looking and will Post if I am sure about the honey bees, usually we have a lot as a farmer usually sets hives nearby...haven't been by to see if he has his hives out there this year.....till later...

 

[Wade E]

I havent been looking for them but I usually run across a few by now
and havent noticed any, but like I said I havent been looking!

 

[grapeman]

If it ever warms up again around here so they can come out, the flowers are there for the bees. I'll let you know how many honey bees there are. I used tohave bee hives for pollination, but have been relying on wild bees for years now. A healthy population of bumble bees carry a lot of pollen and usually do a more than adequate job, but they don't make tasty honey! The orchards do have their hives set in them now.

 

[Mike777]

Ok so so far we have:

Seattle, WA: not yet
Middlebury,CT: closer look
Upstate, NY: not yet

Might be late in the northern climes. Normaly for me we have the following:
early and late rhodedendrons, one patch is 20'x6' and 8' tall and a second that is oval 15'x22' and 10' tall, about a ton and a half truck full of flowers right now and no bees other than the smaller size bumble bees. Normaly you could hear either patch at about 30 feet away both of them sounding like giant hives and full of honey bees, nothing on the other flowers either and those are usualy full by now. We have only wild hives here, and they always miss the plums, apples and cherrys due to the temps but its been warmer than normal so i'm stumped.

Edited by: Mike777

 

[NorthernWinos]

Would you call this a full sized bumble bee???

 

[Mike777]

Yep. We don't have any of the big ones right here, but they do when you go down to a lower elevation from us. Hope you went over the cost reductions, lower payroll counts and how he was going to have to pick up the slack for the other bees that were let go....

 

[NorthernWinos]

Went out for a few minutes to look....Yesterday was so windy...I don't mind a few petals blowing off trees, but whole clusters of Chokecherry flowers were blown off...today is warmer and calmer...


Here are a few bees in the yard...


A red headed bee...

Another...on the very fragrant Chokecherry flowers....not such a good shot [I don't have a very good cameras]

The lilacs are sickeningly sweet...found this beauty...A Red Admiral [I think]

 

[jobe05]

I think those are great pictures NW. I love te lilac picture, very pretty bushes. I want to make a gallon of lilac wine but can't find enough lilacs around here. There is 1 small bush between the neighbor and I, but the flower is about 1" in diameter and about 2-3 inches long, and there's only about a dozen of them, I know ofnoothers around here. Now watch Appleman show up and tell me he just took out 100 or so of these big bushes and put them on the compost heap!


I have seen a few bees around here this year, but not nearly as many as we usually have. I wonder if the late frost we had would have anything to do with that?

 

[NorthernWinos]

I looked more this PM...the Bumble Bees seem to be doing all the work, and there are lots of them...they are in the Caragana hedge...they always love those yellow flowers....like as much as they love the dandelions...maybe they are attracted to yellow.

Still no photos of Honey Bees...will keep looking...some possible sightings.

 

[PeterZ]

I don't know one bee from another, so I can't tell you what I have seen. I will say that the numbers seem down for Memphis, but it is also unusually cool for this time of year, and we had a very late hard freeze.

I tend to watch the bees, wasps, and hornets because they are more likely to kill me than a drunk driver. I am a progressive alergic. The last time I got stung a wasp crawled up my pant leg while I was sitting on the porch one night about 10 years ago. I came back inside and he stung me three times on the leg. (First time since high school, when I just swelled up.) Five minutes later I told SWMBO to call 911. When the paramedics arrived 8 minutes after that my blood pressure was 80 over 40, and my pulse was 170.

I carry an epi-pen (epinephrin self-injector) in my briefcase (in fact, that is the only reason I carry the briefcase to and from work), but my guess is that next time I will have 5 minutes or so to get to the epi-pen before I pass out.

I am well aware of the need for bees and pollenation, just keep them out of my neighborhood. I really don't care if the volunteer native cherry tree in my back yard bears its 1/4" cherries to feed the birds or not.

 

[grapeman]

Well it's halfway sunny today and warmer in the mid 60's with light wind. The bees are out pretty good today and I'm seeing about the same number of honey bees as usual along with lots of wild ones and bumble bees. Doesn't seem to be a shortage here. I like PeteZ shy away from them when I can. I don't get as bad as he does, but a sting has drastic effects on me. Usually a Benadryl is enough to keep me breathing after.

 

[NorthernWinos]

It was 87* yesterday lots of assorted bees...then last night the wind shifted...lots of thunder and lightening...but enough rain to make the eves drip...North wind today and it's 47*...Burrr...talk about a change in the weather....Not a bee of any kind in sight today.

 

[Mike777]

Still the same here. About twice the amount of fingernail size bumble bees, couple of yellow jackets if your looking, no mud daubers, striped hornets, honey bees, or the small ones they call sweat bees. about 58 degrees here today but its been warmer to the high 70s. I too need the injector or two if stung, but I don't worry and I don't fear them.

 

[Dean]

I've been noticing no shortage of honey bees up here in Vancouver, BC. We have lots of raspberry and blueberry bushes. I also have a massive cherry tree that they were all over.

I was expecting more mason bees this spring, but both honey and bumble bees seem to plentiful in my area. I'm not sure we are close to an apiary though. There are a LOT of commercial gardens close by, so I suspect there are quite a few hives that are in the area.

 

[MikeC]

I don't know one bee from another, so I can't tell you what I have seen. I will say that the numbers seem down for Memphis, but it is also unusually cool for this time of year, and we had a very late hard freeze.

I tend to watch the bees, wasps, and hornets because they are more likely to kill me than a drunk driver. I am a progressive alergic. The last time I got stung a wasp crawled up my pant leg while I was sitting on the porch one night about 10 years ago. I came back inside and he stung me three times on the leg. (First time since high school, when I just swelled up.) Five minutes later I told SWMBO to call 911. When the paramedics arrived 8 minutes after that my blood pressure was 80 over 40, and my pulse was 170.

I carry an epi-pen (epinephrin self-injector) in my briefcase (in fact, that is the only reason I carry the briefcase to and from work), but my guess is that next time I will have 5 minutes or so to get to the epi-pen before I pass out.

I am well aware of the need for bees and pollenation, just keep them out of my neighborhood. I really don't care if the volunteer native cherry tree in my back yard bears its 1/4" cherries to feed the birds or not.

Wow. I'd keep that emi-pen at my side. That's serious business.

 

[PeterZ]

Mike, I don't worry about it very much. I got stung several times in HS, but that was because I worked in the fall at an apple cider mill, and in the summer I painted houses outside. I didn't get stung again until that incident about 10 years ago, and I am now 54.

Most of the people I go outside to smoke with at work know about my allergy, and the building I work in is about 200 yards from the Base EMT's. They could walk over and still get there in time to inject me. Heck, I could probably make it to them and tell them what I needed before I collapsed.

 

[Mike777]

Still no honey bees. I took a guess at 80-100 bumble bees on the herbs. The finger nail sized bumble bees are porking up a bit , but nothing close to the monster size in the picture. I saw one black honey bee down in the lowlands yesterday is all.

 

[rgecaprock]

In the city....I saw one outside my office window searching the hedges. Hard to tell here when there is mainly concrete and steel to land on.


My dad is a beekeeper, I'll have to get in touch with him about his hives...last time I talked to him he had lost several.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Been so windy around here that the bees are hanging on to what ever they can....Was out looking at the flowers on the wild bushes and saw a Bumble Bee and another bee [possibly a Honey Bee] hanging on to Mountain Ash flower cluster...

These flowers are kind of stinky...There a a lot of big Mountain Ash trees in the gove around the house, they stink up the whole yard....Sometimes it smells like T.C.P. out there [Tom Cat P?ss]


*Edit...went for a ride through the country and saw hives set out....but no 'supers' on...the hives are pretty short.Edited by: Northern Winos