Last night I was able to bring home four more nucs and get them settled in. Thank goodness for a few days of warmer temperatures and sunshine! As if just for the honeybees arrival, my Crab Apple tree and Red Bud welcomed the bees with blooms bursting forth everywhere today. You could stand under or near the Crab Apple and hear their soothing buzzing and observe them gathering pollen and bringing it back to the hive. The honeybees definitely preferred the Crab Apple over the Red Bud. There were only one or two honeybees on the Red Bud, but there were many native bees and bumblebees on the blooms. I have no idea what the proper names are of any of the native bees or bumblebees, I will work on that!
Before keeping bees, I did not realize the importance of trees to the bees! I have only begun scratching the surface of all the different types of trees, their bloom times and their nectar and pollen production for the bees.
If you want to plant trees for bees, contact Honeytree Nursery in Shelbyville, MI at honeytreenursery.com or email honeytreenursery@yahoo.com. They are the experts in what trees you should plant for bees.
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| Honeybee on my Crab Apple tree |
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| Crab Apple tree in full bloom, May 6, a welcome present to the Nucs I brought home last evening. |
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| Honeybee on Crab Apple bloom. |
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| My nucs, six now. First morning in their new home, settling in. |
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| White Crab Apple I think?? The honeybees were all over these millions of blooms, but were too high up for me to get a good picture of one. Way, way, way more blooms than a small planting of flowers could ever provide. Plant trees for bees! |
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| An closer shot of the bloom from the tree above. |
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| The only honeybee I saw on my Red Bud trees. |
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| A native bee, unsure of the name, many of these were on the Red Bud |
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| Big ole Bumble, I don't know the type, there were three of them on this Red Bud, often fighting with each other. |
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