Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 384 Editor's Choice: 71
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I Finally Have Honeybees this Year
[Read the article: Hives among us]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Lots of them. I don't keep bees, I just have a garden. Last year I put in a lavender walk and this year I have far more honeybees than bumblebees, thanks to the lavender. They are crazy for lavender. In late summer, I expect they will switch over to the sedum. They can't get enough sedum. And I can't find enough space to put all the baby sedums that pop up. I used to collect them and offer them to neighbors, but they all complained that the baby sedum died. I asked "Did you water it occasionally?" and found that, well, no, they forgot to water the sedum after dumping them in the ground. They just kind of expected that like a handful of magic beans, the sedum would just erupt. When you consider how little water sedum needs once you establish it, it's kind of pathetic to think that one watering was too much to fit into people's busy schedules.
I've never seen a hive anywhere nearby, though I know there is a local apiary somewhere because you can buy locally harvested honey in our supermarket. I wonder if the honeybees belong to the apiary which produces that honey?
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ankhmorpork
[Read the article: Hives among us]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Do you know of any links where they have pictures of native bees that actually show their size? I have lots of little unidentified bees in my gardens and flower pots, but when I try to find bee photos so I can identify them, the photos are all closeups that make the bees look gigantic, so I can't tell if I am looking at the correct bees.
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I Second Larry's Statement About Bees Being Docile
[Read the article: Hives among us]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't keep bees, but I host lots of them in my garden, flower pots and window boxes. All sizes and shapes. I go out every day and deadhead my plants and there are always disgruntled bees who think I'm going to pull the nectar out from under them. They never sting. In fact, I like their company and often find myself talking out loud to the bees ("Hey, don't get all bent out of shape, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have any of these flowers at all") My neighbors think I'm nuts and maybe I am. When the bees start talking back to me, that's when I'll seek psychiatric attention.
I have these awful giant catmints that a lazy landscaper planted one year (for way too much money). When I was only a part-time resident at my house, I cut those buggers back every two weeks hoping to kill them, but they just got healthier with each shearing. The bees and butterflies love them, but they get very wild and wooly-looking, necessitating a good shearing thrice per season. It pains me to have to cut them back even while they are flowering, because it makes the bees crazy. They even seem to beg me "No! We're not done with those things yet!" But I make sure something else is flowering - summersweet, coneflowers, sage, butterfly bushes - so they can fly off and get a fix. If there was anytime a bee might want to sting me, it's when I cut back their beloved catmint. But they never do.
Now, wasps are another story. I planted some summersweet, since it was advertized as a "hummingbird magnet." More like a "giant wasp and hornet magnet." And the hummers couldn't care less, they're off checking out the agastache and black and blue salvia, leaving the summersweet to the stingers. But the summersweet, I admit, smells good. It blooms after the privet has finished blooming, taking the place of that heady aroma. And if you want to smell something nice all summer long, put some fragrant heliotrope in a pot near the entrance to your house. Don't mind the bees, they're not interested in you unless you are carrying nectar around with you.
(And people seriously need to understand that yellow jackets are not bees.)