Friday, October 28, 2016

The Bees' Knees!

I have been having a lot of fun experimenting on the back deck. 
My brother Pete used to do the same kind of stuff. 

Even while I was feeding the hummingbirds, 
I noticed the ground bees hanging around. 

Then, I started to notice them in the jelly cups I 
put out for the finches. 


I talked to our bee expert, Ray, at the Ag Hall, and he told me those are ground bees. 

I still have not figured out where they are living. 


I started feeding them directly on the deck rail.  

They literally clean it all up. 

Yes, it attracts flies and some wasps, but they stay right there. 


I was using grape jelly, but I have been cleaning out the fridge this week, and 
I had some strawberry jam.  It still smelled good, so I tried it. 

You see they left the grape for the strawberry.  

By that evening, they had cleaned up everything you see, both jellies. 


That's strawberry. 

Yesterday, I put out orange marmalade, I had bought some at one point 
to make some Chinese recipe, and we never used it again.  I thought surely it 
was bad. 

It wasn't. 


Do you notice anything?  I mean, besides the wasp on the right? 

Honeybees! 

I had never seen honeybees on anything before, but they liked the orange peel. 


Two honeybees with that wasp. 

They are out there this morning, too. 


You see how everything was eaten down to the rind parts. 
The honeybees love it, obviously...


While as soon as I put some grape jelly down, the ground bees abandoned ship and flew and crawled to the grape jelly. 

I just find nature so fascinating, and wish my big brother was here to see it. 

Still not stung.... knock on wood! 

Thank you all for the wonderful comments and prayers for Keith and me. 
I appreciate them all so much. 

It is so hard adjusting to life alone again, but 
I am taking it one day at a time, the best we all can do. 

I pray a lot... and I know others are praying for me. 

Thank you! 


12 comments:

  1. Hari om
    That is as interesting a collection of winged critters as any of their beaked cousins :-) Nature indeed is amazing... and healing... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a wonderful experiment!! I really enjoy watching how they consume it all!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. HERE we call those Ground Bees... YELLOW JACKETS... They only come around in September..here... and will go for ANYTHING that is Sweet. This was a very interesting post...

    ReplyDelete
  4. The honey bees will come out any day over 40 or 50 all winter, so save some for later as a mid winter boost for them. You can have a bee party :-).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Are you SURE they aren't yellow-jackets?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm glad your old jelly got put to some good use. We do get some honey bees flying around here when the flowers are in bloom, but right now they are pretty much gone for the year. One day at a time is the best way to live and prayer is always a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, that is fascinating! Are there some hives nearby? We pray for your peace as you journey forward!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

    ReplyDelete
  8. We have those too,, just saw them today! Yellow Jackets!
    love
    tweedles

    ReplyDelete
  9. When our pears starting getting ripe, the bees, wasps and other flying critters attacked them. When they fell, they windfall fruit was covered. We would go get some good pears and we never got stung either. Although it freaked me out to be in the middle of all those bees and wasps.

    You know you have a lot of folks praying for you Mary Ann.

    Take care,
    R

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cool and wonderful experiment ♥

    ReplyDelete
  11. Being somewhat allergic, I give bees, etc. a wide berth. Love the job they do for me in the garden and flower beds, but no interest in taking a chance on getting stung. I learned a lot about the differences between them through this link.
    http://www.gardeners.com/how-to/yellow-jackets/7700.html
    Dee

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!