okay so this is just a really quick honeybee update and I wanted to show the
value of having an edible hedge around your beehive in your backyard apiary
look at the size of the pollen packs on the hind legs of these honeybees they
are just covered and that's because we have different Salix family say likes
discolor in particular willows out there and the male willows
have these big catkins on them they're covered in pollen and the bees are just
loading themselves up and coming in with it so of course when you see pollen
loaded bees on your landing board you know that there's brood in there because
that's be bred that's what the nurse bees are feeding to those developing
larvae and we have a lot of capped brood as well which is gonna be fantastic
because that's the workforce that's gonna emit from these colonies look at
all the pollen that spread out all over that aluminum bottom cover there it's
just everywhere so they are really making maximum use of this warm up that
we've had terrible weather prior to this so they're just busy as can be and I'll
show you some close-ups here the plant that we're talking about these are the
bees departing again from another bee hive and this one sits in the shadow of
a spruce tree and just the pollen they're just bringing it in and look how
it's also dusted there's yellow pollen dust on that landing board entry there
it's been torn off by a bear I leave it there to remind myself to turn on the
electric fence and you can see these foragers just heading out in groups it
is a little exploring ant walking along there and this is what we're talking
about these are just willows and this of course is the male catkins that are
sticking out here and they are covered in pollen also native pollinators make
use of these and we've got this beautiful day it's so glad for that of
course now that I'm posting this today I shot this yesterday today is raining
again but these are close-ups so when you see
pussywillows up close this is what they open up into and then these are the
flowers that the bees find useful so it's fantastic this is again a hedge
that runs on the west side of my apiary and look at all the tiny flies and that
later we'll show you some small bees they are all pollen in getting SAP from
these getting nectar and this is an excellent early season protein boost for
the bees so that they can raise their brood
even flies provide some pollination services here flies are attracted to
nectar and sweet things we already know that there's an EB moving fast through
these I had a hard time actually tracking down the bees they didn't spend
a lot of time on them and this of course is a solitary bee a native bee and they
are pollinators as well in fact they get out early and one by one they are very
productive and I came across lots of these little rascals here another
close-up they're getting into the nectar and of course getting pollen on itself
in the process what's the difference twenty bees and wasps well the body hair
primarily so you see that it has fuzzy thorax there that is a bee now if it
were super smooth and there was no hair on it whatsoever it could be a wasp and
sometimes we do have pollinating lofts as well so honey bees wasps solitary
bees like the mason bees orchard bees the mining bees they all participate in
pollination and this is the female catkins
of these willows and this is out in my wetlands and I just went out there
because I wanted you to see the difference these are much less
conspicuous in the landscape when you're looking for them and of course there's
not very much insect activity on them but they will visit because these do put
out some nectar and that's how they're going to pollinate their so just a great
opportunity to show you what's going on there's a honey bee behind this catkin
here and I hope your bees are doing great too I just wanted to give you an
optimistic positive update and share that they are bringing in pollen and
that there are baby bees thanks for watching as always