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  • Author Author: ralphjy
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Bees in Oregon in Winter

ralphjy

A positive aspect of the "Save the Bees Challenge" is that I'm learning a lot about bees and plants in Oregon.  I've never really thought about bees being active during the winter.  Or even where bees in winter would come from...

   recently mentioned in a comment about Snowdrops currently flowering where he lives and how bees might end up missing out on them.  Funny, but I had one of those "Speak of the Devil" moments (or Speak of the Bees) today.  We've been having our typical Oregon winter which is cold and dreary, sometimes rainy but mainly dark and cloudy.  This week it started to warm up and today we had a high temperature of 57 F (14 C) and a nice sunny day with my solar panels max'ed out.

We took my grandson outside to enjoy the sunshine and my wife pointed out to me that there were bees active in Helleborus flowers that are planted along our deck.  I must admit that I was amazed.  I knew that the Helleborus flowers in winter and tolerates freezing temperatures, but never expected to see bees.  Not even sure where they come from, but they look like honey bees.  I took a few pictures with my phone.

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And, of course, the grand dog enjoyed the sunshine too.

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And I'm learning about plants and animals, too.  We had not planted Snowdrops because I had heard that they are toxic for dogs.  It turns out that the toxicity is in the bulbs, so probably not a problem for the dogs.  When I looked up Helleborus to see when they bloom I discovered that ingesting any part of the plant is toxic.  I guess I need to give the dogs credit for ignoring the plant, but now that I have an infant grandson - I'll need to consider getting rid of those plants or at least moving them behind a fence.

Parents

  •   Any signs of bee activity over there yet this year ? Any signs of activity at the bee hotel ?

    I spotted a few bumblebees active here in the front garden this week but I'm still a bit lacking in flowers at the moment, just a few Muscari and Crocus in flower. I think I need to get a few Helleborus to cater for the over Winter / early Spring diners as the seasons are starting to merge here. As it was a mild Winter, bees were still active in the garden here in December.

    I think the 'buffet table' is fully set here for Summer/Autumn though. The majority of the Alliums planted last Autumn have appeared and  are currently 'solar recharging'.

Comment

  •   Any signs of bee activity over there yet this year ? Any signs of activity at the bee hotel ?

    I spotted a few bumblebees active here in the front garden this week but I'm still a bit lacking in flowers at the moment, just a few Muscari and Crocus in flower. I think I need to get a few Helleborus to cater for the over Winter / early Spring diners as the seasons are starting to merge here. As it was a mild Winter, bees were still active in the garden here in December.

    I think the 'buffet table' is fully set here for Summer/Autumn though. The majority of the Alliums planted last Autumn have appeared and  are currently 'solar recharging'.

Children
  • in reply to beacon_dave

    We've had a pretty wet few months and it looks like it will continue into April.  We'll get a couple of warm sunny days next week and I'll put up the mason bee house and the cocoons from last year (I would have normally put it out a couple of weeks earlier).  I didn't get any leaf cutter bee cocoons last year but I did see a few of them around the garden - so maybe this year Slight smile.

    Our Helleborus has been flowering for a few weeks but I've only seen a couple of bumblebees so far.  Cherry trees have been blooming for about a week but I think the flowers won't last very long because of the rain...  Lots of other stuff starting to bloom.  Lots of hummingbirds.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Here's a pic of the mason bee cocoons I harvested in October.  I only got a couple dozen because I wasn't too diligent about maintaining a source of wet mud for the bees.  I'll do better this year.

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  • in reply to ralphjy

    It's pretty wet here most of the time. ( I think Douglas Adams must have got the idea of Rob McKenna's 'two hundred and thirty-two different types of rain' from a visit here at some point ). The Crocus here have a real hard time surviving the wind and rain. I may have to move them into the edge of the lawn to give them a bit of protection/support.

    I've just ordered up some of the "Anna's Red" variety of Helleborus which are supposed to be bee friendly and flower Dec - Apr, so hopefully will help extend the food supply.

  • in reply to ralphjy

    You perhaps need to work on a Bee Hotel with automated mud dispensing unit...  Slight smile