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Happy Earth Day 2026!

ralphjy

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Happy Earth Day!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the start of Spring.

I just put out my Mason Bee cocoons and set up an outdoor IP camera to watch them.  They should hatch within a week or so.

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Hope to do better than last year - I had parasitic wasps that laid eggs in the bee tubes and I lost all of the bees.  I got a fresh start from a friend that had a surplus of cocoons from her bee houses.

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  • I've been out adding to the bee buffet next to BeeBox. Had some plants indoors over Winter, four of which were starting to take over the windowsill.

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    I think there may be a Buff-tailed queen nesting about 4 feet behind BeeBox.

    There is a sheltered area which I've seen her disappear into on a couple of occasions.

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    Will know for sure if workers start appearing.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Good that there is evidence of nesting, but it will be disappointing if you don't get a nest in your BeeBox. 

    I recently encountered some Mining bees in a nearby greenspace.  It was kind of neat watching individual bees disappearing into separate "ant" hills.  I tried to get some pics or video, but the dogs had their own agenda that day.  The Mining bees look like miniature Honey bees.

    We're having some problems with some of the native plants that we planted last year.  It looks like we have lost the Trilliums.  We just thought that they were late, but they have been blooming in the greenspaces for a while now.

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    The squirrels were very active digging up bulbs in the winter.  They even dug up the garlic (which they didn't eat).  We'll have to see what else ends up missing Disappointed.

  • in reply to ralphjy

    If they are still managing to find suitable nesting sites on their own, then that isn't such a bad thing.

    I'm still doubtful that a buff-tailed queen can comfortably fit through the opening in the BeeBox. Will be interesting to see if any of the smaller bees like the Tree or Carder varieties take any interest.

    Mining bees sound interesting. I wanted to get some photos of the queen as she was sat on the hedge above me preening herself for a while, but my hands were covered in soil at the time from planting so not an ideal opportunity to down tools and go get the camera.

    I see that Trilliums prefer Acidic soil, so if your soil is overly Alkaline, then that may be an issue.

    I see if growing from seed they have double dormancy so need a couple of Winters to get started then another couple of years to produce the three leaf form. Sounds like some patience is required if growing from seed.

  • in reply to ralphjy
    ralphjy said:
    Mining bee going home

    Looks like it wasn't quite sure which hole was home there. Hope it picked the right one.

    ralphjy said:
    I'm pretty sure it is a wasp

    If it tries to sting you with no real apparent reason, then there is a good chance it is a wasp !

    Some can be hard tell apart though. You also get the imposters which just look like a wasp to scare others off.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    My wife and I were walking the older dog today, so I got a chance to get a video of a Mining bee going home. Video is slowed to 0.25x.  I had a hard time seeing in the bright sunlight, so the video is a bit shaky.

    And I didn't get a good angle on this one, but I'm pretty sure it is a wasp (has a pointy butt).

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  • in reply to beacon_dave

    My wife and I were walking the older dog today, so I got a chance to get a video of a Mining bee going home. Video is slowed to 0.25x.  I had a hard time seeing in the bright sunlight, so the video is a bit shaky.

    And I didn't get a good angle on this one, but I'm pretty sure it is a wasp (has a pointy butt).

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