Group Actions
Engagement
  • Author Author: ralphjy
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 834 views
  • Likes 7 likes
  • Comments 45 comments
Related
Recommended

Bees in Oregon 2026

ralphjy

  and I have been trading messages about flowers and bees in response to my Earth Day post.  He has a BeeBox nestbox for bumblebees and I mentioned to him that I've never been able to locate a natural bumblebee nest.  Well, today that changed and I thought I'd share that and info in general about how bees are doing in Oregon in the early spring.

My wife has been planting more native plants in order to help stimulate the native bees in our area.  She has received a Backyard Habitat Certification for her efforts.  This year the native plants have been slow to bloom because a cooler and wetter than normal spring (on average this is a typical spring, but weather has come in multi-week bursts that I think is hard on plants).  It's gotten consistently warmer and sunnier in the past few weeks and the plants are starting to respond.  We decided that it was the correct time to put out our Mason bee cocoons (actually ours were wiped out by wasps last year, but a friend had a bumper crop and she shared).  Mason bees hatch when the temperature is consistently above 18-20 C, but you want to wait until you have nearby flowers to support them.  Unlike honeybees, Mason bees have a very short foraging range.  Good news is that the cocoons have hatched and we have lots of bees in the front and back yards (we have a Mason bee house in each yard).

image

I was out this afternoon taking some pics of the plants in the front yard.

Camas

image

Oregon Iris next to one of the water plates that my wife put out for the bees.

image

Then, I happened to see a large bumblebee on the another camas plant.

imageimage

I then saw it fly off int the direction of a large pine tree on my neighbor's property.  And when I walked over there I saw it on the ground digging and then it took off and entered a hole to the left of where it was digging (I wasn't able to get that on video, but I saw it go in and out quickly).

Here is a picture of the entrance to the nest.

image

And a zoomed out view for perspective.  My house is on the left.

image

Anyway, I'm very pleased to have found my first bumblebee nest.  I'm a little concerned that it is so exposed and next to the sidewalk.  I'll have to watch and see.  Haven't been many bumblebees yet this year.  I'll have to resist the urge to look inside Smile.

 

Other bees

I've started seeing lots of honey bees the last couple of weeks.  Not sure where they are coming from but their foraging range is supposed to be about 2 miles.  There were a lot of them in the French lavender today.  The flowers were swaying in the breeze, so the focus isn't that great.

image  image  image

There were mason bees and sweat bees in the French lavender also, but they were moving about so quickly that I couldn't get a decent picture.  The sweat bees are also quite a bit smaller.

The good news is that lots of bees are out now.  It should be amazing when the Fireweed and Catmint are in bloom.

  • in reply to DAB

    Sounds tasty.

    Roughly how many jam jars are considered as a batch over there ?

  • in reply to DAB

    Update, blackberries are in full production, two batches of Jam done and one blackberry cobbler currently being eaten. :))

  • in reply to ralphjy

    Have just spotted a queen buff-tailed bumblebee out foraging in the back garden close to BeeBox.

    May just be fattening up before hibernation, although with the unusually warm weather this year, could end up being winter-active.

  • in reply to ralphjy

    Have you got particulate matter sensors rigged up so that you can measure indoor versus outdoor levels over time?

    Perhaps need treadmills in the garage for 'indoor walkies'. 

    Tim Hunkin: The Secret Life of Arcade Machines, Rent-a-Dog

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftOwZt8nA0w  

    Some of the responder video footage from those wildfires is quite an eye-opener. Not a nice place to have to work or live.

    I was expecting some sort of a translucent flower illuminated by a combination of UV and visible light with some sort of sugar water dispenser. Was quite a surprise to see the simple target they had come up with.

    My bumblebee visitors don't take much notice of me. They are far too busy trying to visit every flower in turn a hurry to get back to the nest.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Our AC does a reasonable job of keeping the air clean and we have a couple of portable HEPA air filters that we move around as required.  Mainly have to stay indoors all the time and the poor dogs have to forego their walks.  Primary issue is that we still get throat irritation even with trying to mitigate outdoor exposure.  Not sure if it is small particulate or gas content - probably both.  Really feel for the firefighters and people living near the wildfire areas.  Wind shifted yesterday and air quality is much better now, hopefully will continue this week.

    Thanks for posting the pic of the bee pattern, saves me from looking for it.  Based on the verbal description, I had expected something different.  I may have to try it to see how well it works when there are lots of flowers around.  I know that I get a lot of company if I sit outside at lunch with a smoothie Laughing.