Right on schedule as I photographed this swarm in our yard in both March 2014 and 2015. They’re two weeks earlier this year, but so fascinating to watch! They don’t appear aggressive, but I don’t plan to make any aggressive moves toward them either! The hive is in a cinderblock pillar in our yard, probably loaded with honey after a number of years, but no one plans to extract it! It’s theirs alone, and given all our fruit trees, I figure they eat very well! They’re happy. We’re happy!
What may appear to be a somewhat blurred photo is the translucency of their wings! Enlarged, I'm delighted that the image is fairly crisp!
@allie912 That certainly crossed my mind! In NS, everyone commented that plants were in bloom a couple weeks earlier last summer, and our trees are overloaded with fruit this year, even though we're having drought conditions. As long as the bees continue to do what bees do, there's hope for our planet!
@golftragic Did you see what I wrote to Allie above? I realize that I'd written a letter this evening to a friend and spoke of how green the hillsides are along the coast heading north due to the bit of rain we've had. What we don't have is sufficient snow pack to see us through the summer...and yet people still continue to fill in all the empty spaces out here... I wonder where the tipping point lies...
@Weezilou I don't have the slightest doubt that we're experiencing climate change already. Our weather is distinctly odd in recent times. You've touched on my pet hate, the march of the little boxes across our countryside. In Melbourne, most of the best market gardens, egg farms etc, etc of fifty years or less ago are now covered in brick venerals (I think they're akin to a disease). Geelong is much smaller (around 180,000), but now repeating the same pattern much to my horror. The quarter-acre block has been 'the Australian dream' for eons. We don't have many places that get snow, but I think it's been pretty poor in those places, and we got almost no spring rains at all down here in the south-east. I have a horrible feeling about that tipping point …
Great to have the bees around. Also nice that you are able to cohabitat with them. I know of so many who would just exterminate the bees, without any thought regards having them safely relocated. Without the bees we will altimately have no food!
@salza I shudder to think about anyone EVER exterminating bees!!! Through most of the year they live in the pillar of the cinder-block wall around our yard (out here, everyone's homes are cordoned off with such walls...) The gardeners have complained about them, but no way am I going to annoy them! I'd rather have tall grass by that column than to disturb the bees! Our (tree) garden is so loaded with edibles this year, I know I have those bees to thank for much of that!
I'd like some bees down here, but not sure abut this many. Ouch. We haven't had bees here in two or three years. Consequently, our apricot trees, etc have not had any fruit.... They need bees. Send some of these down. We miss our fruit.
This is amazing! So many bees and so busy! Thank you for making them welcome and encouraging to come back. Without bees we are all doomed. Love this capture...brave shot.
That is an amazing shot. I love how focused all of the bees are. I have struggled with that a lot this year. None of mine have been quite so still I think. :)
@evalieutionspics Thanks for the comment! The *only* time I can get such a photo is after they have swarmed, and I've been able to do this three times over 3 successive years. A day after I took this shot I braved getting my lens only inches from them as they were clearly quite settled with their intentions elsewhere.
March 24th, 2016
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And thank you for taking care of them!