Bee School for Kids Finale

 The final day of bee school was cloudy and drizzly, but we still did manage to spot and capture a few bees. This is an eastern bumblebee, a non-native bumblebee escaped from a greenhouse where they are used to pollinate tomatoes and peppers. Sadly, these bees are often diseased and displace local bumblebees from their nests. Judging from the furry tuft or moustache on its face, I'd say it was a male.

You can see his blonde moustache here in this photo: Magnum B. I., bee detective.

I did see one turquoise sweat bee on our safari, but sorry, no photo.

We spent some time under the tent making bee flags with three different silhouettes: honeybees, leafcutter bees and bumblebees. I also told some stories about swarm-gathering experiences.

We also took a closer look at the flowers the bees are visiting nearby, choosing samples that had been damaged by the recent activity with the railway tie removal. I don't like to take viable flowers away from the bees!

 We also looked closely at the flora to find other creatures like this spotless ladybug.

And sometimes, as with this bald-faced hornet, the creatures came to us.

After further discussion on what we can do to help the bees, we did some gardening.
Joey led the group in digging potatoes and planting flowers.

These flowers aren't great for bees. It's the perennial sweet peas that have the best nectar and pollen rewards.  They did also plant blanket flower and tithonia, which are great for bees. It's pretty late in the season for planting, so hopefully we'll have a nice warm fall for those flowers to bloom for the bees.

We also made a bee oasis for the honeybees to sip at when the weather gets sunny and dry. We placed it right next to the entrance of a bumblebee nest the students noticed about a foot away from the beehives! Better not cover up that entrance hole! We need a little "home sweet home" sign for the bumblebees.

When asked what the favorite parts of the camp were, harvesting and tasting honey and catching and releasing bees were at the top of the list. I'm hopeful that these students will grow and develop in their relationship to the stewardship of honeybees and wild bees.

Thanks to Joey and Tricia for inviting me to be a part of this important summer school.

Bee School Day Two: And Another Rare Bee!

When I arrive at The World in A Garden at 9 am, I search for bees sleeping in flowers. This male bumblebee is just waking up.

 Later on, as the sun warms, male bumblebees head for the comfrey flowers. Male bumblebees are often silvery like this one, or blonde.

As the forecast for later this week is for rain, Joey and Marcus decided to extract honey while the sun was shining.

 Now I see here Joey was capping the jars and soon after she was stung on the head. A bee got caught in her hair. Ouch! I removed the stinger and we "framed" it on a piece of tape for posterity.

Marcus wipes honey off of sticky faces so no-one else gets stung! We did have one other casualty as a well-meaning student attempted to wash honeybees that got immersed in honey. She got stung on the finger.

 It was a fantastic day to see bees of all stripes, especially all the tiny sweat and mining bees.

This was taken early in the day as the bee was waking up. Bees don't tend to forage on feverfew, so  he was just resting here.

I've started using my hand to help my camera focus on the bee.

Always check thistles for bees. They are a definite favorite. They should definitely plant artichokes in this garden for the bumblebees.

The bumblebee nests have produced new queens and males.

Also check for small bees in the queen Anne's lace, especially on sunny afternoons. The flowers were swarming with bees, flies, wasps and beetles.

Many wool carder bees were caught and released.

The bee teachers. We look happy!

Well I was thrilled because one of the boys found ANOTHER rare bee! I'm pretty sure this is Anthophora terminalis, another ground-nesting bee. (ETA: It's actually the only anthophora bee that nests in rotting wood). It's another one I've never seen in Vancouver.

 Can you see the red bit on the last tergite?

We'll need to think about planting the preferred forage plants of this bee.

OMG: What a cute bee! For really good photos, and some great info on bees that lick sweat, check out this post from the Home Bug Gardener.

So they've taken out the railway ties. I have mixed feelings. The railway SLOWED people down, making this a fantastic corridor for pollinators. I also have a great nostalgia for the tracks because I spent so much time around them in my childhood in Saskatchewan. However, a bike trail here would be good and the creosote on the ties is toxic. Still, every time earth is moved--ground nesting bees suffer because they lose nests. All these things need to be considered, especially with rare ground-nesting bees in the vicinity.

Day One at Bee School for Kids: This Changes Everything

Bee school has begun! Marcus introduced the students to the world of honeybees and finished by letting everyone sample some honey straight from the comb.

The students were kind enough to share some honey with the sweet, non-stinging drones. My, what big eyes you have!

 

 

Then it was my turn to talk about the native bees, including these bumblebees that were robbing nectar from comfrey growing right next to the hive.

And this is the correct way for a bee to access comfrey nectar if her tongue is long enough.

The arugala flowers near the hive were feeding some of the tiny sweat bees.

Artist Jasna Guy graciously helped us make badges for bees and shared her awesome teaching resources with us.

We saw a lot of yellow-faced bumblebees and one student even caught three at once. They even noticed a bumblebee nesting site right by the honeybee hives.

One student caught a male European wool carder bee. She called it the wooly mammoth bee. "Lady, get me outta here!" (All bees we caught were released.)

Before heading off on a bee safari, we had a healthy snack.

And some folks brought their snacks along. We feasted on berries and found lots of bees. What a fun day!

But the most exciting thing was catching what I believe to be a very rare sighting in Vancouver: A California bumblebee (Bombus californicus). See how the head is black, not yellow like Bombus vosnesenskii?

Note how the body is long and lanky compared to other common Vancouver bumblebees.

Here the bee is raising a leg as a warning threat. So this means we really should plant a bumblebee conservation garden here at World in a Garden. This is a really important finding! It also means that it would not be a good idea to load the neighborhood with more honeybee hives. There are plenty of native bees here to pollinate the neighborhood plants. We need to support the bumblebees by planting flowers unique to their foraging needs in order to ameliorate competition with other bees.

Check out this new study from Norway regarding bumblebees losing the battle for forage with honeybees: Wild bees lose the fight for flowers.