Communication Wins Over Violence

As a postscript to my paragraph yesterday on the hummingbird conflicts in our back yard I have posted a video below on seagull communication. After witnessing hummingbirds warring in the gardenI was left wondering about how fighting is such a waste of  precious time and energy in the hummingbird community. This morning I watched this video about gull communication that ends with the statement that communication on territoriality is favored in evolution over conflict. Phew. Maybe we humans can learn from the movenpicks. (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.)

Fall Floral Competition: The Beenado

Three honeybees with strikingly different abdomens

  It's a quiet warm Sunday afternoon in September. A golden light reveals a black shadow on my neighbour's buddleia--a large Mourning Cloak butterfly opens its wings as it silently sips nectar. All is quiet on the southwestern front. And then all hell lets loose as two hummingbirds declare war on each other. They take turns flying straight up to gain the visual advantage, their high pitched squeaks warning each other until their beaks clash in a mid-air sword battle. Suddenly there's a third hummingbird involved, claiming a good vantage point watch the action from our lilac bush. The sparrows and chickadees hide in the shadows. And then just as quickly as it started, the fight has ended, or perhaps moved on to another yard where the sun is still warming the desired nectar.

 

While we are celebrating an early harvest moon, floral resources are also dwindling about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. What does this mean to the bees? Competition for nectar and pollen is heating up. At a time of the year when country gardeners are entering competitions for best peach pie, longest zucchini, and the top annual floral display, bees are competing for the best flowers to feed them and save their lives. The French baker at the UBC Farm market apologizes for covering up his goods. "It's because of the bees" he says. "Pas les abeilles," I say emphatically. "Ce sont les autres, les guepes." I ask him how to pronounce it. It's gep, rhymes-with-skep. "Masculin ou feminin?" I ask. "C'est une guepe," he says. Oh la la, the women always get the blame. Wasps are furiously searching for food to feed themselves and their young before winter comes and kills them all. . . except for the queen of course. There are some distinct advantages to being female.

A bee in every dahlia, this one with a plump pollen load

 

In the rows of flowers grown for bouquets their is a fierce competition going on in the dahlias. The bee-friendly dahlias that have yellow flat centres containing pollen and nectar are sites of frenzied activity with honeybees and bumble bees, each a miniature boxing ring with the biggest and strongest bees pushing the smaller ones outside the ropes. Bumble bees can wake up earlier and forage later, but honeybees have the advantage of sheer numbers. Besides, honeybees have a beekeeper who can feed them pollen patties and sugar water if they run out of foraged food, but these native bumble bees don't have that advantage, which is probably just as well. With so many honeybees sucking up resources I wonder how much is left for the bumble bees in this situation? How often can the dahlias replenish their supply?

 

It's important to mention that any double dahlias bred so that they cannot offer nectar or pollen are silent. occasionally I find a bee butt sticking out of the petticoats of double dahlias, but they are wasting precious time and energy. You are not doing bees any favours by planting these flowers. The flowers offering pollen come in just as many eye-popping colours as the double duds.

There is also a lot of hymenoptera helicopters hovering over the Ammi (I think it's bishop's lace). These umbels are crawling with patrolling wasps and syrphid flies of various sizes. I could stand and take photos here that would create an amazing stop-animation scenes in a battle. The real B-movie. Another kind of beenado is happening over the garlic chives at 16 Oaks organic Community Garden. A vosnesenskii queen and one of her brood work side by side on the umbels of one plant. While other flowers in the garden lay empty and still, these garlic chives are bristling with dramatic tension. Similar battles are going on in the oregano and those good old brassicas. A flowering broccoli plant provides an important source of fall nectar in the city.

On looking at these photographs I note that in spite of the intense competition going on there also seems to be a higher tolerance for the close proximity of other insects feeding at the same plant.

No pollen? I'm outta here!

 

In his book Bumblebees; their behaviour, ecology and conservation (2010, Oxford University Press) David Goulson asks the question: how did the introduction of honeybees half a century ago affect the native bee population in North America? Were there native bees who could not compete with the honeybees and ended up becoming extinct? I could see that happening to an oligolectic* bee, especially one that needed crucial late summer forage. We won't know if bees were lost, but we can study the bees we have now. Native bees need our support.

Fall is certainly a time when one needs to be conscious of the political nature of which plants you choose for which bees: native goldenrods and and asters need to be there in a critical mass for native bees. Abundant fall forage for honeybees means that they won't have to compete so much with native bees: garlic chives, oregano, perovskia, asters, helenium, nepeta, bee-friendly dahlias, false dandelion, sunflowers, sedum and any umbels that bloom late are essential. Also, we need to think about putting a cap on how many hives we allow per city block so that we do not stress our native urban bees to the point of extinction. I know some folks might find this hard to hear, but it's just common sense. There's only so much food at the pollinator buffet, especially as the days get shorter, floral choices narrow, and the volume of forage goes down. And soon, the rains will come.

A spider in the perovskia has a multi-course meal

 

*Oligolectic bees evolved to have a narrow choice of forage plants, ie from one genus or species.

Sunflower Friends and Family

This photo taken at the Salt Spring Centre for Yoga shows a lovely way to edge your vegetable or flower garden with zinnias, brown-eyed Susans and sunflowers. There's some umbels and verbena tucked in there as well and amaranth would be a good accent plant. The birds and the bees love it! Floral choices are getting more narrow as we approach the fall weather. In my neighborhood I am noticing asters, rudbeckia, and sedum as good fall perennials and sunflowers and zinnias being the late-blooming annuals that support birds and bees. These plants all look lovely together as well: friends and family.

Beespeaker Back to School Ginger Flax Cookies

A few people I know right now are suffering from nausea. One pharmacist consulted recommended ginger tea, ginger ale and ginger cookies, so I am on the case. These cookies are based on a recipe from a food cart cookbook called The Sugar Cube by Kir Jensen. I have added ground flax seeds to the recipe and copied our friend Dave's idea of coating the cookies in sesame seeds. They are great washed down with a fresh blackberry smoothie.

Now red and or blue flax is often added to wildflower mixes for bees and birds. The birds love the seeds and the bees will gather some nectar and pollen from the flax flowers. This year I grew a bit of textile flax which is taller and has multiple flower heads on one stem. I'll save the seeds and see if I can get a better germination rate next summer. Flax is mostly wind pollinated and bee visits help set the seeds of textile flax, but not oil flax. I am also interested in growing a patch of perennial flax next year. Please check out the fascinating Urban Weaver's Flax to Linen project here.
  

Madame Beespeaker's Back to School Ginger Flax Cookies

Makes three dozen cookies

3 cups unbleached AP flour

3/4 c freshly ground flax seed

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

1 1/2 c butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 c blackstrap molasses

1 tbs freshly grated ginger

1/4 cup pieces candied ginger.

secret coating:

1/4 cup flax seeds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

I make these in the food processor. Start by creaming the butter and sugar, then add fresh ginger and molasses and process until evenly combined. Mix all the dry ingredients and add in stages just until mixed well.

Chill for a few hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees C.

Mix sesame and flax seeds in a small bowl. Cut candied ginger into 1/4 inch strips. Use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out a ball of dough and roll in the seeds before placing on cookie sheet and lightly press a slice of candied ginger on top.

Bake 10-12 minutes until they smell done. Don't overbake.

Cool and eat with a blackberry smoothie. (Make the smoothie with fresh blackberries, yogurt and coconut water.)

Herb Walks with Lori Snyder

Heads up! My wonderful friend and Colleague Lori Snyder is leading 2 hour herb walks this week tonight and tomorrow night. Details are on the Village Vancouver website:

Join Lori Snyder on a herbal medicinal wild food walk. She will identify and share her experiences with practical applications for skin care, food and medicines. Cost per person of $15.00.
Come Wednesday or Thursday evening.

Time: September 4, 5, 2013 from 6:30pm to 8pm
Location: Columbia St. and West 1st ave @ the Pond

Laughing Gods Poplar Salve: The Balm of Salt Spring Island

 

There is a balm in Gilead that heals the sin sick soul,

There is a balm in Gilead that makes the spirit whole.

Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my work's in vain,

But then the holy spirit revives my soul again.

When I was at the Saltspring Island Saturday market I sampled some poplar salve from a company called Laughing Gods. The little pots are charming an a bit mysterious, like something out of a magical tale. I tried a little bit on my wrist and I found myself transported into the inside of a honey shed. In another moment then I traveled in my imagination to the inside of a beehive, warm and sweet in the summer sun, heavy with the scent of wax and propolis. I had to have some of this beautiful balm. I was delighted to find that each salve comes in a beautiful handmade wooden pot and was able to choose from several custom made designs. The two artisans gather the buds themselves from local cottonwood trees.

I have been trying to find out exactly which plants bees harvest resins to make propolis as it is very important to hive health. The one tree that is cited most often is the poplar tree, especially in Europe, where the apis melifera originated. There are three poplar trees native to BC: The trembling aspen, (Populus tremuoides), the balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera spp. balsamifera) and black cottonwood (Populus balsamifera spp trichocarpa). The latter two are the largest of the broadleaf trees in BC. The black cottonwood is found west of the Rocky Mountains, whereas the balsam poplar grows up north and where they meet, the two species will hybridize. Poplar wood is used to make furniture and paper.

The salve from the balsam poplar is called The Balm of Gilead. First nations used the balsam poplar to make medicines to rub on their chests to help with breathing, especially in the longhouses which would get quite smokey. Poplar bud tea was served to those in mourning to help cure grief, but it is a powerful medicine--too much tea would be deadly. The tinctures were used in New England to treat minor cuts, bruises and sprains. It has been used traditionally to treat sore throats, headaches, aching muscles and constipation.

There is also a Balm of Gilead fir called (Abies balsamea Mill., fam. Pinaceae). In the Middle East there is an old world Balm of Gilead made from Commiphora gileadensis aka The Balm of Mecca. This would be the salve used as a metaphor in the Old Testament as the spiritual medicine for healing sinners. In the negro spiritual quoted above, the Balm of Gilead also refers to Jesus Christ, the one who "heals the sin sick soul".

 

If you are interesting in making your own pain-relieving Balm of Gilead, Dr. Ryan Drum describes in detail how to harvest the sap from poplar buds and infuse in into oil or make tinctures. As with all powerful medicines, there is a hazard involved with poplar bud sap: a very small percentage of the population is highly allergic to it. Poplar bud sap, cause anaphylactic shocks and contact dermatitis in some people. As poplars are related to willows, they contain the active ingredient in aspirin, salicylic acid. Anyone with an allergy to aspirin would be advised to avoid using poplar balm or bee propolis products.

Poplars are part of a good bioplan for helping make honeybees and humans healthy.

Jason the Tachinid Fly: He's So Bad He's Good

Visiting Dan Jason's farm this summer has been a highlight of my summer. I was always intrigued by his comment in the documentary film Gardens of Destiny* when he said he didn't need to practise pest control in his garden because there was a critical mass of biodiversity so that the pests took care of themselves. I asked Dan if he had a problem building up to this critical mass of plant diversity since he'd moved to a new farm only a few years ago, but he said that because he had the seeds and the plants to make it happen very quickly, he hasn't had pest problems. I pondered this as I looked through a big book of pests that will destroy your garden and how to deal with them at a Book Store in Ganges on Saltspring. I shudder when I page through those books as if even looking at them will jinx me and one of these villains will fly off the pages right into my garden. Dan Jason doesn't need one of those books.

Perhaps it is no surprise that one of the insects elbowing in at the nectar buffet circuit on Dan Jason's farm was a tachinid fly, most likely a Tachina algens wiedemann. I have noticed this fly once before and I never forgot it. I was watching an insect on an orange buddleia bush, which is in itself a weird plant to encounter in my neighbourhood, with its bright orange pin-pong sized infloresecences. It was generally shaped like a bee, especially the apple-seed shaped head, but it definitely had the back end of a fly. The head was grey like one of those skinny little aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The eyes did not quite match bulging eyes of a typical fly and it was calmly sipping nectar as my mind boggled over its identification. I was spooked. Then I went and looked it up on the web and found it was probably a tachinid fly. I have been telling this story ever since and it makes people's eyes glaze over with boredom. However, if I have not lost you yet, dear reader, this is some fascinatin' diptera.

 

Tachinid flies have been imported from the countries of origin as a biological pest control to parasitize invasive caterpillars that were unwittingly transported to North America. They attack cutworms. What's not to like? This article from Mother Earth News calls tachinid flies "the party guest from hell" because they kill their hosts but I think that's being a bit harsh, a bit too much like a trailer from Friday the 13th. It's more of a Midsommer Mystery kind of fly, or even a Lewis Carol invention, especially when photographed from certain angles. It looks like an old illustration out of a children's fairy tale book where bees have velvet waistcoats and tachinid flies wear top hats.

 

And so a tachinid fly becomes a symbol of one of the insects that make it possible to grow a garden without pesticides. But here's the thing, this particular contract killer doesn't have a common name. We've got to make one up! Should we name it a Jason fly, with a nod to Dan Jason, but also an echo of Friday the 13th? Send me your suggestions!

This fly feeds from nectar on asters and goldenrod, but I also saw in on Ammi visnaga, and of course here on this feverfew. This photograph is actually taken at the Salt Spring Centre for Yoga where Dan Jason used to have his garden. He left a few beneficial insects behind.

Many thanks to Mr. Dave Ingram for his post and photographs which helped my identify this fly. We need a British Columbian entomologist like Bug Eric to help us out with these insect ID's. Come on folks, who will be the lucky one to be pestered by us amateur insect watchers? Any volunteers?

*Gardens of Destiny is a film by Jocelyn Demers about Dan Jason's seed saving work that you can purchase on the Salt Spring Seeds website.