Spring is in the air…

Posted by Jon on Mar 7, 2011 in Beekeeping, Wild bees | 0 comments

We’ve been enjoying some fantastic weather here – days full of sunshine and temperatures rising rapidly. The honey bees have been out in force, making the most of the flowering box (Buxus sempervirens) which we have in large quantities all around the garden. They’ve already been busy with the early flowering willow on warm days through January and February but the volume of pollen entering the hives now is much larger – the sunshine and the box must be to their liking!

At the base of the box hedge is a mat of violets which the honey bees only visited fleetingly, heading to the many flowers on the box instead.

(click to enlarge)

This weekend has also heralded the first bumblebees of the season – an enormous queen Bombus terrestris fighting to enter the tiny stemmed common dog violet (Viola-riviniana) and then being frightened away by little white faced Osmia cornuta. These small solitary bees nest in bamboo (again, something we have an increasing grove of) and flit quickly from flower to flower. Getting a picture of anything other than their back end protruding from the violets took time as they are timid and fast. We saw a few white faced males but none of the black faced females so we will keep a watch out for her.

(click to enlarge)

If you want to know more about the tiny Osmia cornuta take a look at the beautiful garden blog by Lucie – even if you can’t speak French, the pictures speak for themselves and the one of a female moving her egg is particularly impressive.

And finally, just to show how close we are to spring being here – here are the buds on our first damson tree, threatening to open any day now. Fingers crossed that the cold weather has really gone for this winter….