I’ve learned that the poppies I saw my honey bees on yesterday are a variety referred to as the Ziar Breadseed Poppy, a variant of Papaver somniferum, or possibly exactly that.
Ziar Breadseed Poppy (October 19th, 2019).
I will be planting as many of these as I can next year to give my bees an extra hit of pollen before winter, that’s for sure.
First of all, photographing honey bees and doing it well boils down to 90% bad luck and 10% good luck. The bees in some of these photos are out of focus. That’s how it goes.
Second of all, the colour red in these poppies doesn’t seem real to me. On film, it looks almost fake. But it’s real.
And I forgot my third point, but check out these poppies (click the images for a better view):
Continue reading
I can now add wild roses to my casual list of honey bee friendly flowers in Newfoundland.
So I pulled out my honey extractor and used it to whip some honey out of about six or seven medium frames. The honey wasn’t completely cured. That is, it wasn’t completely capped and some of the nectar was still floating around fancy and loose and therefore, technically, it wasn’t honey. But it was (and is) technically delicious, so who cares? Not me. I don’t sell it for public consumption, but I eat it all the time and so do my friends. It’s probably not a bad honey for making mead.
Here’s a 15-minute video that shows how the whole thing played out (and a less-than-5-minute version for those who want to cut to the chase):
Continue reading
I’ve been told by people with a better eye for flowers than me that this is likely a variant of Elderberry, probably Sambucus canadensis.
Elderberry, Sambucus canadensis (August 20th, 2019, Portugal Cove, NL.)
My honey bees seem to like it, though I didn’t get a photo of a honey bee on it in this series of photos.
Continue reading
ERRATUM: Uh, I guess I was asleep at the wheel when I made this video. The title in the video refers to this flower as Orange Hawkweed, which it definitely is not. I’ll fix that as soon as I can.
Here’s a slowmo video I shot on my cell phone of a honey bee on Cow Vetch (vicia cracca).
If you look closely at the beginning of the video clip, you can see that the honey bee has its tongue (proboscis) stuck in the flower and then yanks it out.
More honey bee friendly flowers in are listed in Newfoundland Honey Bee Forage.
I noticed this flower growing in an area where I may have tossed an envelope of “wild flower” seeds.
Apparently it’s called Orange Hawkweed or Pilosella aurantiaca. It’s a small flower.
It looks similar to Colts Foot, but apparently it isn’t. Either way, I’ve seen honey bees on it, so it’s now on my Newfoundland Honey Bee Forage list.
I’ve written about Alder Bushes before as one of the honey bee friendly flowers in Newfoundland, but I’ve never posted any video of honey bees on alder bushes. So here it is:
October 2019 Postscript: These video clips and photos were taken on my cell phone at a time when I was just beginning to emerge from the cave I’d been living in since December 2016. The medical community calls it Post-Concussion Syndrome. It’s about as much fun as it sounds. The best therapy, better than any physical and neurological therapy, was being outside. In silence. With my bees. Whenever there was a calm in my neurological symptoms, I went outside to enjoy it while I could. I’m slowly digging through those cell phone videos and posting them when I can.
Want to hang out with me and my bees for 30 minutes? Here’s a video of things I did with my bees in August 2017. Just me, one guy, one hive. Prospective backyard beekeepers might like it.
I like the photos and the slow motion footage the most. I like the calm. Fireweed was beginning to die off in August and Goldenrod was just coming in.
I normally don’t post this kind of video, whatever normally is. I’m still sorting through a ton of cell phone footage that I have archived (that I’m now calling behind the scenes footage), looking for stuff that might be worth sharing.
I still think the best way to “save the bees” is not to bother with packs of wild flower seeds. Just take a pile of dirt, leave it alone and let whatever wants to grow in it grow in it. The flowering plants — like wild mustard — that grow in exposed soil are usually more attractive to honey bees and native pollinators than anything I’ve seen come out of seed packets.
I’ve spotted honey bees on this yellow weed that has 10 billion names including wild mustard and Yellow Rocket.
Continue reading
