Do you see any bees where you live?

Here in Nashville Tn. Where I live we saw honey bees in the beginning of march when it began to get warm here. We have two bushes on each side of the porch that were full with bees now..... They are no where to be found.

reply to post by mwc273

saw my first honey bee yesterday, buzzing my hops. jalapenos will be blooming in the next few days, will be keeping a eye out for them. I also put out some crystallized honey to feed them, but they havn't found it. SW Chicago suburbs.

Everyday I do. Matter of fact just harvested some wild honey comb the other day....
Your publix food has nothing on my natural pantry!!!

Lots and lots and there bigger this year, least thats here in Glasgow in the U.K

Since you're a prepper and seem to be located in an advantageous area why not setup a couple hives? Lots of honey (which never goes bad and needs no preservation) and can be made into mead wine. Not to mention beeswax for candles.

You know... That's not a bad idea! I looked around the interwebs a bit.
Found The South Western Ohio Beekeepers Association
and a place to buy a starter kit. BuildaBeehive.com
Now you got me thinkin'!

I live in Central Ohio and my stepmom lives in southern Ohio. Up here in Columbus we have a few honey bees/bumble bees, occasionally.

Down south, there are wood bees and honey bees EVERYWHERE.

My dad also had a few honey bee hives before he was diagnosed with cancer and died, so that could explain the abundance.

Cheers

- H

We have virtually no bees here at all--I'm just outside of NYc. And it's been like this for the last 2 years or more. But even though it's rare to see a bee, a friend just got stung by a bee in (of all places) her eye. Pretty bizzare.

I was out for a walk the other day( I live in Pittsburgh) and there were a lot of bees. Yellow jackets, wasps...

reply to post by mwc273


I live about 45 minutes south of you and there are plenty of bees on the dandelions and clover out here.

Delaware area, USA, East Coast

I have seen many carpenter bees/fuzzy fat bumble bees, more than EVER. They fly right to me too! Get right in my face, bounce off of my sun-hat and clothes. It's like they have no fear of humans anymore, which I don't remember them being so hostile when I was younger.

But I haven't seen a single honey bee. Literally, not one now that I honestly think about it.

Lots of wasps, butterflies, and hornets though.

I have a veggie garden, a flower garden, and an apple tree. Also - there is a field that belongs to a farmer right in my backyard. I believe he's growing some type of wheat this year, I'm not sure what it is exactly. Never seen him grow it before. He's gone through corn, potatoes and peas, this is new though. I also have a lot of land which is allowed to grow wildly, containing all types of wild flowers and dandelions, etc.

No honey bees with all of these fllowers and crops around? Weird....

Also:

May be off-topic but I have also noticed that there are virtually no frogs or toads in my area either. This is strange because when 10 years ago my friends and I used to capture toads ALL of them time, and pick tadpoles from the pond and raise them. We'd capture 30-40 frogs a day and have them all hopping in the garage until our parents yelled at us to let them all out.

I used to also find a lot of them dead on the streets after being hit by cars.

I haven't seen a single frog in... I'd say 2-3 years roughly. Not even dead on the road. There's three ponds around where I live and I don't even see them hopping around the pond in the grass or the tadpoles on the shores of the ponds like I used to.

Recently I have been in Auburn CA and Nashville TN. In both places I observed lots of honey bees, thank goodness!

We had one trapped in the house the other day, it wasn't a wasp or hornet, fat little black and creamy kind of body, yellowish. My son took it outside.

We have 2 hives in our backyard that helps us keep our vegetable garden pollinated each year. Each hive is active daily but I have noticed that they aren't in the yard often but that doesn't surprise me since they will travel around 6 miles to forage.

I think everyone should put up a hive. They are close to maintenance-free, great way to give back to Earth, and a sweet treat at the end of the season, just before the golden rod comes out.

BTW, I'm in Northern Indiana.

reply to post by imnotanother


Do you find your bees activity slows down when the temps dip back down to freezing in late spring?

No bees last year; but, we were in extreme drought then.

No bees so far this year; but, we have extra orange butterflies (several types) this year.

My county used to be called The Land of Milk and Honey because of the counties two main exports. Not anymore. We also had the world's largest queen bee exporter; but, that stopped because of killer bees (area quarantined).

No bees. A few wasps.
2

Central and far east CT. They came out in March. Then there was 5 days of night freezes last week and a little earlier. Killed even the hardiest weeds (knotweeds), all the bugs. The ones that didn't hatch in March and die are now just coming out.

reply to post by mwc273


There's a whole ton of honey bees nesting in my porch. Luckily, only the females/workers sting. But the males are huge and mainly black as opposed to black/yellow. They dive-bomb you head-first if you get too close to the nest, and they follow you around and watch you while you do yard work.

I know we need them to survive, and they're part of the animal kingdom... But damn, they're annoying.

And they attract wasps! Which I do hose.

Near Philly, PA

Edit: The week of cold we had here killed them, or at least made them retreat to the hive. But I'm sure they'll be back when it warms up.

I live in GA and I've seen more bees this year than I can recall from any other year, then again, I've never really payed attention. Me and my niece go out and look at them all the time, she loves them.

Yup, I sure have!! I am in the foothills of Colorado, right up against the Rockies! In my front yard I find myself ducking even though the bees are not interested in me. LOL But when you walk past the tree out front the entire tree is buzzing with them, it's loud enough that I still sort of flinch as I pass by. LOL

I have seen wasps all over too, but so far not around our house, but I saw them when I was in town the other day sitting outside a restaurant eating. Our side yard where the flower bed is and in the backyard around all of my flowers have lots of honey bees too. OH and a few weeks ago they were all over the various flower beds in the front yard. No shortage of bees here.