Spring is here!

[sauergeek]

...spuhring is here, life is skittles and life is beer... oh, wait, wrong thought.

The forsythia is finally blooming, and I saw my first queen bumblebee flying around the yard, looking for a nesting site. Whee!

Comments

[kazmat.livejournal.com]

Forsythia? Time to spread the crab grass killer....

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

And, in fact, I did just that. :)

[pir.livejournal.com]

queen bumblebee flying around the yard

Bumblebees have queens ? I thought they were a solo nesting species, so all of them look for nesting sites and procreated. What does a queen bumblebee look like ?

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

A queen bumblebee looks exactly like a normal bumblebee, but is usually larger. The easier way to tell one is by behavior: a queen in search of a nest usually flies about 3" off the ground, and investigates likely looking holes, depressions, nooks, etc. that she might be able to nest in.

There's a good brief writeup on the bumblebee lifecycle at animalnation.com.

I have a lot of native flowers (purple coneflower, gaillardia, yarrow, others I can't think of offhand) in the yard; the bees love them. They're also fond of hollyhocks, thistle (though you probably won't be fond of thistle), and every kind of mint, including basil and oregano. They largely ignore roses.