Where's the Bee?

Everyone under the sun has probably heard by now that there's been a significant decline in the amount of bees we see these days. Potential causes for this occurrence have been attributed to anything from mites, pesticides, infections, pollution, to a weakening of the bees’ immune system.

Of course, I really do not know as much as I should on the subject, but found a very interesting article worth reading: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=16891

I’m sad to say it took a movie like DreamWorks’ Bee Movie to shed some light in the subject, at least for me. I watched it on a plane traveling to Switzerland. Speaking of which, now that was a place where my sister and I would find bumblebees by the gazillions every summer, buzzing around the fields. I would like to add that these particular bees are about the cutest ones ever. Who can resist watching a chubby, fuzzy, bee frolicking from flower to flower? Not me!

The whole point of this schpiel is not just to bring a little bit of awareness to bees, but also to say that I have found some of them right in my garden, so I will do my part and keep them as happy as possible. Even after I leave my house, I’ll make H promise me that he will never try to remove any hives or apply insecticides, and make sure that he continues growing flowers, so the bees can have their pollen.

I have seen an indication that there were some hives (well, pieces of honeycomb are still attached) in the property at some point (will post a few pictures later), but haven’t seen any of their new “cribs”. I have, however, been observing many of them prancing around the flowers of my rhododendron.

I was so filled with awe and admiration for these little munchkins, that I pulled out my weapon of mass distraction (aka digital camera), and started snapping pictures and filming them. The buzzing around the rhody was incredible, I just wish I could have captured the sound (well, it’s not too late yet, I’ll see if they are playing outside today). The bees didn’t seem bothered by me at all, and I’m sure they were striking a pose and smiling every time I exclaimed “Make love to the camera” “Yes, you love it, you love collecting pollen, ooo yeah” or “Say Bees!!!”