So you've recently learned about how it easy it would be to setup at hive in the city of Calgary. I wanted to do a little bit of follow up because I can't believe how well the bees are doing down there. I was down this past weekend visiting and had the pleasure of simply lounging around on the deck watching and listening to bees come and go from the hive and various plants around the garden. Right next the deck were some Allium giganteum and the bees were all over it. It's indescribably relaxing just sitting in the sun and listening to the sporadic humming as each bee goes from flower to flower.
The other fun activity to do was to sit and watch the dozens of bees going to and fro the watering hole that has been setup on the deck near the hive. It consists of a terracotta saucer filled with specially selected geologically pertinent rocks, both my in-laws are geologists. I hope the bees realized that's petrified wood they're walking on, it is possible to spoil bees?
With my Dad having done his last inspection 2 weeks earlier I had the pleasure of having a quick look to see how things were progressing, and I must say things are going gang busters! Here is a before and after shot of the same top bar during a span of 2 weeks. My dad might have to start engineering a way to install a second hive on top of this one if they keep growing at this rate.
Before: Taken June 12th, 2011.
After: Taken June 25th, 2011
On a completely unrelated note I wanted to post this awesome picture I took of the most marvelous creature I have seen in our garden to date, not including my bees of course. I took this last week, on the 21st, when I noticed something hovering around the back fence. I couldn't quite figure out what it was because it was too small to be a bird but too large to be a bumblebee. As soon as I noticed it had landed on my Delphiniums, I ran to grab to the camera. Here's what I saw!
After a little research I found this to be a Hemaris thysbe, Hummingbird Clearwing moth. It is called that because it will hover in front of flowers to feed like a hummingbird and due to its very large size can be easily mistaken as such.
Isn't nature cool! Queue SONG!
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