The sound of the bumblebees

I could relate to this comic strip--the sound of bumblebees in the garden.....Always a welcome and nice sound. Even though I like the different seasons, I wish winter was shorter so that we could get back to gardening sooner, all of us, including the bees. 

Fred Basset by Alex Graham

Autumn is almost upon us (saying goodbye to the bumblebees)

The garden has an autumn feel to it these days. Outdoor temperatures are still around sixty-five degrees or so during the early to mid-afternoon, but once evening comes, it's chilly in the garden. And it gets dark much quicker now. I had my annual garden party for my friends/former colleagues this past Wednesday; it was a lovely sunny day but after 7 pm it got very chilly. We had a very nice time, and when they left, I cleaned up and headed for home (around 9:15 pm), at which point it was very dark in the garden. I kept expecting to meet the badger family that lives somewhere in the vicinity of the Gamle Aker church; I can always tell when they've visited my garden because they dig little holes in their hunt for insects and worms to eat. I don't find them bothersome, but they have been known to kill and eat chickens, which is exactly what happened recently to another allotment gardener who kept hens. We are not allowed to have hedgehogs in the garden for the same reason--badgers. 

Autumn is also the time of year when dead worker bumblebees are more visible, I assume because their lifespans are so short (about two to six weeks). That means many of them have been working beside me in the garden since late July/beginning of August. I have grown to love bumblebees; I call them the jumbo jets of the garden, as I've probably alluded to before. They are so bulky compared to honeybees and their buzz is louder. You hear them coming. There were many more bumblebees than honeybees this year, probably because the garden no longer has honeybee hives. Bumblebees are great little pollinators, and I love seeing my garden flowers covered with them. 

Last night, near my greenhouse, I came upon a rather disoriented bumblebee on the ground. She was clearly struggling to walk and fly. I picked her up carefully, put her in my palm and patted her gently. She clung to my fingers for dear life. I knew she was dying, so I found a pumpkin flower and placed her gently inside it and placed the flower under some larger leaves so she wouldn't be disturbed. I gave her a few drops of water and left for the evening. Today I came to the garden hoping against hope that she had only been tired and had flown away, but that was not to be. She had died. All part of the natural cycle of life and death, I know, but the death of this little creature tugged at my heart. I buried her in the pumpkin flower in the coral bell patch. I wish it wasn't so sad to lose them. Bumblebees work so hard collecting pollen that they bring back to the hive, they do their jobs, they don't live long, and they often die alone outside the hive. Not much of a life really. Perhaps that's why my heart goes out to them. I am always gentle with them, and I love watching them flit from flower to flower. Their little lives are precious to me, as are the lives of honeybees and most of the other insects in the garden. 

Who knew that having a garden would change me the way it has? I am sure other gardeners feel as I do. I don't want to kill insects for no reason. I don't want their needless deaths on my conscience. I know there are some readers who will ask me if I feel the same way about hornets and wasps. I don't know, honestly. I do know that I don't kill yellow jackets if I can help it. I swat them away but I don't kill them. They are irritating, but they are also little lives. They buzz around in search of food, and it's not their fault that nature outfitted them with a taste for barbecued meat. Trying to peacefully coexist with nature's creatures is the best policy in my opinion, although I know that it isn't always possible to do so. But we can do the best we can to not destroy their habitats, and in the case of bees and other insects, to create gardens that are inviting to them. Gardens that welcome their presence. 

Bee rescuer and bumblebee butts

I have officially become a bee rescuer in the garden. Specifically, I rescue them from drowning in the birdbath, which they frequent often when the weather is very warm, as it has been for the past week. They land on the rim of the birdbath to drink the water, but sometimes they slip into the water and don't seem to be able to swim back to the edge. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I am usually able to push them to the edge with my (gloved) finger or a short stick so that they can crawl up the rim right to the edge and dry their wings off before they take flight again. I've rescued mostly honeybees, but today, I rescued a yellow jacket as well by pushing it to the edge with my (gloved) finger. It did not need to dry off its wings before it took flight the way honeybees need to. The wings of a yellow jacket seem to be longer and more slender compared to those of bees, which are shorter and wider. It's only my observation, but bees use a much longer time to dry their wings, fanning them at intervals as though to get rid of any excess water droplets that may still be present. 

I've also noticed that bumblebees like to take naps in flowers. Sometimes when I think they're dead, I find out that they're only resting. They work hard enough, so that a nap perhaps is what they need to keep them going. The lifespan of bees varies quite a bit from what I've read online. The worker bumblebees' lifespan is from two to six weeks, whereas queen bumblebees can live for a year on average. The lifespan of worker honeybees is between 6 and 7 weeks in the spring/summer and 4 to 6 months in the autumn; queen honeybees live for 3 to 4 years on average (Bee Lifespan: How Long Do Bees Live? - AZ Animals (a-z-animals.com). 

There are a lot more bumblebees than honeybees in the garden this year. I have come across several dead bumblebees, and I always feel a tinge of sorrow when I see them. Such short lives, such industrious little creatures. I am no longer afraid of bees as I was when I was younger. But of course it goes without saying that I respect them and have learned to coexist peacefully with them, I let them go about their business and they let me go about mine, They do protest a bit when I water the garden, especially the flowers that they frequent, and they let me know by buzzing about me. But it all returns to normal after a minute or two. 

I saw a cute photo the other day on Facebook of a bumblebee that had fallen asleep in a flower. Its little butt was sticking out of the flower, and the person who posted it made a cute comment about bumblebee butts. Here are similar photos that I found on this website, Tired Bumblebees Who Fell Asleep Inside Flowers With Pollen On Their Butts » Design You Trust. I did not take these photos, so please credit the website if you use them. I think they're adorable. Enjoy! 

Bumblebees and lavender

I've planted a lot of lavender plants in the garden, and the bees--both honeybees and bumblebees--love them. There are always a lot of them hovering over the plants, flitting from one flower to the other. When I am weeding the flower garden, I can often hear the bumblebees' characteristic buzz; neither they nor the honeybees are aggressive in any way. I call it peaceful coexistence in the garden. They don't like it very much when I water the flowers, but they deal with it. I took a video of the bumblebees enjoying the lavender......Enjoy!