My brothers observations using cork in habitat replacement. It appears the stimulus for propolisation is dust, wood fibres and debris in a cavity. This would explain why simply ‘roughing’ a surface falls short in producing the propolis layers we see in wild nests @EvaCraneTrust

Fascinating to watch the behavior of the violet green swallows nesting in a bird house on my shed. Three adults are involved. They feed the babies, fly off with a wad of poo from the nest, and then drop said wad on our cars. 😅

Spotted several of these on my lovage plants. Oregon swallowtail? Whatever they are, they are welcome to all the lovage they can eat. #insectID

I know this is a show off post but I had to post it. When you work hard all your life and you are doing so well you can treat yourself, right? I can’t express the happiness I am feeling. White was the only colour but it doesn’t matter. I’ve purchased these four chairs.

So far the greatest predictor of beard size in my bee yard is how crowded the hive is. I have one Cork Hive with a big beard and two with no beards. Also have thick walled wooden hives that are beardless, but they are in the shade. This is not a very scientific experiment.

Great example of bees using propolis as an entrance reducer @BeespaceX

Only up to 73 degrees at 8:30am. No beards on the Cork Hives and a tiny Van Dyke on the Langstroth with cockamamie cork insulation. Yesterday no beards on the Cork Hives, but it was only 90. Let's see what 100 degrees brings. 😳

Heat wave coming to the Pacific Northwest in the US. I'm curious to see how the bees do in my cork insulated hives. In theory the cork should help them stay cool but we'll see what sort of bearding we get.

A swarm descends upon bait hive row. They chose the Cork Hive. Later that day, the wily swarm that didn't want to be caught moved into the cork clad hexagon. Still waiting on someone to choose the cork lined Warre.

Dark-edged Bee-fly collecting dust!! Females coat their eggs in dust or sand. This provides camouflage and adds weight to the eggs, making it easier to flick them towards solitary bee nests 😎

Spent two hours getting a wily swarm from a high tree. Left the box so scouts could join them. A little bit later, they zoomed out of the box and into a bait hive I had set up. I could have just waited. 🤣

Really just one bee landed on me, licked my shirt, gave me a dirty look, and flew off. But I imagined more drama.

When the swarm lure you're spraying wafts back on you, but you don't want to be the swarm commander.

About three days of increasing activity at this empty hive I left out in hopes of attracting a swarm. Have these bees moved in, or are they just very serious scouts? No pollen, but a drone can be seen barging his way in. Maybe he thought it was a Denny's.

New-to-me observation of a #RedWingedBlackBird hunting atop lily pads. She ran and hopped from leaf to leaf, raising them up like they were carpets and she was looking for something she had lost... 😍 #TsartlipLands #Wetlands #BirdBehavior

That hardware cloth is to keep the mice out. They'll clamber in an empty hive any time of year, at least in these parts.

A lot of activity at this empty hive. Scouts? It's been so rainy and cold here I haven't been able to open any hives to check for swarm cells. I did see a drone among these "scouts" (not in this footage). I've never heard of a scout drone but maybe he was just curious. 😃@18_bees

Last summer, I found a tiny clump of soaking wet bees in the woods. To my surprise, they made it through winter. It's really rainy today but these bees don't seem to care at all. Scotchgard bees?

The tube nesting bees have never liked this particular house. Looks like a bald faced hornet tried it out, but then even she decided it was a bad place to live. No progress on this nest in a week. I was going to relocate the whole box to low traffic area but she's moved on. 😃