Bees and the Birds

The hornets/yellow jackets are getting busier and busier in my yard. Yesterday when I checked my beehive I noticed the hornet activity increasing around my hive. I noticed one hornet flying around the back of my hive, looking to get past all the guard bees lining the rear entrance (I have my honey supers offset from the brood boxes by 1/4" to allow greater ventilation and the bees use these gaps as extra entrances/exits). The hornet couldn't get in because every gap there was filled with a beady-eyed fuzzy black head. Take that, hornet! I decided I needed to get another hornet trap positioned on top of the hive to help out my girls with their defenses. Here are a couple that I have been experimenting with.

This one is a can of cat food that has flea/tick powder mixed in with it. The theory is the hornets eat the poisoned cat food, take it back to the nest, and feed it to the insects there, thus poisoning them too. I've covered it with wire mesh and hung it from a tree branch to keep out the neighborhood kitties. It's probably still not late enough in the year to attract hornets seeking protein for their nests because I only saw one or two take any interest. Grade: C-

My best success is with the quart jar hanging near my hummingbird feeder. It has an inverted cone made of window screen. I blogged about this here. The jar is filled with Dr. Pepper and I tossed in an old blackberry in for added sweet seduction. I've emptied this trap twice now. It attracts a few earwigs, a few ants, flies, and plenty of hornets. I hung it near my hummingbird feeder to distract the insects. Grade: A

If you have sharp eyes you can see a female hummingbird between the tree trunk and the feeder. She matches the tree in coloring.

My dad was born an engineer. He thinks up great designs for everything from little robots to computer circuit boards to personal star chambers. I think his favorite medium, however, is PVC. My makeshift chicken run designs were not very useful and my chickens escaped with annoying regularity. I finally begged for help and this is the awesomely-engineered result. It's worked very well. Thanks Dad!

I regularly follow a blog written by Rusty at Honey Bee Suite. She takes beautiful photographs of all kinds of insects, but mostly fascinating pictures of bees. She shares her knowledge and expertise so readily. I have learned quite a lot from her. Taking inspiration from her, I wandered my yard looking for insects to photograph. Here is a wasp of some kind in my spearmint.

I am assuming this is one of my very own honeybees. I love seeing the sun shine through her abdomen, making it glow. This is also in my spearmint.

I'll be extracting honey from hive sometime in the next two weeks. Stay tuned!