Bee Early
photos: Near Guelph Ontario on May 3rd, 2009, a sunny +16°C between 9:00 and 10:00am.
My father likes to plant various nectar plants throughout his lawn and apiaries. Purple Grape Hyacinths look gorgeous and provide a much needed early nectar flow for hungry bees. After they finish blooming the lawn can be mowed as usual and the flowers return in more abundance each Spring.
photo: Honey bee foraging on Purple Grape Hyacinth (Muscari spp.).
photo: Honey bee foraging on Purple Grape Hyacinth (Muscari spp.).
In a shaded part of an apiary grows a patch of Ontario’s official provincial flower - White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum). Bees were busy collecting bright yellow pollen from the trilliums.
photo: A patch of White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).
photo: Honey bee foraging on White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).
photo: Honey bee foraging on White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).