Texas Bee Watchers

Identifying Texas Native Bees Reminder

The site has been filled with Bee-Friendly Garden information lately, but remember that if you click on Bees in the Navigation Bar above, you will find links to sites which have scientific names and photos of Texas bees, general native bee information, and sources to help you identify native bees you may be watching.

Remember that planting bee-friendly plants in your garden will attract native bees. One place to pick up some native plants for your garden, if you are in the Austin area, might be the Wildflower Sale at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. This annual sale occurs  on April 10 and 11th this year. 

Expanding a Texas Bee Garden

Last year, when James Smith, the District Manager of the Austin Community Landfill, asked if I could build a Bee-Friendly Garden at the Landfill, I said "Sure." I knew it would be a big challenge, but I really didn't know how big. It was more work than I imagined, but with a lot of help from another Texas Bee Watcher, Vernon Berger, we managed to plant a large area and watch some bees.

But when Mr. Smith asked us if we could expand the garden, I was a bit less sure. However, with Vernon providing a lot of positive energy, encouragement, and manpower, we started doubling the size of the garden yesterday. Today, with more help from the Waste Management employees at the Landfill and some rather large landfill equipment, we got the garden beds formed. Vernon moved mulch into about half of the paths to provide a weed-free (we hope) path for people visiting the garden. We have left plenty of bare ground for ground-nesting solitary bees.

Vernon documented the day with photos, including this photo proving that we actually had a plan on paper for how we would set up the garden.

 

Next comes moving transplants from the old garden areas to the new garden beds. We've learned a bit more about garden design after last year and we hope to move plants to better locations. We also need to redesign our watering system to help the new plants make it through the Texas summer this year. 

The garden will serve as an experimental garden to test the bee-attractiveness of both native and non-native flowers. School groups are also invited to come and wander through the garden to learn about pollination and bees.

We certainly plan to get the Austin Community Landfill Garden Officially Certified as one of the 52 Bee-Friendly Gardens this year.  Maybe we'll be one of the first 10 gardens?  Though this garden is going to end up being about 1500 square feet once completed, your garden doesn't have to be that large to become an Official Certified Bee Garden. 

So, get your new Bee Garden planted, modify your existing garden to better accommodate native bees, or just inventory your existing Bee Garden and let Texas Bee Watchers know about it. 

Bee-Friendly Planting Guides for Texas

The Pollinator Partnership's mission is to protect pollinators, including native bees. One of the helpful things they have done is to publish Ecoregional Planting Guides. If you are getting ready to plant a Bee-Friendly Garden, you can use these guides to get started.

By clicking on the Ecoregional Planting Guide, you can enter your Texas zip code to determine which Ecoregion you live in. Seven different guides cover parts of Texas:

the Southwest Plateau and Dry Plains Steppes, 

the Prairie Parkland (Subtropical), 

the Great Plains Steppe and Shrub Province, 

the Southeastern Mixed Forest, 

the Outer Coastal Plain Mixed Province, 

the Chihuahuan Desert Province, and the

Arizona-New Mexico Province.

The Pollinator Partnership used names for regions of Texas based on R. G. Bailey's Classification System. His classification system for climate and vegetative regions of the US was first developed for the US Forest Service in 1978.

If you like looking at maps and want to see Texas broken down to even smaller subregions, you can take a look at The Ecoregions of Texas map. Looking at this map will certainly convince you that Texas is a big state with a lot of different climate/vegetation regions.

Plant some bee-friendly plants and you can watch bees right in your own garden every day.

#1 The First Official Certified Bee-Friendly Garden in Texas

  

Terri Whaley from Bertram, Texas (Zip Code 78605) is not only a great gardener, she's fast.  Within 4 days of posting the 52 Bee Gardens: 52 Weeks Bee-Friendly Garden Challenge, Terri sent me these photos and a list of plants in her Bee-Friendly Garden. That made her the first to have her garden certified Bee-Friendly in Texas.

The 1st Official Certified Bee-Friendly Garden in Texas was initially planted in 2006. Terri says she's been interested in gardening for wildlife and pollinators for many years, so when she and her husband, Bob, moved into their house in Bertram, she knew she would plant a pollinator-friendly garden. She and Bob provided all the hard labor to plant the garden that extends around all sides of their home. Terri says the noise from all those buzzing bees is quite a thrill. I've posted photos of the Whaley's garden below.

I'm thrilled to have the Whaley garden be the initial Bee-Friendly garden in the 52 Bee Garden Challenge. It's a beautiful garden, especially for the native bees. It combines plants that are attractive to native bees, large patches of the same species of plant, and plants that provide blooms throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Terri does mulch areas of her garden but has left large areas of bare ground to provide nesting areas of ground-nesting solitary bees.

Congratulations to Terri and Bob Whaley, new Texas Bee Watchers, whose garden is the Texas Bee Watchers Official Certified Bee-Friendly Garden #1.

The list of Bee-friendly plants in Terri's garden is posted in the Navigation Bar above (click on 52 Gardens Plant List). This list will grow as I add plants from future Official Certified Bee-Friendly Gardens.

New gardens, established gardens, gardens that you've modified by adding plants or removing mulch are all eligible for the 52 Bee Garden Challenge. Size is not important as long as the other requirements are met. Your garden can cover an acre or be in pots on a patio in a high-rise condo. It can be your garden, your nature group's garden, or the space outside your place of business. Full requirements are listed in the Navigation Bar above (click on 52 Bee Gardens: 52 Weeks).

 

   Texas Betony in a nice large patch

Damianita patch

  A large patch of Fall Asters will be covered by native bees in the . . . fall.

 Rosemary provides an early bloom source for the native bees in the spring.

New Kerrville Bee Watchers

I just returned from Kerrville where I spoke to the Hill Country Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists about native bees. These folks are another great group of people who volunteer to promote conservation and maintenance of our Texas natural resources. The amount of volunteer hours these folks provide is amazing. 

All Texans should thank the Texas Master Naturalists for all they do.  In fact, all Texans should look into becoming Master Naturalists. They offer a great training program and I can guarantee you will make some great friends while helping educate, maintain, and conserve the fantastic natural resources of this great state.

It was a great crowd. I thought they were way . . . COOL! (You had to be there!)

Thanks for inviting me and making me feel so welcome.

Bees and other insects in your garden

I found an interesting and entertaining webcast by Dr. Eric Grissell, the author of Insects and Gardens: In Pursuit of a Garden Ecology.  Skip through the first 5 minutes of an overlong introduction by someone from the Library of Congress, and you will be rewarded with Dr. Grissell explaining why insect and plant diversity in your garden is a good thing. The webcast lasts about 40 minutes, but I found him to be an engaging speaker. He's also a professional Bee Watcher.

The information in this webcast will help you understand why you need to plant a diversity of plants in your Bee Garden.  

Can Texans Plant 52 Bee-Friendly Gardens in 2010?

Texas Bee Watchers is challenging Texans to plant 52 Bee-Friendly Gardens by the end of the 2010. Since TBW may be the only site certifying Bee Gardens, you can make sure Texas has more Official Certified Bee Gardens than any other state by certifying your Bee Garden! Go Texans!

Small potted gardens, large gardens in big yards, community gardens, nature park gardens, mailbox gardens, or golf course gardens, they all qualify. If you have an area to plant or want to modify an existing garden, plant it to attract native bees and be a part of the TBW Challenge for 2010.

  
There is no prize money to pay taxes on, no presentation dinner with really bad baked chicken, and no large trophy to lug home. 

But, instead of useless bling, you will walk through your bee-friendly garden and hear the buzzing of native bees, you will know you are providing food and shelter for bees and a variety of other pollinators, you will have beautiful flowers in your garden during spring, summer, and fall, and, on top of all that,  you will have an Official Certified Texas Bee Garden.

To receive Official Certified Texas Bee Garden status, you must:

1. Plant 5 or more species of plants (annuals, perennials, shrubs, vines, trees).

2. Plant at least 3 plants of each species.

3. No pesticides or herbicides.

4. Plant large patches of the same species close together. Try for a minimum 4’ by 4’ patch of each species.

5. Plant a variety of species that will provide blooms throughout the spring, summer, and fall.

6. Plant bee-friendly plants. Native plants will attract a greater diversity of native bees, but during the hot Texas summer months, planting non-native plant will also help the native bees make it through the summer. Look for Bee-Friendly plants on this site and in the Books For Bee Watchers box on this site.

7. Provide nesting areas (bare soil and/or nest boxes or bundles). Directions for building these are on this site.

To qualify for an Extra Special Official Certified Texas Bee Garden, you can add a few extras:

1. Leave your garden a little less-manicured. The native bees like a less manicured area where nesting sites (bare ground) are near blooming plants.

2. Label your plants so you can monitor which plants are more bee-attractive. And you can let other Texas Bee Watchers know about those plants by posting your list of plants on the TBW website.

3. Plant 10 species of plants instead of only 5 species.

4. Plant 5 plants of each species instead of only 3 plants.

After you have planted your Bee Garden:

1. Take a photo of the Bee Garden  and send it to Texas Bee Watchers at beewatchers@mac.com.

2. If possible, include a list of plants or a list of plants you added to the garden to make it more bee-friendly. 

3. Be sure to give your location (Zip code, city, county, nature area, etc.)

I’ll post your garden photo on the TBW website and give your garden an Official Certified Designation Number.

Who’s going to be number 1? Number 37? Number 52? Why not YOU?

Why did the bee go under the Holly Fern?

This afternoon I visited two beautiful private gardens in Austin. It's still early and few plants are blooming but that may change tomorrow. That's how close we are to full spring bloom. Well, almost.

I received a great tour from Chandler, the owner and gardener for one of the gardens I visited. She graciously shared her garden with me and I am looking forward to watching her garden bloom over the year. Needless to say, I will be watching the bees as well. 

But there was a highlight. 

Chandler and I were visiting her friend Nancy's beautiful garden and just as we were beginning to wrap up, Chandler noticed a bee disappear under a holly fern. It was about the size of a honeybee, but there were no flowers under the holly fern, so we took a closer look and–viola–we found this nest–which we promptly scared the bee away from. 

Chandler professed to never paying much attention to bees before and, yet, here she was, spotting a solitary bee and what appeared to be odd behavior, on her FIRST bee watching adventure. She's a natural bee watcher!

This kind of find gets me all excited about watching bees again–and I'm pretty sure Chandler is hooked on bee watching now. We will be sure to keep an eye on this nest.

 

 

Spring, Bees, and Nest Boxes

It was almost 80 degrees in Austin yesterday. Heaven–for bees and me. 

I've spent the last few days building observation nest boxes with my friend, John. Actually, John is doing all the hard work of routing the wood. I'm the tape and material girl.  We used the plans from the Logan BeeMail post on February 10th. 

John knew nothing about native bees before I asked if he might have a router. He just happened to have a router he had never used and he gamely took on the challenge of finding the right bit and learning how to use the router. After finally tracking down the correct bit and making an example, he brought it over and we measured and discussed improvements. 

Headsup: Using a router can be dangerous. Not only are you working with upside down wood, but if the bit gets a bit loose or out-of-alignment, you could see flying-out-of-control wood. Not that John or I actually discovered this–ahem.

The photo above shows the bamboo nest bundle I made last week and a few of the observation boxes John made. I've propped the plastic observation sheet up with a rock so you can see how it lifts up. 

While John was hard at work sawing and routing, I went out and caught a few bees for him so he could see who he was building nests for. I put the Osmia males and the female Halictus I caught in the refrigerator to cool them down. When John arrived, I pulled them out and he could hold them in his hand and take a good look at them.

I think he's hooked. 

Chalk up another certified Texas Bee Watcher.

Building Solitary Bee Nests for your Garden

If you were out at the Austin Community Landfill yesterday, you would have seen me chopping down bamboo. And not only because I really dislike bamboo.

 

I'm putting together examples of solitary bee nest "boxes" that you could put in your garden. For solitary bees that nest in the ground, I always recommend leaving some bare dirt in your garden–you don't really need to mulch every piece of land. And don't even get me started on the bad sides of black plastic covering the ground.

But if you want to add a nest box for cavity nesting solitary bees, I want to be able to show you lots of alternatives.

So I was cutting down bamboo. In particular, I'm going to try to attract Osmia lignaria (Blue Orchard bees). Most of the directions I find for constructing nest cavities from reeds or bamboo suggest cutting them to lengths of 6 inches. It was not easy to find bamboo that measures 6 inches from node to node. Most of what I found yesterday was under 5" from node to node. And if it was 6", then the hole in the stem between the nodes was larger than 5/16".  I understand that if the stem is shorter than 6", bees will still use it, but I will get fewer females and that if the stem is longer than 6" I will get more females and the cavity will be less attractive to the bees.

Preparing the bamboo was pretty easy. After an hour I had a big bucket of stems.

So I'm going to go ahead and gather my bamboo stems into bundles and hang them out. I'll put some out at the Austin Community Landfill garden area and some in my own garden.  I'll watch them and see what happens this year.