Texas Bee Watchers

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.

Bluebonnet Spots and Bees

 

The flowers of the bluebonnet are visited by several different native bees. I went through The Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico and searched for Texas bees that visited Lupinus and compiled a pretty long list. As the bluebonnets begin their annual bloom, I’ll be on the lookout for these genera of bees (and others, of course).

Hylaeus

Andrena

Anthidium

Hoplitis

Osmia

Megachile

Chalicodoma

Melissoides

Anthophora

Centris

Ceratina

Xylocopa

Apis

Bombus

I find it helpful to look at photos of these genera before I go bee watching on bluebonnets. Of course, there’s a lot of variation, but it does help me recognize common characteristics.

The Bluebonnet is an interesting plant. If you look at the photo above, you will see a white or pale yellow spot on some flowers and a purple spot on other flowers. Ever wondered why there were different spots on one plant?  Me, too. 

Apparently, all the flowers start out with a white or pale yellow spot. By the fifth day after the flower opens, the spot begins to turn pinkish and by the sixth day, the spot is completely purple.

Bees will choose flowers based on the color of the spot. In one study, 96% of bee visits were to white-spotted flowers. It appears that bees will limit their visits almost exclusively to white-spotted flowers. Wonder why?

Pollen from new white-spotted flowers is sticky and makes a nice ball. As the pollen ages, it is less sticky and gets powdery–and the flower spot begins to darken. It turns out that the color of the spot is a pretty good indicator for the bees. Scientists (Schaal and Leverich 1980) determined that a bee can gather much more pollen from white-spotted flowers–as much as 150 times more!–than from purple-spotted flowers. So, if a bee is looking to get the most pollen for its effort, the bee is going to pretty much ignore the purple-spotted–older–flowers and just forage on the white-spotted fresh flowers.

This is good for the bee because it can be a more efficient pollen-gatherer–and it is good for the bluebonnet because the white spot directs bees to flowers with good, fertile pollen and the transfer of this pollen is likely to result in successful cross-pollination for the bluebonnet.

I have often heard that the purple spot is the result of pollination. I will hear that flowers with white spots are not yet pollinated while those with purple spots are already pollinated. I’m still wondering a bit about this. In the Schall and Leverich paper, they said that the spot color change was not related to pollination or fertilization. 

But . . . several papers from UC–Davis (the hotspot for studies on flower preservation) indicate that an increase in ethylene production can be triggered by pollination. 

So I think this means that the color change would occur anyway, regardless of whether or not pollination occurred. But if pollination does occur, it increases the amount of ethylene and the color change would happen faster.

Ethylene is a chemical compound produced by plants. It is responsible for many plant processes, but you are probably most familiar with its role in fruit ripening. Have you noticed that when a bunch of bananas ripen, it happens to the whole bunch at the same time? That’s because of the release of ethylene. 

Heard the old saying about “one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel?”  Again, that’s because of ethylene production. Once one apple starts the ripening process, it releases ethylene gas and ends up starting the ripening process in the whole barrel–or plastic bag. Growers will ship green fruits to a distribution center where they will be gassed with ethylene to start the ripening process before being sent to your neighborhood store. 

That is probably more than you wanted to learn about a bee’s visit to a bluebonnet, but I’m going to keep an eye out this spring and watch which flowers the bees visit. And I’m going to pick out the bad apples quickly–and maybe I’ll separate my bananas too.

Pollination and Banner Markings in Lupinus texensis (Leguminosae), Barbara A. Schaal and Wesley J. Leverich, The Southwestern Naturalist, Vol. 25, No. 2 (May 15, 1980), pp. 280-282 

Can you identify this plant?

Today was a beautiful day in Austin. Earlier in the week, the weather at the Bee Garden was cold and windy. I've seen a couple of honeybees, but no natives in the garden area yet.

The cold and wind didn't stop the winter clean-up.  Vernon Berger and I have been pulling weeds from paths, trimming bushes, and removing mulch from the paths all week. We have laid out the strings for the new garden and, in our heads at least, are busy trying to decide which plants to move and which plants to add. We are hoping to have the gardens laid out and prep work begun for spring planting next week. 

We have quite a few seedlings which have volunteered from plants last year. And we are having an interesting time trying to match up seedlings with the plants they will become.

For example, what plant is this?

If you know this plant, please let us know in the comments section below.

 

By the time we are finished the garden will double in size–to about 2000 square feet. It's still a garden in development, but we are learning a lot about gardening and a little about design as we create this food court for native bees.

Honeybees: Non-native beauties

Phil Wyde from Kingsland sent me this photo last week. The honeybees stayed in a ball on a branch in his yard for about a week and then just . . . disappeared.

 

John and Diane Kayes sent me these two photos of honeybees taken in their yard on Padre Island. I just love the colors in these photos.

 

Now this is a proper patch of bluebonnets!  A large patch of flowers like this allows bees, both native and honeybees, to be efficient as they gather nectar and pollen. 

 
 
 

New Bee Watchers in The Woodlands

It was a cold and rainy night in The Woodlands last Thursday, but an enthusiastic group of Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists braved the elements to learn about Texas native bees. My talk was sponsored by the Walk in the Woods Nature Lecture Series and was sponsored by The Woodlands Township, The Woodlands G.R.E.E.N., the Hilton Garden Inn, Waste Management, Inc., and The Pineywoods Nursery. I sure do appreciate how the folks came out in the bad weather. They were a great group and asked a lot of interesting questions. 

It made me feel good when several people stayed late and spent quite a bit of time looking close-up at the box of bees I brought. Seeing their enthusiasm and interest makes me feel good about helping people become more aware of the native bees. Thank you all.

 

Catching Bees

If you want to get a close-up view of the native bees visiting your plants, you are going to have to catch them. Robert Delph of the Colorado Plateau Museum of Arthropod Diversity in Flagstaff, Arizona has made a fantastic set of videos available on the internet to show you how. 

Robert shows you various ways to catch bees and other insects and, if you are interested, he also shows how to pin and label your collection. Some of you may also be interested to know Robert is the co-designer and builder of my DCBCD (Delph-Cobb Bug Collecting Device) seen below. The man's got talent.

  

New Bee Watchers

I had the great pleasure of talking about native Texas bees with the Highland Lakes Master Naturalists yesterday. What a wonderful group. Boy howdy, you should see all the projects these tireless folks work on. They build education centers, teach fishing clinics, do eagle counts (by boat across frozen water!), do wood duck projects, build bird houses, protect and find bats, lead hikes, work with young folks in many different programs, and share natural history information with everyone at the Burnet Lawn and Garden show every year. And that's just a bit of what they do.

I'm hoping a few of them will begin to enjoy a little bee-watching as well. They were a great group–even treating me to a great lunch at the house where the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was filmed. Great lunch in a great place, enthusiastic naturalists, and a little movie history–it just doesn't get much better than that.

A big THANK YOU from me to the Highland Lakes Master Naturalists.

 

Identifying Texas Native Bees

Dr. Jack Neff gave a great talk in Austin last Wednesday night on identifying native bees. Dr. Neff is our Texas Expert on Native Bees and we are sure lucky to have him out there stalking native bees and sharing his information with us.  

It is hard to identify these native bees on the wing. But there is so much more information available to help us than there was even two years ago. If you click on the Bees button in the navigation bar above, you will find several on-line photo keys and slideshows to help you learn to identify the native bees.

First Bluebonnet of the Season in Central Texas

Just saw this on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Facebook page.  It should serve as a reminder that if the flowers are beginning to bloom, the native bees won't be far behind.

Current temperature in Austin: 47 degrees with a freeze expected tonight.

Much too cold and too early for this blooming plant. I might have to go out and check it for native bees–after the freeze.

What's Blooming Right Now?

Bee Watchers, what's blooming right now in your garden/yard/park?  Post the names of your blooming plants by clicking on Comments below.