Encourage bees to come to your yard.... Sounds easy enough, and it is REALLY easy. Creating your own little bee space in your garden, patio or deck will prove to be one of the most fulfilling accomplishments in your life. Just doing your part in saving and protecting the bees in your own environment will be important for our planet. Losing our pollinators will have devastating results for our food sources. Continue to sign petitions for a GMO free country, say no to pesticides, support your local farmer. Become a *Lovavore*... Plant your bee garden, provide the housing and watch them come, creating beauty where they flit from bloom to bloom.
The Native Mason Bee
The most peaceful bee in nature...I know it seems strange but, the Mason Bee doesn't sting. Since I was a small child, I held them in my hand. Wonderful little creatures of various colors. For the love of bees... Enjoy ! Be well and happy ~ Holly
Transitioning to new beginnings, again.... I have been reflecting on my life, my path has been rocky at times, but I have always been happy, even during the hard times. Many of us are finding a new way, a new beginning, whether it is a new career, a move to a new home, or a change in familial status, we remain happy, living simply in our lives. Living simply is the key to happiness, unburdening our lives, getting rid of all the stuff that weighs us down, like a dark cloud above us, our earthly possessions, and want for more, not only add a burden to our lives, they add more stuff to our beautiful planet. Be happy with the blessings you have, your space, your family and friends, nature with all of it's bounty and beauty. Be in love and at peace with the world. Shine your light on each person you see, walk in nature, lean against an ancient tree, love a pet and be loved. Giving love and peace will bring it all back around to you. What a wonderful life ~ A beautiful world ~ My gratitude for my beautiful Oregon, and the blessing of living in Lake Oswego. As I embark upon a new venture, I know that in the flow of happiness and love for nature, my Origins Oregon will be received with open arms and loving hearts. Encouraged by friends and family, I am hopeful that Origins Oregon finds success. I will follow my heart....with gratitude.
Most gardeners don't realize the vast number of bee species there are. I have provided housing for our Oregon Native*, the Mason Bee. I observe, with fascination the comings and goings of my little, stingless friends, as they flit among my flowers, creating a beautiful abundance of flowers and vegetables. Mason bees are solitary bees that typically use tubes, reeds, and holes in wood for their nesting sites. Each female is a queen and will lay her egg in gathered pollen. She’ll separate these pollen/egg chambers with bits of mud, leaf, resin, etc. depending on her species. Each region in the U.S. has it's own native bee, so do a little research to find out which bees live in your area, it will be worth the small effort it takes to create a home for these hardworking pollinators. My mother always told me that, "we should all have something to look forward to, this will keep us happy and alive". The Mason Bees, as they leave the warm comfort of the nest, each individual bee having it's own little space, is one of the things I have to look forward to each Spring, with glee. In the Winter months, these little blue beauties, after a busy spring, the females will die in early June, their eggs hatch into larva which eat the pollen in June/July, and these larva then spin cocoons in July to metamorphosis into adult bees (still in cocoons) by October. The vast number of bees in your yard are independent female bees showing up only at specific times of the year. Each female is a queen, and they live their short life placing pollen and eggs into holes in twigs and reeds or under rocks hoping their progeny will remain undisturbed. So, please leave those stumps in your yard, as the Mason Bee will naturally create it's own home in those old stumps.
The Bee Garden
Grow your organic bee garden, build a simple bee box, and they will come. Considering our planets decline in the bee population, it is our responsibility to protect our pollinators. Providing a home for bees is a feel good accomplishment, a great hobby, while doing your part in saving the bees. The loss of bees has serious consequences for plants, wildlife and yes, human survival.
The bee is my totem, my friend, my purpose.
As you may know, EB White was the author of the much-beloved books
“Charlotte’s Web,” “Stuart Little” and “The Elements of Style.” But did
you also know he was a dedicated beekeeper? With a dash of humor,
E.B. White addressed queen rearing in this poem, which was published in The New Yorker December 15, 1945:
“The breeding of the bee,” says a United States Department of Agriculture bulletin on artificial insemination, “has always been handicapped by the fact that the queen mates in the air with whatever drone she encounters.”
When the air is wine and the wind is free
and the morning sits on the lovely leaf,
and sunlight ripples on every tree
Then love-in-air is the thing for me
I’m a bee,
I’m a ravishing, rollicking, young queen bee,
That’s me.I wish to state that I think it’s great,
Oh, it’s simply rare in the upper air,
It’s the place to pair
With a bee.
Let old geneticists plot and plan,
They’re stuffy people, to a man;
Let gossips whisper behind their fan.
(Oh, she does?
Buzz, buzz, buzz!)
My nuptial flight is sheer delight;
I’m a giddy girl who likes to swirl,
To fly and soar
And fly some more,
I’m a bee.
And I wish to state that I’ll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter.
There’s a kind of a wild and glad elation
In the natural way of insemination;
Who thinks that love is a handicap
Is a fuddydud and a common sap,
For I am a queen and I am a bee,
I’m devil-may-care and I’m fancy-free,
The test tube doesn’t appeal to me,
Not me,
I’m a bee.
And I’m here to state that I’ll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter.
Mares and cows. by calculating,
Improve themselves with loveless mating,
Let groundlings breed in the modern fashion,
I’ll stick to the air and the grand old passion;
I may be small and I’m just a bee
But I won’t have science improving me,
Not me,
I’m a bee.
On a day that’s fair with a wind that’s free,
Any old drone is a lad for me.
I’ve no flair for love moderne,
It’s far too studied, far too stern,
I’m just a bee—I’m wild, I’m free,
That’s me.
I can’t afford to be too choosy;
In every queen there’s a touch of floozy,
And it’s simply rare
In the upper air
And I wish to state
That I’ll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter.
Man is a fool for the latest movement,
He broods and broods on race improvement;
What boots it to improve a bee
If it means the end of ecstasy?
(He ought to be there
On a day that’s fair,
Oh, it’s simply rare.
For a bee.)
Man’s so wise he is growing foolish,
Some of his schemes are downright ghoulish;
He owns a bomb that’ll end creation
And he wants to change the sex relation,
He thinks that love is a handicap,
He’s a fuddydud, he’s a simple sap;
Man is a meddler, man’s a boob,
He looks for love in the depths of a tube,
His restless mind is forever ranging,
He thinks he’s advancing as long as he’s changing,
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