Tuesday 10 May 2011

The Bees Are Getting High In The Poppies Again!

The Bees Going Mental Again In The Poppies!

I posted in April about the early arrival of the poppies this year. Last year I seem to remember that the poppies came out later in May and then into June. This year I blogged about them on April 22nd. Much earlier. To be fair in has been a very warm and early Spring so it is to be expected.

One thing that I had not seen this year was the bees going absolutely berserk in the poppies. Last year the bumble bees were going seriously mental in the flowers, lying on their backs and buzzing like chainsaws on heat as they soaked up the pollen! They were seriously mental and completely oblivious to me!

This is until this weekend. On early Saturday morning and early Sunday morning we finally had some overdue rain. Saturday we had 2.5 mm and Sunday 5 mm. On both mornings, as can be seen above the bees had returned to the poppies. I am wondering if the rain provided a catalyst to release some of the pollen in the poppies, or at least magnify their scent? Not sure, but the onset of the rain certainly had the neighbourhood bees congregating round my place this weekend! The heady days are back for the bees! Time to party!

Another picture of this years poppies below

More Poppies

As mentioned before I am a huge fan of the poppy, and clearly the bees are as well! Pictures from last year of the bees getting a dose of poppy pollen!

A Bumble Bee Drunk On Poppy Nectar

Bumble Bee frenzy in the freshly opened poppy

Have fun,

Cheers

m

P.S. It has just be highlighted to me that noting I am a huge fan of the poppy, might not be the best thing to say. It is just the flower and how the bees interact with them that is of interest to me. Any other poppy use is outside the scope of my fan-ship! ;-)

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