African American Beekeeper

A honey bee found my midnight salvia!

Posted by africanamericanbeekeeper on April 25, 2011 · 1 Comment 

Midnight Salvia

Saturday, I got up anticipating a sunny day.  The forecast given the night before was for complete sunshine with temperatures of about 85 degrees.  However, the day started out very dreary. Around 9 am, I peeped over at the hive and only a few bees were milling about.  I knew that I would have to wait until the sun came out. Around 1pm, the sun had finally come out! I went out back and gazed over at the hive and the bees were now in full effect. Some taking off and others were landing almost like a runway at any major airport.

She is collecting nectar from one of my Salvia plants.

I went around my backyard as if I was on a field trip with camera in hand.  I glanced at all the flowers in bloom trying to see if any honey bees were collecting nectar from plants in my backyard.  No bees were around the roses, pansies, peonies, or the butterfly weeds.  I found one near my lavender plant and another buzzing around my “Midnight Salvia.”

The “forager”—a worker bee seen here in this picture—is probably a few weeks old.  She and other worker bees will visit 5 million flowers to produce one pint of honey.  They will venture out as far as a 3-mile radius for pollen, nectar, and water if they need too.  I guess I got lucky with this one visiting my “Midnight Salvia.”

African American Beekeeper