or a more accurate title: Brown-Belted Bumblebees on African Blue Basil.
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November 2016
This bucket is all about the Bumblebees on the African Blue Basil. There’s 2 plants I started from cuttings last winter and put in the ground early spring. It's the 4th year of this sterile variety from the original potted plant. Hard to tell from these closeups how big the plants are or how many bees are buzzing but down below I will attempt to insert a 30 second video. It's all quite impressive.
As the nights have cooled, I discovered that these busy bees spend the night in slumber right on the flowerheads. It's how I got non-fuzzy photos of what is normally constantly moving. They don't all wake up at the same time tho - seems to depend on size and a sunny spot.
From Wiki - these are the workers bees with the brown-yellow belt. My photos don't quite get the details but below the belt are 5 bands of dark hairs.
During the day, the basil is shaded by a Sweetgum but that does not slow down activity. When I say the bees go sunup to sundown, well yes they do. I don't know much about this overnight hibernation, if that is what scientists call it, but with near freezes due this weekend and for sure next month, I wonder how long the bees survive. Guess it's like the Yellowjackets this time of year — there's always one right there no matter what I'm doing looking for one last meal of whatever. The other day a YJ was in the garden and there on the dirt I was turning, it started doing some happy dance, round and round it went, happy happy here here.
Yesterday I spotted one of those black wasps with the exceedingly skinny abdomen but it didn't stay around long. Skippers come by and try a flower or 2 but soon enough a bumblebee comes barreling in and knocks them off.
Below the fold is the video, about 30 seconds if you have the time or bandwidth. Otherwise, see ya in the comments!
the video of a couple dozen bumblebees — they never stop moving till the sun goes down.
It looks better full screen (which appears to be disabled) but you get the idea — youtube seems to have blurred the photos thru compression or something. Ah yes, I remember the days when youtube was easy to use...
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