George, the dog, is on the look out for one of his arch enemies…the honey bee.  Don’t get me wrong; I love bees! But George doesn’t and spends endless hours in his pursuit to snap them out of mid air and kill them.  He stakes out a buzzing bush, staring quietly as he tracks one.  Then snap! He actually grabs one out of mid air, followed by lots of paw rubbing on his muzzle.  When that method is unsuccessful in killing the poor bee on the first try,  he resorts to smashing a bee down to the ground with a paw.   He has been stung numerous times over the years on the nose, mouth and paw.  What drives him to keep going back for more?  My son says George kills them it to protect his best friend, my son.  In my opinion, I actually think the crazy dog likes the feeling of being stung or the buzz.  Bad Dog!

Unlike my dog and son, I try to encourage bees presence in the yard.  We need lots of pollinators this time of year.  I love fruit and veggies, and most of them need the honey bees and other native bees to help pollinate the flowers for fruit set.  Although it is sometimes unsightly, I intentionally let a few broccoli (or anything else in the brassica family) go to flower at the end of the winter growing season to attract a variety of bees to my yard.  Their flowers are usually early enough to help attract the bees into the garden to also stop by and pollinate the blackberries, stone fruits, kiwi, and raspberries.  The radish flowers, alyssum, and borage also help to bring in the bees.   By always keeping a variety of flowers blooming throughout the year, we seem to get plenty of bees visiting our yard.

By the looks of it, we either have a few healthy feral colonies nearby or a bee keeper. I would love to be a beekeeper myself and have home grown honey, however, it is illegal in this city.   I am sure no one would notice if I kept a hidden hive in back corner of the lot, however, my dear son despises being around bees.  I joke that if I did get an illicit hive,  he would probably call the city on me.

For a list of good plants to attract pollinators throughout the year visit: Urban Bee Gardens

And for info on local treatment free bee keeping, check out the Backwards Bee Keepers