Bees at Dusk, Tired from Tulip Poplar Nectar Gathering

The bees have spent the day gathering nectar from the Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera). Here's a beautiful picture of the flower from a Florida website. Here's another great source of basic information about the tulip poplar, also with good pictures. On this site, they say, "The tulip poplar flower has a colorful base that guides bees to the flower's source of abundant nectar."

Now almost all of the bees are home and a few are gathering on the front porch. I love the foursome lined up together. Later in the hotter weather, the bees will be massed on the front of the hive - now it isn't hot at night and there aren't as many bees yet as there will be in a few short weeks.















This is my hive with the new Country Rubes screened bottom board. It's a very well put-together SBB. You can see the cedar stand and the bent screw eye that serves as a lock to keep the panel in place that allows access to the sticky board if one is in place. I have the bottom open on Proteus. Some of you who looked at the video may have noticed light in the center of the hardware cloth under the hive. This is light reflecting from the deck through the bottom of the screen.

Below is a close-up of the bees sorting out the news of the day. Probably they are commenting that it is the first Monday since their arrival that that darned beekeeper didn't disturb them by checking on their creative ways of building comb.