Bees Up In the Trees with Romas

Bees Up In the Trees with Romas, a set on Flickr - click on the link to see the entire slide show instead of just the thumbnails depicted above.

Although I've already posted on this amazing tree climb into the tops of trees to inspect high-up bee hives, this slideshow is more comprehensive and less difficult to scroll through.

I was so amazed by this process that I took lots of photos every step of the way.

BTW, all along this path were wild raspberries and huckleberries, so we feasted on them as we walked. There were also blackberries but they weren't ripe yet.

Romas also showed us his well for drinking water and his way of getting rid of the ants that bother his bees. He treats his tree trunks with a birch resin paint that he makes by steaming the birch bark in a dutch oven type arrangement in an outdoor fire pit.

There are ant lions living under his front porch and when he finds ants, he often throws them under his porch where the ant lions rather violently eat them (we saw this in action!).  Here's a link to a video of an ant being eaten by an ant lion.  And here's another.  I thought this was fascinating.

 To see the labels on individual slides, click on them in the slideshow:
Created with flickr slideshow.