Asters in December

It's December - usually in years before Global Warming, we would actually have cold weather.  The supposed first freeze date in Georgia is generally November 15.  So far this year, as last year and the more recent warm years, we haven't had a freeze yet.

The temperature dipped into the 30s at least two nights, but still was two degrees above freezing.  The problem for bees is that if they fly out of the hive, it is usually to relieve themselves.  There isn't food to be had.

However, walking today I came upon an aster blooming happily and covered with bees!

There are beekeepers all over Virginia Highlands in Atlanta where I live.  I just hope these joyful bees are mine!

For more on Global Warming, here's a TED talk:

Beehive at the White House

This past weekend, I met my daughter, Becky, in Washington, DC.  One of my wishes for the weekend was to take a photo of the White House beehive.  Of course, you can't get anywhere close to it, but we could from two fences away, see it and take its picture.  The location under a beautiful tree facing south is just lovely.



I'm glad they situated it where the public could get a glimpse of it.  I think everyone knows that there is a beehive at the White House because it has been in the news and because beekeeping magazines have featured it.  But when I've said to friends that I am going to take a picture of the beehive, they to a person, said, "There's a beehive at the White House?"



Below you can see it in relationship to the White House from the Ellipse.



Just to record that we came, Becky and I got someone to take our picture together.  The woman, who didn't know we were interested in the beehive was thrilled to tell us that she got us both with the White House just over our heads.  I, of course, was more excited that the beehive is over my right shoulder (very tiny!)


Here you can see the beehive on the right side and the vegetable garden it is supposed to be pollinating on the left side of the picture.



We also saw, I'm sure, White House bees, when we toured the US Botanic Garden.  There were bees on every blooming aster.

Here's a video about the beehive, posted in a comment by a reader below, but I thought you'd all like to see it as part of this post.

Bees and Asters

This weekend in N Georgia there were asters of many sizes and colors blooming everywhere. We stay in the mountains at my house across the valley from Black Rock Mountain so we often hike there.

At Black Rock Mountain State Park, there's a lake with a path to walk around it. We saw tons of these white asters, covered with honeybees and other bees as well. The first picture is a honeybee on the aster. The second picture is some other bee, also enjoying the aster.

I'm reading Sue Hubbell's A Book of Bees. She raised her bees in Arkansas, but says in her book that in the fall, the bees feed on asters as much as they feed on goldenrod. Either flower makes a rank-tasting honey, but mostly beekeepers leave this honey on the hive for the bees.

In the city of Atlanta we don't have much fall flow, but out in the country or up in the mountains, goldenrod and asters - blue ones and white ones like these are everywhere in abundance right now.

From reading the Internet today, I believe this is heath aster, or aster ericoides, found prolifically in Georgia. I'm not sure what these flowers are, but if you want to see a lovely collection of aster photos, click here.