Like many other Mid-westerners, I made my way to our local county fair last night for some good food and a look at the 4H projects. My mom accompanied me and as we wandered around, we saw a lot of things you’d expect to see at the fair: animals, quilts, funnel cakes…and then we stumbled upon something not so expected: a pollinator garden! In between two conservation buildings, where there once was just grass and dirt, our community planted perennial flowers known to draw in pollinators. What’s more is they labeled all of the plants and added in bee sculptures and signs to help inform people on the importance of pollinators.

I love that the county took a part of the fairgrounds that was overlooked and made it into something special. I recognized a lot of the flowers they had planted, such as beebalm, coneflowers, black eyed susans and joe pye weed. There were a lot there that I didn’t recognize but thanks to the labeling I was able to see what it was: Himalayan Indigo, Appalachian Indigo-bush, Apricot Sprite Hyssop and more. I even found a bumble bee on some of the Himalayan Indigo! If you would like to learn what plants attract pollinators that would do well in your region, check out this free plant resource on Pollinators.org.

As we walked around we found some really cool signs to help educate people on what pollinators do, what pollinators are native to Indiana what goes into a pollinator habitat. One sign was from the conservationists, one was from NOAA and the other was from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

We also overheard a mother walking with her 4 daughters in tow, saying how pollinators were important. The youngest one affirmed, “they provide the food we eat!” I was so happy to hear that they knew why pollinators are important. This public space helped start a conversation about pollinators and instead of children running away in fear of bees, they were exploring the garden hoping to find some.

Towards the back of the garden, there were benches to sit on, a water garden and compost bins. I haven’t been to our local county fair in years, so I am not sure how new the pollinator garden is. I am just happy to have it in our community for people to enjoy and hopefully learn a couple of tips to attract pollinators to their own yard. Find a pollinator garden near you by checking out this map from Pollinators.org.

I came across an article with research showing most adults have a difficult time distinguishing honeybees from other insects with stingers. I often speak with people who think they have a honeybee swarm for me to come and take, but they are actually dealing with yellow jackets and wasps. I also hear from a lot of people who are afraid of honeybees based off of past experiences with stinging insects. I’d like to talk about the most common insects with stingers and dispel some of the myths about the humble honeybee.

Suspect #1 – The Yellow Jacket

I remember seeing these around more than any other type of bee when I was growing up. One time I even got stung by one and it hurt a lot. Some people also call these wasps, which is technically correct, as they are a type of wasp. The yellow jacket gets its name from its yellow and black bands that cover its body. Two things really separate them from honeybees in my opinion: yellow jackets’ legs are usually all yellow and they do not have any hairs on their bodies. Another difference is the hive the yellow jacket builds. Their nest is round and made of a papery-looking substance. Yellow jackets are also known to build a nest under ground. If you disturb a nest, my advice is to get away from it as soon as possible and come back later to burn the hive.

How they are different from honeybees: Yellow jackets are bright yellow, carnivores, they can sting and their venom is painful.

 Suspect #2 – The Wasp

Wasps have bodies similar to  hornets but have red and brown colors. I haven’t seen these too much in Northern Indiana, but I must say, just looking for pictures online of them made me a little scared. A wasp is technically anything that isn’t a bee or an ant, which leaves a lot of room for ambiguity. They can make hives similar to yellow jackets, but I have seen nests without a cover, as in the picture I have here.

How they are different from honeybees: Wasps are much darker and skinnier. They inject a paralyzing venom into victims and then eat them. Only adults consume nectar. They can live solitary or in a community.

Suspect #3 – The Hornet

Hornets look like an evil cross between a yellow jacket and a wasp to me, with double the meanness. They can be larger than yellow jackets and wasps, and can be yellow striped and white striped. Their nests look just like yellow jackets’ nests. If you stumble upon a hornet nest, be very aware and get away fast. They have an attack hormone they can use to signal the entire hive against you. Hence why you don’t want to kick a hornet’s nest!

How they are different from honeybees: Hornets are larger and can sting you multiple times. Their venom contains a compound that makes the sting hurt very bad.

Suspect #4 – Carpenter Bees

Let’s move on to some nicer bees after all these scary ones. Carpenter bees are large and fuzzy, and they don’t usually have stingers. However, they can do damage to wood. Carpenter bees build their homes in wood and raise their young in perfect circles they chew out of the wood.

How they are different from honeybees: Carpenter bees are larger, all black or violet and will build their nests in wood.

Suspect #5 – Bumble Bees

Bumble bees are often called the teddy bears of the bee family. They are gentle giants that like to forage for nectar and pollen in gardens. They are large, very fuzzy and very loud as they buzz by. Bumble bees can produce honey, but often just enough for the queen to make it through the winter. In early spring, you might even be able to find the bumble bee queens buzzing around your yard, they are much larger than workers.

How they are different from honeybees: Bumble bees are much larger and instead of having yellow or orange on their abdomens, they primarily have the color on their thorax (the part just below their head) and black everywhere else.

This is a honeybee:

Honeybees are small and often have striped orange abdomens. They build their natural hives in trees, and their hive looks nothing like a wasp nest. These insects are hard workers and won’t hurt you unless you threaten them or their hive. If they sting you, they die quickly and can no longer help the hive.

How honeybees differ from all the usual suspects: Honeybees tend to be small and go from flower to flower in your yard. They are herbivores and don’t kill other insects unless they are attacking the hive. They are responsible for pollinating 1/3 of the fruits, vegetables and nuts we consume. They are gentle and produce a vast amount of honey for beekeepers. Honey won’t go bad for hundreds of years, it has multiple uses and healing effects.

If honeybees were like wasps and these other suspects, you definitely wouldn’t see beekeepers doing these kinds of things in these pictures. We aren’t necessarily brave, we don’t risk our lives taking care of honeybees, but we are passionate about saving a species we depend on for our own survival.

This past weekend we inspected all seven of our honeybee hives. We were lucky enough to be joined by beekeeper Martin who is an expert at smoking the honeybees and keeping them calm.  All of the hives were healthy and doing well. Two of them had large honey stores already which made us very happy to see. All of the honeybee queens are laying eggs and helping to build up the hive for the summer.

This frame was covered in bees, can you spot the queen? She acts like a bulldozer, plowing her way through the crowd to get to the cells where she wants to lay her eggs. Good queens are said to lay eggs very close together, this makes the brood not spotty.   Here she is highlighted in the picture below. (click on picture for a larger view-c’mon, it’ll be like Where’s Waldo?!) I also got a picture of the top of our hive. This is an inner cover with an opening on the top of it for honeybees to fly out. Not all beekeepers use this in their honeybee hives. During very hot days, we take the top cover off our hives and leave this inner cover on, to reduce the heat in the hive and allow the honeybees another entrance/exit. Only healthy hives that can defend themselves well should have multiple entrances though. We left a frame out of a couple of the hives that we put new queens into. We left the queens in the queen cages and just stuck the cage in between two frames to hold it into place. The queens were released from the cages this past week and accepted into the hives. When inspecting the honeybee hives this weekend, we saw that the bees had made their own natural comb where there should have been a frame. When beekeeper Tim took the lid off of this hive, he pulled out the honey comb and I was able to snap a picture.  

That sums up this week’s inspection. Stay tuned for our next honeybee hive inspection. I’m also working on getting us set up on all social media websites so you can stay on top of honeybee news, pictures and what’s going on in our backyard.