Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Latest Buzz

Progress on the house is still going fairly slow so I thought I would just show some other stuff that I have been curious about. You know, they say that the European honey bee is on a fast decline and I have not seen a whole lot of them in my garden this year but I have seen tons of these bees. I have no idea what kind they are and thought some of you might know. These are about 2-3 times the size of a regular honey bee, notice the very large, green eyes, and they have very distinct, black stripes on their hinies that, due to my poor photos, you can't really see. They are very active and sometimes even seem to bully each other for a flower. Then at times, there might be 3 or 4 of them on (or in) a flower and seem to just be napping. I don't recall seeing these type before but that could just be due to my own inattention.
This is a view of the same bee from above so you can see that big, black spot too. They are not fat like a bumblebee; they have the streamline build of a honeybee, just bigger. Is this a mason or orchard bee?
I liked this spider because he just seemed to be melted and poured over that flower, it was so hot. His little legs just flopped over the edges of the petals. He did not seemed to be concerned about not being camouflaged on something green either because he stuck out like a sore thumb on that orange zinnia.
I think today was our 8th day in a row to be 100 degrees or hotter. They are forcasting Wed. and Thursday to be the hottest so far. We had a boy quit at work today; he just couldn't take it. We are setting concrete forms now and that means driving lots and lots of steel and wood stakes. I think this is going to be one of the rougher jobs that I have ever been on. I wish I could show photos of the job but.....
We are going to try to pour the slab at the house maybe Saturday if the plant is open. They are sometimes on the weekends if they have 80 yards or more scheduled. So, I've got to get that all ready in the next few days and I'll have photos of all the details on that. It will still be kinda slow until I accumulate enough money to start buying materials again though.

Update: OK, after getting off my duff and doing a miniscule amount of research, I think the bee is a leafcutter bee. You can go here, https://id408.van.ca.siteprotect.com/beediverse/catalog/gallery.php to see if you agree with me.

4 comments:

Omelay said...

i like your favorite saying. is that new or have i just noticed it? mine is by charlie chaplin
"i don't want to belong to any club that would have me"

Anonymous said...

I want to say it's a carpenter bee, but I'm not strong on identifying anything but meals.

R.Powers said...

I know your spider. It's a green lynx. The bee does look carpentery ...that would be fitting.
Are there welder bees I wonder?

MamaHen said...

Hey karl! Yes, that quote is new; I saw where several other of our blogger friends had put up stuff like that and liked it. I like the quote you mentioned too although I always heard that was Groucho Marx. ??? I don't know.

Hey Pablo! Now, you always provide good info on your site for trees and flowers etc.

Oooh, green lynx, I like that! I thought that carpenter bees were fatter and darker, that's why I thought it may be an orchard bee but who knows. And what does a mason bee look like? Yeah, my luck I'll have carpenter ants too. Ha! Never heard of a welder bee but my dirt daubbers are doing something very close. I had thought about showing it 'cause it's so neat, so I'll try to post that.