There’s a buzz in the Pete’s Pots studio, but the kiln has been cold for days and the wheel is still. The bees are back! Last year the nest in the roof went quiet after a few months and I feared the worst, but the Tree Bees have returned and are busy busy. Maybe all those honeypots I made had something to do with it.
Pete's Pots
A Miscellany of Musings In and Out of the Pottery
Pete's Pots 
I threw a wasp into the sides of one of my pots once. I only realized that I had when I started to trim it and bits of wing and limbs started appearing. i had no idea it was there or how i hadn’t felt it or be stung by it. I felt a bit bad afterward.
o.k. so do wasps actually have limbs? I should probably have said legs 😉
Pete, your post actually allows me to think of bees as comforting and pleasant (I often find them pestering!) but I never do anything to harm them. Glad to know they’re thriving in your part of the world this summer (and hopefully for my taste, making lots of honey!)
As with much else, I’ve learned to love what I used to fear – eg hornets ! These particular bees, tree bees, are not honey bees as far as human consumption is concerned – but I do share your delight in honey.
Oh, and the neode will be on it’s way next week.
Woohoo – pardon my teenage-girl-like enthusiasm – but we can’t wait to receive it in the mail! And you can tell how ‘vast’ my knowledge is re: bees – I just assumed they all produced honey. Your blog is a continued source of great info for me! 🙂
But you are correct. The Tree Bee, Bombus hypnorum, *does* make honey, as do all bumble bees. They just make very little and nothing like enough to interest humans. They don’t need to build up a food stock for the winter as they hibernate. At least, that’s how I understand it – I’m willing to stand corrected if needs ‘bee’… (sorry, couldn’t resist that one!)
Aussie bees are great …. I have them here too – & best of all they don’t sting!
Great photo, Pete! We all know bees are in trouble but there’s that line in Ted Hughes ‘Swifts’ poem, isn’t there, to the effect that they’re back and so at least some of the planet’s systems are still working. Our current issue with nature, here in the Med – a delight rather than a hindrance – is that the big porch, where many of the gardening tasks get done – potting up seeds, etc – is off-limits due to nesting barn swallows. The first year they’ve nested with us. In Spain (and other places?) to have swallows nest with you is a sign of good luck. We have house sparrows in the porch too; they appropriated a red-rumped swallow nest several years ago and have not relinquished it since. They are tough though and unlikely to be disturbed but we don’t want to give the swallows any reason to desert. They should be hatching any day now. Which is all a long way from a photo of a bee, I realise, but it’s good to see what trains of thought these things release…
Kev
Lovely photo! Hope you don’t mind them whizzing past when you are throwing, though?
I don’t see them when throwing, only hear their buzzing in the roof – they are in the insulation between the plastic sheet ‘ceiling’ and the roofing felt. Pleasantly comforting to hear them, too.
How wonderful!
Have you considered adding a beehive to your country garden?
Yes, very seriously, but only when we aren’t travelling around so much. Likewise chickens and ….. all the rest!