Saturday, March 5, 2011

Orange blossoms in the Hammock

My Tangelo tree is in full bloom…..aren’t these beautiful? This tree is just a few feet from my kitchen window…..the breeze blows the fragrance right into my kitchen. It is my favorite time of year.

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But I am not the only one who appreciates them…….this big fat Bumble Bee was only one of six that I saw on the tree. We must have a small hive of them nearby. They are so soft and fuzzy looking ….it reminds me of a story…..my brother, Dan, as a child of about 5, caught one……he immediately let it go…..and brushing his hand…repeated over and over..”hot birdy, hot birdy”.  As I stood and watched this one….I could understand the fascination of picking one up and holding it.

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I was glad to see the Honey Bees at the blossoms also. You can see it is sipping nectar.

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I was surprised to see two differently colored bees. Guess I’ll have to study up….

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You can see how much darker this one is. I followed it all over the tree trying to get a good picture of it’s abdomen.

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Until I got interested in having hives of my own, I didn’t realize there were some many kinds of bees….Italian, Russian, Carnolian and the European Dark Honey Bee, just to name a few. …the European Dark Honey Bees are some of the first bees imported from Europe. This could be one of those.

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These two seemed to work well together…the bee on the R has pollen on its hind legs while the bee on the L is definitely sipping nectar, perhaps they each had a different job.047cs

I don’t treat my trees with chemicals …so the leaves aren’t always the prettiest….but they keep on producing. I hope that this time next year…it will be my bees on this tree.

7 comments:

  1. I hope they will be staying in your hives.

    When I was a kid I petted a bumblebee and the darn thing stung me. Good thing I wasn't allergic.

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  2. If you don't live in paradise, you live durn close. I love reading about nature in your yard.

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  3. We have two different kind here. The darker one is smaller here. Those blossoms are so pretty. I would love to smell them. Helen

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  4. Beautiful photos. You would never get me to leave the kitchen with that lovely fragrance blowing through. Diane

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  5. Beautiful series of photos! It's nice to see spring blossoms with the bees busily at work, but it will be quite a while before I see the real thing.

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  6. You have some very nice macros. I can't hardly wait to get outside and get some macros of bees. Right now we got very cold winds and snow on the ground.

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  7. I didn't know there were so many species of bees. Your photos are lovely.

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