Pepper Bush and Skunk Vine are blooming 9.19.15

Jim and I rode our bikes down the road and the Pepper bush was just humming with bees. It looks nice and fluffy..but wait till you see how small the flowers are.

Several of the girls were gathering pollen.

Many of these bees are natural size…I don’t use foundation so they build their cells the size they want. I’ve read that small bees do better with keeping mites off because the body is smaller.

Look how small the flowers are compared to the bees…they are hard to photograph because they are continually on the move from one to another.

I wonder how many flowers they have to visit to fill their pollen sacs.

This is Skunk Vine… the vine will travel to the tops of the trees and take them over. Once they are done blooming Jim will cut the vine and it will die…but comes back the next year.

It has beautiful little flowers…

I think the Pepper Bush is our last big bloom until Dec when the Red Maples start.

My Bottle Brush will put out several blooms and the Spanish Needle  keeps blooming until we get a frost.

This is another weed….it travels by putting out little “stick tights” when it’s done blooming…looks like she is getting nectar…

Just about everything that blooms here is a weed or invasive species…but I’m always glad to see it bloom for the bees and the butterflies. The Zebra Longwings and the  Queens seem to really like the Spanish Needle.

I put another super on the hives…they now have 3…after the Pepper Bush I will pull a little honey and leave them plenty for the winter.

I looked in the windows today and the blue hive is already festooning and building new comb…I didn’t see that in the pink hive but they have always been a little behind the blue. Don’t know why…