Varroa mites and honeybees

Mites are the bane of a beekeeper’s existence. The honeybee in the picture below is enjoying the mint flowers. On her back you can see quite a few orange brown oval shaped mites. It’s time to treat the colonies with formic acid otherwise the mites can lead to the destruction of the colony. If you can imagine bees running around with mite wounds then you can easily imagine what an invitation to disease the mites can cause. click on the picture to enlarge.

mites on bee

Bellow is a picture of the Varroa mite from above and bellow. Picture source is the Government of B.C.

Varroa mite

Cat’s ear

Cat’s ear looks like a dandelion but it is distinctive by the many flowers that grow on single stem. Dandelions grow just one flower on a hollow stem. Cat’s ears have “hairy” leaves and their stems are almost like twigs. Cat’s ears are considered an undesirable weed because of the way they take over in a pasture and the wind blown seeds can spread this weed everywhere. In the picture below you can see the numerous flowers on a single stem.

Catsear

In this picture you can see the pollen on the bee’s face as it visits a Cat’s ear flower. Honeybees show a moderate interest in this plant.

bee and pollen

Blackberries-a sea of white

The blackberries that have spread in Pitt Meadows have many more blossoms than the usual blackberry. They are thornless and the fruit is small and not very tasty. The blossoms come early, just about at the end of the blueberry pollination. They can spread quickly sending up new shoots a long way from the parent plant. They don’t expand by layering like the usual thorned blackberry.

                 click to enlarge

                     Blackberries in bloom

Notice in the first picture the upright stems for next season. They don’t arch over and layer like other blackberries. In the second picture you can see that there are many more blossoms waiting to open.

The buzz of the honeybee can be heard near the blackberries but bumblebees don’t seem to show any interest.