Scilla

My favorite early spring flowers are up - Scilla [Siberian Squill].    I love that color.

Usually the bees are all over it, but this year the wild bees [or neighbors' bees - no way to tell which] are robbing out what's left of the pollen and honey in my hives instead.   

I'm OK with that.  I'm hoping they're wild bees and when it comes time to swarm, they'll move right in to one of my empty hives. 

More Squill

More squill.

Because it's pretty.

The world needs more pretty.

Squill

Siberian Squill.

I just love it.   

I love the color.   Blue, blue, blue with that purple tinge on the stems.  

Love. It.

Scilla

Not a great pic, but these blues make my heart happy.  

This is the first one up this year and it's trying to open even before it's fully emerged.   The bees will be all over it as soon as they can.  

More Scilla

If you're tired of pictures of scilla and blue pollen, then I apologize. 

The truth is that I love scilla.  It's my favorite flower and my favorite color.  

This is the color of butterflies singing.

Plus, blue pollen is cool.  

Plus bees collecting blue pollen is cool.

Plus these flowers mean the weather is cool.   Instead of cold.  



And sometimes it means that the weather is warm. 

Ish. 

So I love scilla.  

And I love new fuzzy bees on scilla.  

Click on the pic to blow it up to see how fuzzy she is.   And notice that gorgeous blue pollen on her leg.

More Blue Pollen

A few days ago I posted a pic of a bee on scilla with blue pollen.   I posted it to the bee forum and some of the beeks expressed some doubt that the pollen was blue.

You know who you are.

So,  I got some more pics.

And no, I didn't doctor them.  Geez. 

Bees gather pollen and put it in pollen baskets on their back legs.  It stays put there until they get it back to the hive.   Check out the pollen on the legs of these bees.

What do you think?    Is it blue?

Blue Pollen

The bulbs are starting to bloom in a big way now and the bees are starting to get out and about.  

The bees found the scilla and started collecting the blue pollen.  

You can see the gray blue pollen basket on this one's leg.

Bees only gather one type of pollen at a time.  They take it back to the hive and store it to feed to the brood [larvae] throughout the year.  

Signs of Spring

Our scilla is a gorgeous color, but it  doesn't get very tall because it comes up so early in the cold late winter.    The bees like it and will collect the blue pollen as soon as it's warm enough to fly.

I love these little gold crocuses.   They look nice even in the snow.      This has been a crazy year for snow.   Day after day after day of rainy snow.   It melts off fast - often by the end of the day, but then tomorrow it does the same wet, gray thing.