Dan Antion

For the Love of Bees – #WATWB

When I saw the article I am sharing today, I thought it was going to be about bees, and the problems facing bees – AND, I thought I knew something about this problem. After all, I’ve been reading about the problems/crisis facing bees for years. However, I did not know what a Solitary Bee was. According to the article:

“Solitary bees, such as sweat bees, mining bees and leafcutter bees, tend to fly under the radar. They don’t live in hives or produce honey, yet because they’re indigenous, they’re exponentially more effective at pollination than honeybees, which are native to Europe.”

Suddenly, I had an affinity for solitary bees. It seems like the kind of bee I’d want to be.

The project described in the article has a goal of creating houses for solitary bees near pollinator gardens in and around the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. So far, they have created seven houses.

“The houses are wooden boxes set atop posts 5 to 6 feet tall, filled with cardboard and bamboo tubes that provide a protected spot for solitary bees to lay their eggs. Signage will be added near the bee houses to educate passersby about the importance of protecting these very effective pollinators.”

Not only was I surprised to learn about these bees, the article goes on to say that of the 300 species of bees found in Pennsylvania, about 90% are solitary bees! That’s an amazing number.

My daughter noticed the last line of the article:

“You can do this yourself,” said Hart. “They’re not hard to make and install.”

I looked into bees, and I was surprised to find that, like in Pennsylvania, there are roughly 300 species of bee in Connecticut, and most of them are solitary. This article by the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, has more information on the types of bees we are trying to help. Now that I think about it, we have a bunch of bamboo that we bought to use for plant stakes (but that didn’t work). Maybe we can turn some of that into a couple of solitary bee houses.

The “We are the World” Blogfest is now in its third year. This blogfest’s goal is to spread the message of light, hope and love in today’s world. We are challenging all participants to share the positive side of humanity. This month’s co-hosts: Shilpa Garg, Simon Falk , Damyanti Biswas, Lizbeth Hartz and Eric Lahti, welcome participants and encourage all to join in during future months. #WATWB is a blog hop on the last Friday of every month.

While I slapped my copyright thing on all the photos, some were taken by my wife and some by our daughter. Those are easily identified by when you say, “oooh!”

Bee balm.
The Bee Balm is starting to bloom.
Bee visiting a Tithonia in the garden.
The gardens are inside, but bees and critters can be found. We even saw a chipmunk.
Looks like a bee is checking out the sunflower.
These little guys have been getting soaked and blown around for weeks.
This little bee is covered in pollen.
These flowers were planted to attract the bees
Bee !!!
Bee & Butterfly visiting a garden on the High Line in NYC in 2015
In late June, our daughter Faith and I walked the New York High Line. They have a number of pollinator gardens along the way. We spent some time here watching these guys and some bees. Faith managed to capture both in a photo that became a Christmas gift to my wife.
These little guys go from flower to flower even if the flower is on a weed.
I took a lot of photos of flowers where this bee had been. This is the best shot I have with the bee in it.
Pittsburgh city office building
You have to look up. Photo courtesy @faithantion
That’s the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. Home to The Graduate School of Business in 1977.

62 comments

  1. Applause to you or Faith for the solitary bee photos. Impressive skills. :-) We made a solitary bee house this summer for a MG project. I scrounged the recycle center, picked up a stump and three large branches. We attached the branches to the stump, added a piece of tin for a roof, and drilled holes for the bee homes. Fun project. :-)

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  3. That’s amazing Dan. I know I have seenmore types of bees this year in my garden than ever before. I didn’t know about solitary bees. Thanks for the great info. Your photos are wonderful. I love the bee and sunflower most. Have a great weekend!

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    • Thanks Cheryl – I’m glad you liked this. I went back and added a disclaimer – some of the photos (including the sunflower) are from my wife and our daughter.

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  7. I learn something new all the time visiting your blog Dan. Solitary Bees are very interesting indeed. I hope some are visiting my bee baths!

    Great pictures. My favorites are the bee covered in pollen, the bee in flight, and the bee-butterfly combo. Between the three of you, you captured some great close-ups.
    🐾Ginger 🐾

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    • Thanks Ginger. You are learning this right behind me. I had no idea until I read this article. It’s amazing to think about. I hope I can make one of these houses for them.

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  8. I don’t recall seeing very many bees last year, but this year there are quite a few. They are definitely not easy to photography. I know, I’ve tried. I did get a lovely shot of a bee’s ass yesterday, but it wasn’t post-worthy. Kudos to whoever at your house took those photos.

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  11. I certainly did not know about solitary bees. I won’t be swatting at those sweat bees anymore. I understand that dragonflies pollinate, too. They are welcome visitors at my house. And that tall building reminds me of the haunted apartment building in Ghostbusters. Great post, Dan. Thanks!

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  12. All those pictures are ooo-worthy. I didn’t know that about solitary bees. That’s good to know. Our #3 Daughter gave our #2 Daughter a bee-house for her birthday, so I knew about those. Make some! I wanna watch!

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  14. For some reason I thought of Solitary Man (by Neil Diamond). Don’t know if I will but until I can find her. I’ll be what I am; a solitary bee. Those are some pics worth ohhing over….

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    • I know, Dan. I’d be a solitary bee. I am worried that one enterprising solitary bee starts a homeowners association and then the whole thing goes to bee-hell.

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  17. Thank you for this post, Dan. I was just reading about an initiative in Norwich called Bee Saviour Behaviour which aims to help bees in the cities find nectar by using old store cards. Bees in the cities can die of exhaustion looking for nectar where there are just concrete and more concrete instead of trees. There is hope in knowing that people are at least trying to solve environmental problems. The website for the initiative is here https://www.positive.news/environment/bee-saviour-sugar-cards-give-energy-boost-to-weary-pollinators/

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    • Thanks Peter, and thanks for sharing that link. We are at a point where we have to start considering different things. We have to stop just building to suit our needs on this planet.

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  18. Thanks for the info on solitary bees. I was just reading an article (I forget where – maybe our local paper) about how to make habitat for solitary bees in the garden. It’s a pretty appealing project! Photos are gorgeous, as always!

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  20. This is a great post and photos. We used to have ?carpenter bees? burrowing into the wood holding over our deck before renovations. Haven’t seen as many, but we have a wild yard, so maybe they’ll like that. I wonder if I could put a bee house on a fence post when we re-build our privacy fence.

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  21. I didn’t realize not all bees produce honey. I thought, instead, that in order to have enough honey and have it taste good, conditions had to be right.

    I like bees, even though I’ve been stung by one. It was my fault. The bee had every right to sting me. I stepped on him.

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  22. I’m kinda wowed and excited about the new bee knowledge! That’s really super neat and I love knowing there are introvert bees. Of course they’re overlooked! Of course they are! You’ve led me to on a Google exploration journey of solitary bees. Thank you!

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  23. I realised I have not visited you the whole week, Dan. It was a corker of a horrible week [sigh]. I enjoyed this post and I didn’t know there were solitary bees [other than drones that can be evicted from the hive]. That is really interesting and giving them houses is a good idea. We need bees and all the other wildlife too. Super photographs.

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    • Thanks Roberta. I just finished a post for tomorrow where I am announcing, in advance, that August is going to be a hit or miss month for reading and writing. Summer shouldn’t be this busy, but it is. I understand, and I appreciate your taking the time to stop by,

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  25. I have read about bees and their role in helping our planet but wasnt aware of the role of solitary bees. Thanks for sharing information about them and the efforts that are done to protect/save them.

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  26. Hi Dan – the more we can do for bees the better … solitary or otherwise … now you’ll have a bit of time (next year) to garden a little more environmentally – a bit of fallen wood, with a few weeds does wonders for the insect populations … lovely photos of the bees – cheers Hilary

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  28. Thanks Dan, well, I’ll be – I had NO idea there is such a variety of the bee species. May those solitary bees go and grow from strength to strength … Gorgeous photos also. (I haven’t put up a #WATWB post this time round, but am surely commenting on others, to get my upliftment for the week ..)

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