Bee Booty (All natural, raw honey!)

Enjoy your surprise violets, dandelions and all the other plants that are pushing through and supporting the pollinators that we all need and love. Go wild - a least for a for a bit, nature needs it.

Hello. I’m the Common Blue Violet. Sorry I popped up right in the middle of your "perfect" green carpet.

You’re tempted to spray me, but please wait. I’m a "host plant." That means a specific group of butterflies—the Fritillaries—can only lay their eggs on me. My leaves are the only thing their caterpillars can eat.

No Violets = No Fritillary Butterflies.

Plus, I’m one of the few sources of early spring nectar. I’m a bridge for the bees until the tulips open.

What to do:
Embrace the "purple lawn" for a few weeks! If you must get rid of me, do it by hand later in the spring. But if you leave me, you’ll have orange butterflies dancing over your yard all summer.

I’m sorry I’m "disruptive."
But the butterflies are coming because of me.

I love nature. And I can't wait to start seeing the skunk cabbage, definitely a sign for me that spring finally is ready to make her appearance.

Right now, in wet woods across the Eastern US, a plant called Skunk Cabbage is generating its own body heat — up to 70°F above the surrounding air temperature — and MELTING through frozen ground from below.

This isn't photosynthesis. This is thermogenesis. The same process your body uses to stay warm.

- Skunk Cabbage is one of the only plants on Earth that produces metabolic heat
- It burns stored starch at a rate comparable to a small mammal
- Its internal temperature holds steady at 68-77°F even when the outside air is 15°F
- It pushes through snow and frozen soil by literally melting a tunnel from underneath
- The heat volatilizes its chemicals — producing a rotting-meat smell that attracts the first flies of the season

Those early flies crawl inside the hooded spathe, get warm, pick up pollen, and carry it to the next furnace down the creek.

While you're still wearing a winter coat, this plant is running a heated pollination station in a frozen swamp.

March's first bloom doesn't wait for warmth. It makes its own.

Yes, this ♡

Good morning!

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Shared from
With love
Fiona
www.earthmonk.guru

Fantastic! Hopefully we will see this type of effort and recovery in some of our other at risk pollinators.

The rebound is tied to healthier oyamel fir forests and improved winter conditions in central Mexico.

Focused conservation helped tip the balance back in the monarch’s favor, proof that recovery is still achievable.

Not pollinator related, but nature and I would love to encounter one! Have you seen a snowy owl in your neck of the woods lately?

I love this. Something to think about this morning ♡ Hoping you have a day filled with kindness.

My dad has bees.Today I went to his house and he showed me all of the honey he had gotten from the hives. He took the lid off of a 5 gallon bucket full of honey and on top of the honey there were 3 little bees, struggling. They were covered in sticky honey and drowning. I asked him if we could help them and he said he was sure they wouldn't survive. Casualties of honey collection I suppose.

I asked him again if we could at least get them out and kill them quickly, after all he was the one who taught me to put a suffering animal (or bug) out of its misery. He finally conceded and scooped the bees out of the bucket. He put them in an empty Chobani yogurt container and put the plastic container outside.
Because he had disrupted the hive with the earlier honey collection, there were bees flying all over outside.

We put the 3 little bees in the container on a bench and left them to their fate. My dad called me out a little while later to show me what was happening. These three little bees were surrounded by all of their sisters (all of the bees are females) and they were cleaning the sticky nearly dead bees, helping them to get all of the honey off of their bodies. We came back a short time later and there was only one little bee left in the container. She was still being tended to by her sisters.

When it was time for me to leave we checked one last time and all three of the bees had been cleaned off enough to fly away and the container was empty.

Those three little bees lived because they were surrounded by family and friends who would not give up on them, family and friends who refused to let them drown in their own stickiness and resolved to help until the last little bee could be set free.
Bee Sisters. Bee Peers. Bee Teammates.

We could all learn a thing or two from these bees.
Bee kind always.

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What a beautiful story. Author unknown but the painting is by
With love
Fiona
www.earthmonk.guru

I might have to try this - I love using elderberry, and it's also a great flowering bush for pollinators. The thought of starting to grow something in the winter is super appealing even if it's indoors for now - thinking spring thoughts already ♡

Elderberry plants can be pricey, but starting new plants from winter hardwood cuttings is a simple, budget friendly way to grow your own with just a little patience 🌿

You can still find our Bee B***y on the shelves this holiday season at the following amazing local markets: Yellow Dog Marketplace , Clarkston Family Farm and Union General. Raw wildflower honey makes a sweet gift for that person who loves local and natural, or just that foodie in your life - not to mention a great gift for yourself!

We'll be at Heavenly Scent Herb Farm tomorrow and Sunday for their annual Summer Fair, stop by! It's always a great show. We'll have our Spring and Summer honey available too! Yum!

Yes, this! This is a way you can make a difference, be aware, change your purchasing to support non-Neonicotinoids treated seeds and plant retailers and educate others! Not only does this adversely affect this life cycle below, it ends up in the foods you and your family eat.

Sometimes it can be overwhelming when you hear about climate change and disappearing species. Don't despair. There is one thing you can do to make a difference: avoid products with Neonicotinoids. The graphic below shows you why, and we've included a list of products to avoid.https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/bee_toxic_fact-sheet_73518.pdf Thanks to the American Bird Conservancy for providing this great info.

Happy Fourth of July from the Bee B***y bee yard crew!