Last night, Caldwell, Texas had pretty severe thunderstorms. Mark and I wondered how Doug and Linda's wild bees were holding up. The bees live inside a dry well, and the opening to the well faces upward and is exposed directly to weather elements. When we approached, we weren't really sure what we were seeing. To the left on the horizon appeared to be a tree stump that we had not seen before (in the photo below). To the right appeared to be another tree stump. The well is to the right of that tree stump.
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| (Click on photo to zoom in). |
As we walked closer, we could see that the bees from the well were swarming, likely due to the heavy rain. The swarms were what we thought to be tree stumps. In the pictures below, the bees are holding out on two tall thistles.
Mark is watching the few bees that remain in the well.
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| Dry well where Doug and Linda's bees live. |
Close up, we can see some bees remain in the well. We are curious as to why the comb is white and empty, as if recently drawn, although we know it has been drawn for weeks. Perhaps the heavy rains have cleaned out the comb from larvae and honey? We wonder if the swarming bees will eventually find their way back into the well.
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| Bees in the dry well. |
What does "recently drawn" mean?
ReplyDeleteWhen bees create the honeycomb, it is called "drawing out" or "drawn out" honeycomb. I'm not sure where the term comes from, though. We had noticed the comb several weeks before the storm, and that it appeared to be filled in, but when the swarming occurred, we noticed the honeycomb was empty, as if it were new honeycomb.
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