Bees, Plants, and Trees!
If you’re considering planting fruit trees in your Calgary landscaping, then you’re going to be dealing with bees. Bees are of the hundreds of thousands of animal species - including birds and bats - that pollinate plants and trees. If you’re considering planting a garden full of flowers and fruit trees, you might attract quite a few of these majestic little beasts!
Successful beekeepers often grow fruit trees and flowers in symbiosis with their bees. This ensures that their plants go to seed, and trees produce fruit. And this gives the bees plenty of food for the hive. Once bees have filled a hive with honey and offspring they’ll consider dividing their colony in order to start a new colony. And when bees begin a new colony, they’ll swarm!
Bee swarms are terrifying to most people, but the threat here is minimal. Bees in a swarm will conglomerate - usually on the branch of a tree near their old hive - and they’ll send out worker bees to seek a new protective location for a hive. Essentially the bees will be focused on protecting the new queen, and finding a new home - not us passerbyes.
If you see a bee swarm, call a beekeeper! This is a crucial time for the avid beekeeper. A prepared beekeeper will often cut the branch with the swarm, and drop the swarm into an empty bee box. The bees will literally fall into the box as a big bundle, and once the bee box is closed the bees will almost always be contented with their new home.
So next time you come upon a bee swarm on your Calgary landscape, don’t panic! Help out a local beekeeper, and maybe you’ll get a bit of honey out of the deal!