Second bee hive arrives!

 

Warre hive on left, Langstroth hive on right

We installed our first honeybee's last spring in the Langstroth hive (yellow box on right), and they were quite happy until this spring when we noticed a lack of activity and wondered if our hive had found a new home...
On Wednesday Jay & Natasha installed our new Warre hive with a second set of bees and now both hives are busy in the garden.  The Warre hive may produce less honey but is easier to maintain and is preferred by the bees, as it mimics their natural systems.

Thanks to Greg Dougherty, we are also excited to have our first mason bee houses installed along the south end of the garden.  Mason bees are excellent for school gardens as they are even more efficient pollinators than honeybees but do not sting!  They look more like a blue-black fly, do not create a hive and also do not make honey, but they do wonders for pollinating fruit.  Here's an excellent site from Washington State University on the mason bee:  http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/inse006/inse006.htm

 

Mason bee house 

 

Cheers to increasing our biodiversity in the garden!