mistress beek

Apparently the air force isn’t enough to unload the Pagoda Tree (Sophora japonica) blooming in my backyard. It’s a vigorous, glorious explosion at a time when resources have gone dry in Albuquerque, so the girls have decided to call in the ground troops for timely assistance.

Japanese pagoda tree in luscious bloom

While their airborne sisters rush to extract pollen each morning from the delicate pea-like blooms, a few dozen honeybees scour the ground for fallen blossoms still containing a bit of pollen.

Scouring the ground for pollen-filled blossoms from the Pagoda Tree

It’s an unusual two-pronged approach. Never before have I seen seen bees gathering pollen from the ground so here’s yet another item on the growing list of the existential pleasures of beekeeping.

Fernbush, Chamaebatiaria millefolium, is hardly a Prom queen knock-out. In fact, its tiny white flowers are barely noticeable.

But when the high heat of summer hits us full force in Albuquerque, it’s the low-water fernbush that nurtures us through. After the lavender bloom but before the aster and solidago flush with late summer goodies, it’s the delicate and sweet-eyed fernbush that quietly offers sustenance for our hungry pollinators.

My girls are all over it like teenagers desperate for a date, oblivious to me the camera-wielding parent oh-so-annoying in my insistence that Prom be fully documented for posterity.

Gathering pollen from the fernbush

Mmm... summertime munchies

Its gifts are double, this strange flowering bush-tree. It’s called Yellow Bird of Paradise ( Caesalpinia gilliesii) and it grows shockingly well in Albuquerque without much supplemental water which is a boon for city-kept bees.

Currently, my girls are harvesting both nectar and pollen from Caesalpinia gilliesii like sincere clowns in a circus display. Some dangle and bob from long red stamens plucking what pollen they may. Others, more aggressive perhaps, dive straight in and deep where nectar lies at the bottom of petals the color of egg yolk.

Harvesting nectar from the yellow bird of paradise bush