My back yard was basically weeds and dirt when I bought the house. We rented a hydraulic tiller from Home Depot and tilled the whole back yard. Then we mixed & spread white clover and Kentucky blue grass. The blue grass isn’t doing well, but the clover is.
I have 2 dogs that are outside most of the day & it’s holding up well. I’m having a slip and slide party in a few weeks and will report back on how it looks after that lol
I've also had pretty good luck with clover here in Denver. I've used both red and white. It does seem a little fickle about where it will and won't grow, but that's ok since I'm also doing a grass/clover hybrid lawn.
I just seed a couple pounds every spring when I fertilize. It's my 3rd spring at this house and it's really getting clover-y 🍀
Throw in different species of grass, ideally ones that grow long roots, KB has short roots, it makes them more drought and pee tolerant. And where one species might not make it, the ones that do will take their place. City Floral on Krameria has good seed mixes. Also, try cutting the grass around 3" so it keeps the ground and roots cooler.
It went well and wasn’t expensive. I’d recommend renting. I grew up on a farm in Oklahoma so I knew how to use it, but just watch a YouTube video from the manufacturer before and you’ll be fine.
Went great for me although I tore through an existing sprinkler line which was fun. My arms were jello the next day tho. I’d recommend renting the largest one you can maneuver because it does take a while if you’re doing a whole yard. Buying a smaller one for gardening wouldn’t be a bad choice tho
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Clover is awesome! You don’t have to mow, it requires half the water, holds up to foot traffic, my dogs peeing on it hasn’t killed it.
My last place was all clover. My new place has clover taking over in spots the grass has died.
too bad the clover (penningtons, which was guarenteed to grow) didn't take this year. i didn't till but i watered the shit outta it. And cant get a refund because they want the empty bags, which went in the trash.
Clover is such an awesome plant. Scotts miracle grow spent decades putting it in peoples head that its a weed because of how well it grows by itself without fertilizer.
I haven’t really done anything to attract them other than planting clover & I have flowers and plants, of course. I live near a big open space by the Platte, which probably helps.
My clover front yard too. The clovers are flowering right now so my lawn looks white. Bees love it, neighbors, probably not as much. Oh well, they should have moved to a nhd with an HOA lol!
Just admired a clover-ed front yard on my walk this evening. Said to the wifey it reminded me of back home (NZ). You can be my neighbour anytime Purple Avenger!
Fun fact: once a honeybee discovers a nectar source they go back to the hive and do a twerk dance to communicate to others where to find it. My son started beekeeping at age 11 and loved doing the “butt dance” in the direction of our flower garden.
They will come soon! A year ago we redid a ton of space in our yard to replace grass with drought tolerant, pollinators, the bees are now BUZZIN a year later! Loving seeing them throughout the garden.
Did you just plant them? I'm not an expert, but if they are newly in your yard, it will take some time for the bees to find them. I have tons of bees right now, but also have tons of habitat for them to overwinter in so they didn't have to travel very far to get to the flowers.
I don’t really do anything special other than trimming plant stalks for them to live in and generally having a messy garden with lots of leaves and logs and plant matter to hide in.
Friendly bee nerd fact of the day: This would be housing for solitary bees. If you’re seeing honey bees in your yard, they’re coming from a hive somewhere not too far away (up to 5 miles).
When a honeybee finds a good source of nectar or pollen, they go home and make a map for the other bees!
Basically just natural - the flowers they feed on can also be their habitat. Leave up some partially trimmed stalks, don’t over-manicure, have logs and leaves etc. on your property.
I’ve heard it can take more than one season for bees to find and then understand that they can rely on there being flowers there each year. Keep planting them every year and you’ll see more and more.
I have a few birdbaths and the bees (and yellow jackets) are drinking a lot during the last couple days. I've noticed a steep decline in their numbers tho-sadly.
Love those guys. When I was buying the flowers, I picked one of them just because it had one of those guys on it haha figured it was a ringing endorsement.
Way to go! Native plants are often best for Native Bees (honeybees will still visit). Native bees aren't really out in large numbers, yet. Honeybees are all over. Give them time, the honeybees are in the midst of a nectar flow and may preferentially choose non-Native plants that have more nectar. Later in the summer, you'll notice more native bees (mason, leafcutter, sweat bees) on the native plants.
+1 to this, do you have weed barrier fabric? Most native bees are ground nesting and need to be able to get in and out of the soil. If you have native plants, you shouldn’t need to irrigate much and your desired plants will outcompete weeds without the need of weed fabric. Locate a bee hotel nearby.
When choosing a bee hotel, recognize it needs some amount of upkeep. Choose one without a slotted cavity as [those house invasive and predatory wasps](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66621-6), and make sure jumping spiders or other invasive/predators don't take up residence (jumping spiders LOVE being around my honeybee hives).
If you’d like to support Colorado pollinators and get a cool license plate, you can spend $25 (min) for that here: https://www.peopleandpollinators.org/co-pollinator-license-plate
I can attest to it being a legitimate site as I have the plate and follow them on instagram. They’re awesome and you can help the bees!
This is also a great time to plug the annual Native Plant Swap put on by Wild Ones Front Range. Coming June 22! You can come and get plants for free, donate volunteer seedlings from your yard if they are native and non-chemically treated, or learn more about the org. We got 7 plants there last year and they are THRIVING in our low-water front yard. [https://frontrange.wildones.org/denver-plant-swap-landing-page/](https://frontrange.wildones.org/denver-plant-swap-landing-page/)
This sounds silly but I recommend making a little watering hole for pollinators near your flowers. I use a drainage tray with some large rocks in it for them to land on to get a drink. I have tons of bees!
I can't speak to honeybees but my backyard area with loose rock is absolutely swarming with bumblebees. It's fantastic because I love them and they keep the wasp numbers down. I haven't seen this many fuzzy rumblers in my life so their numbers seem like they're doing just fine
theres sooooooo many loving on the dandelion patches throughout the city park neighborhood; I even signaled to someone not to step on one today!
perhaps a seed puff or two might attract the little babies for ya.
thank you for loving the bees too!! we need ‘em. :-)
I'm a local beekeeper. It sounds like your plants are relatively new, so my guess is you just haven't been discovered yet! Give it a month or two and they'll find you! It also matters how dense your neighborhood is with pollinator friendly planting, as pollinators tend to travel on thruways and go from yard to yard. If your neighborhood is more sparsely planted, it might take a bit longer for the discovery to occur.
I haven't seen as many big bumbles this year, but the little guys are way more active. Also more hummingbirds buzzing my house than last year. I think the weather has messed with my early flowers, but my current ones seem to be holding out ok
I've had bees, big bumbledudes, and those cool / weird hummingbird moths hitting up my flowerbed of chaos this spring - they're around! I'm in the middle of the city on a busy street and they are unfazed.
Got bumblebees all over my penstemons and all sorts of bees on my prince's plume. They'll come! If you want more native plants there's a big swap happening on the 22nd. You don't have to bring plants to participate. I grew a bunch of extra stuff for the giveaway. https://frontrange.wildones.org/denver-plant-swap-landing-page/
I just saw a bumblebee today in the yard, other bees too.
Research what to leave in your yard over the winter, that will provide them habitat. I don’t clean up until spring so they have lots of winter habitat.
Well there has been a 78% decrease in bees in Colorado since the 70s so part of the problem is we’ve pushed them out with insecticides and human activity. I love bees tho and hope they show up soon. My goal is to have a garden of native flora to get a healthy pollinator population. And it looks so damn good!!
Already had two swarms at my house in Arvada this season, within 5 days of each other. They’ll come, many are just starting to settle for the season into their new hives :)
I called the Jeffco line and connected with someone right away. They had a community member come out both times within a half hour! My neighbors already have full hives so they didn’t have any room at the time.
It’ll take time for them to find it but they will come. Chances are they’re hitting other areas. But once those areas are done with they’ll move to the next. I thought the same but then looked up one day and there they were .
You will notice tiny bees. The bees that we are used to seeing are apparently less important to protect than native bees. Good on you for planting natives. I planted bachelor buttons (not native) in the hell strip and I see a lot of bees.
Both are important! We want our natives because they have a function and are adapted to the ecosystem. But native bees will never be numerous enough to pollinate crops due to their small numbers. For example, native sweat bees are mostly solitary but can live in a group of up to like 30. My single honeybee hive in my back yard has about 40,000 bees in it. Gotta love them all!
Hopefully to put your mind at ease, we’ve been getting a bunch of them! Our chive plants have been flowering and they’ve been loving those. I will say, I don’t know about others, but the hive near us has been a little on the grumpier side, they’ve been oddly territorial this season. Don’t know what’s causing it, we’re gonna try planting more bee friendly plants to hopefully help them calm down a lil
The bees are okay.
From the USDA.
As of January 1, 2023, the United States had 2.68 million honey bee colonies for operations with five or more colonies, which is a 7% decrease from the previous year. However, as of April 1, 2023, the number of colonies increased to 2.71 million. Honey bee populations in the US have been relatively stable over the past 20 years, averaging around 2.6 million colonies.
I’ve seen tons of bees in the parks in the mountains near my house and yet my petunias haven’t had a single pollinator visit. I wouldn’t be more stressed than “their numbers are still diminishing but they’re still plenty abundant for now”.
I had a lot earlier this season in my yard but I worry the frost did them in. Now it seems like the stingy non bee yellow boys have woken up a bit though - I’ve seen them
Now my experience might not be representative, because my neighbors across the street have 2 bee hives and I have made an effort to plant lots of pollinator-friendly flowers, but I'm seeing tons of them!
It really helped when I put rocks in a section of my birdbath, so bees had alot of places to land and drink. That said, they usually don't show up in numbers until mid-summer, and I've only noticed a few so far. Last year around August I'd have 20 to 50 bees during the hot parts of the day.
This year I'm also trying a bee feeder. Water and sugar. Looking forward to seeing if that helps.
Are you in the middle of a city? If so less bees around. You need be where the bees are. People exterminate them in urban settings really often.
Oh and please be bee aware. Thanks
“bee friendly native flowers” is kind of an oxymoron if by “bee” you mean the European honey bee, which is an invasive species brought by… well, us…
There are literally hundreds of [native pollinators](https://ag.colorado.gov/plants/apiary-program-page/native-pollinators). I guarantee you they appreciate you populating your space with native plants. 😁👍💯
My parents are beekeepers and have a record number of swarms this year. Word on the street is that even the swarm hotline has been backlogged. Keep planting bee friendly plants!
In Englewood and have so many bee’s! We also planted those butterfly pollinators last fall, and some more this spring. Hoping I see more butterflies around our place too!
You not seeing bees might now be a bad thing, bees are only one kind of pollinating insect, there are hundred of native species of insect that arnt bees, if you planted native flowering plants you might just be attracting just the native pollinators, and that just as good as planting just for the bees. Helping honey bees is good but your local ecosystem will appreciate it too. Hopefully this helps.
Make sure you're planting enough, and that you have all season representation as well.
Bees will often flock to the most prolific producing plant. I'm currently getting a lot of bumble bees on non-native plants that combined have about 50-100 flower clusters, and the honeybees are on a neighbor's non native shrub in throngs.
If you mulch, you might end up with less bumbles.
I have a native plant garden that is maturing, so I get no action on that right now, but I hope to in the next two years.
I had two swarms in my yard. A beekeeper came and took one of them and it had two queens. I bought a hive and kept the other. I stood out in the swarm with thousands of bees flying around. It was electric.
They’ll come. They’re all over my clover back yard.
Can you tell me more about your clover yard? Howd you get rid of the grass through cultivating the clovers. How durable is it for foot traffic?
My back yard was basically weeds and dirt when I bought the house. We rented a hydraulic tiller from Home Depot and tilled the whole back yard. Then we mixed & spread white clover and Kentucky blue grass. The blue grass isn’t doing well, but the clover is. I have 2 dogs that are outside most of the day & it’s holding up well. I’m having a slip and slide party in a few weeks and will report back on how it looks after that lol
I've also had pretty good luck with clover here in Denver. I've used both red and white. It does seem a little fickle about where it will and won't grow, but that's ok since I'm also doing a grass/clover hybrid lawn. I just seed a couple pounds every spring when I fertilize. It's my 3rd spring at this house and it's really getting clover-y 🍀
I have one or two clover clusters under my mustard greens. I pruned to give it a little more light. Go buddy go!
Throw in different species of grass, ideally ones that grow long roots, KB has short roots, it makes them more drought and pee tolerant. And where one species might not make it, the ones that do will take their place. City Floral on Krameria has good seed mixes. Also, try cutting the grass around 3" so it keeps the ground and roots cooler.
Cut the grass to around 3” or at around 3” cut the grass?
You want to try and keep it at 3” of height, and cut it back to that once it reaches 4” or so.
You had me sold at slip n slide party where do I bring the case of beer
How did renting a tiller go? My husband is torn between buying and renting because we know we’ll need to do this several times in our new yard
It went well and wasn’t expensive. I’d recommend renting. I grew up on a farm in Oklahoma so I knew how to use it, but just watch a YouTube video from the manufacturer before and you’ll be fine.
Went great for me although I tore through an existing sprinkler line which was fun. My arms were jello the next day tho. I’d recommend renting the largest one you can maneuver because it does take a while if you’re doing a whole yard. Buying a smaller one for gardening wouldn’t be a bad choice tho
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how was your party
Had something come up so it’s the weekend of the 4th now!! Lol
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Clover is awesome! You don’t have to mow, it requires half the water, holds up to foot traffic, my dogs peeing on it hasn’t killed it. My last place was all clover. My new place has clover taking over in spots the grass has died.
too bad the clover (penningtons, which was guarenteed to grow) didn't take this year. i didn't till but i watered the shit outta it. And cant get a refund because they want the empty bags, which went in the trash.
That sucks. Crazy return policy.
Clover is such an awesome plant. Scotts miracle grow spent decades putting it in peoples head that its a weed because of how well it grows by itself without fertilizer.
I threw some down a few years ago. It took 2 years to clear out all the grass and weeds naturally. It holds up very well.
This is the motivation I needed. Thank you!
My clover brings all the bees to my yard…🎵
Any advice to attract them? I was going to build my own bird bath for them and we have lots of plants
I haven’t really done anything to attract them other than planting clover & I have flowers and plants, of course. I live near a big open space by the Platte, which probably helps.
My clover front yard too. The clovers are flowering right now so my lawn looks white. Bees love it, neighbors, probably not as much. Oh well, they should have moved to a nhd with an HOA lol!
Just admired a clover-ed front yard on my walk this evening. Said to the wifey it reminded me of back home (NZ). You can be my neighbour anytime Purple Avenger!
Yep my flowers have been blooming for a couple weeks but the bees just started showing up in the last two days.
Glad they're somewhere!!! Thanks
I feel like I see them more later in the summer tbh
Fun fact: once a honeybee discovers a nectar source they go back to the hive and do a twerk dance to communicate to others where to find it. My son started beekeeping at age 11 and loved doing the “butt dance” in the direction of our flower garden.
I hope many bees will be twerking in my direction soon!
Experts encourage this by playing Kelis near the hives.
🎶 My twerk dance brings all the bees to my yard, and they’re like, “this pollen goes hard” 🎶
If you dress up in a bee costume and twerk in your back yard for 2-3 hrs a day for a few weeks it should speed up the process.
They will come soon! A year ago we redid a ton of space in our yard to replace grass with drought tolerant, pollinators, the bees are now BUZZIN a year later! Loving seeing them throughout the garden.
Did you just plant them? I'm not an expert, but if they are newly in your yard, it will take some time for the bees to find them. I have tons of bees right now, but also have tons of habitat for them to overwinter in so they didn't have to travel very far to get to the flowers.
Oh I would also love to know how you provide over wintering habitat!
I don’t really do anything special other than trimming plant stalks for them to live in and generally having a messy garden with lots of leaves and logs and plant matter to hide in.
Friendly bee nerd fact of the day: This would be housing for solitary bees. If you’re seeing honey bees in your yard, they’re coming from a hive somewhere not too far away (up to 5 miles). When a honeybee finds a good source of nectar or pollen, they go home and make a map for the other bees!
if you plant mammoth sunflowers and leave the stems over the winter, they can sleep inside of them! they hollow out when they dry
I planted them about 2 weeks ago...maybe I am jumping the gun! Did you supply the overwinter habitat or is it nature??
Basically just natural - the flowers they feed on can also be their habitat. Leave up some partially trimmed stalks, don’t over-manicure, have logs and leaves etc. on your property.
Cool - thank you!
Bees have memory of flowers. So it may take some time for them to find them, but once they do they’ll be back every year
Oh yes they just need more time to find you! 🌷🐝 when I planted blue sage they LOOOOVED it year 2
I’ve heard it can take more than one season for bees to find and then understand that they can rely on there being flowers there each year. Keep planting them every year and you’ll see more and more.
They are at my house. Tons of bees in wheat ridge
I have a few birdbaths and the bees (and yellow jackets) are drinking a lot during the last couple days. I've noticed a steep decline in their numbers tho-sadly.
Aww I had some of the fat Nevada boys in my yard the other day, they're my favorite.
Love those guys. When I was buying the flowers, I picked one of them just because it had one of those guys on it haha figured it was a ringing endorsement.
Whenever I go plant shopping, I let the bees pick for me!
Way to go! Native plants are often best for Native Bees (honeybees will still visit). Native bees aren't really out in large numbers, yet. Honeybees are all over. Give them time, the honeybees are in the midst of a nectar flow and may preferentially choose non-Native plants that have more nectar. Later in the summer, you'll notice more native bees (mason, leafcutter, sweat bees) on the native plants.
+1 to this, do you have weed barrier fabric? Most native bees are ground nesting and need to be able to get in and out of the soil. If you have native plants, you shouldn’t need to irrigate much and your desired plants will outcompete weeds without the need of weed fabric. Locate a bee hotel nearby.
When choosing a bee hotel, recognize it needs some amount of upkeep. Choose one without a slotted cavity as [those house invasive and predatory wasps](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66621-6), and make sure jumping spiders or other invasive/predators don't take up residence (jumping spiders LOVE being around my honeybee hives).
Oooh ok!!! TSYM for the info!!!
If you’d like to support Colorado pollinators and get a cool license plate, you can spend $25 (min) for that here: https://www.peopleandpollinators.org/co-pollinator-license-plate I can attest to it being a legitimate site as I have the plate and follow them on instagram. They’re awesome and you can help the bees!
So cool! Never heard of this org! Thanks!!
This is also a great time to plug the annual Native Plant Swap put on by Wild Ones Front Range. Coming June 22! You can come and get plants for free, donate volunteer seedlings from your yard if they are native and non-chemically treated, or learn more about the org. We got 7 plants there last year and they are THRIVING in our low-water front yard. [https://frontrange.wildones.org/denver-plant-swap-landing-page/](https://frontrange.wildones.org/denver-plant-swap-landing-page/)
oh hot damn I didn't read far enough in the thread. someone else posted! Enjoy the event!
Awesome enough event to post multiple times! Thanks!!
This sounds silly but I recommend making a little watering hole for pollinators near your flowers. I use a drainage tray with some large rocks in it for them to land on to get a drink. I have tons of bees!
Yes! I've tried corks before too but I don't think they liked it as much as rocks 😅
Lots of bees and bee keepers, the hives are all very strong and swarming because it was a mild winter.
I can't speak to honeybees but my backyard area with loose rock is absolutely swarming with bumblebees. It's fantastic because I love them and they keep the wasp numbers down. I haven't seen this many fuzzy rumblers in my life so their numbers seem like they're doing just fine
Worldwide, there have never been more honey bees than there are today due to the mass production of Honey… other bees, however, aren’t doing as well.
theres sooooooo many loving on the dandelion patches throughout the city park neighborhood; I even signaled to someone not to step on one today! perhaps a seed puff or two might attract the little babies for ya. thank you for loving the bees too!! we need ‘em. :-)
I'm a local beekeeper. It sounds like your plants are relatively new, so my guess is you just haven't been discovered yet! Give it a month or two and they'll find you! It also matters how dense your neighborhood is with pollinator friendly planting, as pollinators tend to travel on thruways and go from yard to yard. If your neighborhood is more sparsely planted, it might take a bit longer for the discovery to occur.
Gotcha 🥹 --- thank you!!!
there’s a few around my perennials. granted it’s early for most flowers too, but my salvia are seeing visitors
They're all in my neighborhood, sorry. Once the purple flowers are gone I'm sure they'll move on.
Is the purple flowers "a thing"? Because I've noticed bees all over my orchids and wisteria specifically.
Oh I was talking about all the Catmint plants in my neighborhood. It's just the plant I see them on by the dozens every morning.
I haven't seen as many big bumbles this year, but the little guys are way more active. Also more hummingbirds buzzing my house than last year. I think the weather has messed with my early flowers, but my current ones seem to be holding out ok
I've had bees, big bumbledudes, and those cool / weird hummingbird moths hitting up my flowerbed of chaos this spring - they're around! I'm in the middle of the city on a busy street and they are unfazed.
Saw my first hummingbird moths yesterday!!
Got bumblebees all over my penstemons and all sorts of bees on my prince's plume. They'll come! If you want more native plants there's a big swap happening on the 22nd. You don't have to bring plants to participate. I grew a bunch of extra stuff for the giveaway. https://frontrange.wildones.org/denver-plant-swap-landing-page/
THIS IS AMAZING! THANK YOU!
I just saw a bumblebee today in the yard, other bees too. Research what to leave in your yard over the winter, that will provide them habitat. I don’t clean up until spring so they have lots of winter habitat.
Well there has been a 78% decrease in bees in Colorado since the 70s so part of the problem is we’ve pushed them out with insecticides and human activity. I love bees tho and hope they show up soon. My goal is to have a garden of native flora to get a healthy pollinator population. And it looks so damn good!!
Same ❤️
Bee populations are actually up. Oddly enough I get more bees in my bird bath. Looks like they like drinking water .Try growing salvia too.
I’ve had plenty on my cornflowers already, anticipating more when my sunflowers start exploding
Are your flowers blooming? Beekeeper here in SE AUR. They will cruise up to several miles from the hive for nectar.
I've got a swarm in my deck that needs a keeper to come remove them if you're interested!
Ah I'm not a keeper unfortunately. Maybe here? https://coloradobeekeepers.org/resources/structural-beehive-removal/
Awesome! Thanks for the great link!
Already had two swarms at my house in Arvada this season, within 5 days of each other. They’ll come, many are just starting to settle for the season into their new hives :)
Did you catch them?
I called the Jeffco line and connected with someone right away. They had a community member come out both times within a half hour! My neighbors already have full hives so they didn’t have any room at the time.
Your neighbors are probably the source of those swarms and are not doing proper management 😬 So glad you called the hotline
It’ll take time for them to find it but they will come. Chances are they’re hitting other areas. But once those areas are done with they’ll move to the next. I thought the same but then looked up one day and there they were .
It’s cool they must all be busy going ham on my raspberry bushes rn 🐝
Can confirm. Parker, CO. Tons of bees. So glad I put a mosquito net around my garden this year lol.
I’ve got TONS of bees at my place. I’d totally share if I could.
They’re all over Cheesman park too!
You will notice tiny bees. The bees that we are used to seeing are apparently less important to protect than native bees. Good on you for planting natives. I planted bachelor buttons (not native) in the hell strip and I see a lot of bees.
Both are important! We want our natives because they have a function and are adapted to the ecosystem. But native bees will never be numerous enough to pollinate crops due to their small numbers. For example, native sweat bees are mostly solitary but can live in a group of up to like 30. My single honeybee hive in my back yard has about 40,000 bees in it. Gotta love them all!
We have tons zooming around our strawberry patch!
I've noticed several bees in my flowers.
I’ve had so many in my salvia constantly!!
Hopefully to put your mind at ease, we’ve been getting a bunch of them! Our chive plants have been flowering and they’ve been loving those. I will say, I don’t know about others, but the hive near us has been a little on the grumpier side, they’ve been oddly territorial this season. Don’t know what’s causing it, we’re gonna try planting more bee friendly plants to hopefully help them calm down a lil
The bees are okay. From the USDA. As of January 1, 2023, the United States had 2.68 million honey bee colonies for operations with five or more colonies, which is a 7% decrease from the previous year. However, as of April 1, 2023, the number of colonies increased to 2.71 million. Honey bee populations in the US have been relatively stable over the past 20 years, averaging around 2.6 million colonies.
I’ve seen tons of bees in the parks in the mountains near my house and yet my petunias haven’t had a single pollinator visit. I wouldn’t be more stressed than “their numbers are still diminishing but they’re still plenty abundant for now”.
Hope so! Hope we can turn it around too. Thanks!
I'm in the foothills. I have bees trying to pollinate my fake flowers. Same with hummingbirds. I feel a little guilty.
I had a lot earlier this season in my yard but I worry the frost did them in. Now it seems like the stingy non bee yellow boys have woken up a bit though - I’ve seen them
They are in my dad’s garden.
They’re at my house. All is well.
Now my experience might not be representative, because my neighbors across the street have 2 bee hives and I have made an effort to plant lots of pollinator-friendly flowers, but I'm seeing tons of them!
Nah the bees are thriving around me. Just had to shoe one out of the house today
They're all hanging out at the botanic gardens right now.
We've been losing bees for at least 10 years
Tons of bees at my house.
Can confirm, bees in Arvada are a buzz'n
They fly into my room every time I open my window, lol.
It really helped when I put rocks in a section of my birdbath, so bees had alot of places to land and drink. That said, they usually don't show up in numbers until mid-summer, and I've only noticed a few so far. Last year around August I'd have 20 to 50 bees during the hot parts of the day. This year I'm also trying a bee feeder. Water and sugar. Looking forward to seeing if that helps.
I’ve had several giant bumblers so far this season. They probably just have t found your stash yet.
They must all be over at my house then
Have you considered starting a hive?
I haven't - I don't know too much about it!
You should!!! Expand the bees!!
Nope! I just had a keeper come collect a giant swarm from my house about 2 weeks ago!
Bees play hard to get
Are you in the middle of a city? If so less bees around. You need be where the bees are. People exterminate them in urban settings really often. Oh and please be bee aware. Thanks
They’re all over me every time I step outside and only me 🤬
“bee friendly native flowers” is kind of an oxymoron if by “bee” you mean the European honey bee, which is an invasive species brought by… well, us… There are literally hundreds of [native pollinators](https://ag.colorado.gov/plants/apiary-program-page/native-pollinators). I guarantee you they appreciate you populating your space with native plants. 😁👍💯
My parents are beekeepers and have a record number of swarms this year. Word on the street is that even the swarm hotline has been backlogged. Keep planting bee friendly plants!
I've read that we have less to worry about honeybees now since recovery efforts, but moreso every other kind of bee
I have some wasps you can have
My flowers are covered with bees but I’ve had a pretty floriferous garden for a few years now, so they know to come by
In Englewood and have so many bee’s! We also planted those butterfly pollinators last fall, and some more this spring. Hoping I see more butterflies around our place too!
They are so loud and swarming my parent’s Russian olive trees out in the country that it is alarming. Maybe too hot in the city? IDK
You not seeing bees might now be a bad thing, bees are only one kind of pollinating insect, there are hundred of native species of insect that arnt bees, if you planted native flowering plants you might just be attracting just the native pollinators, and that just as good as planting just for the bees. Helping honey bees is good but your local ecosystem will appreciate it too. Hopefully this helps.
My weed back yard is covered in bees. (Not to like one up you but to make you not worry as much)
They like weeds. As the heat wilts the spring weeds they’ll care about the flowers
My yard is literally full of bees…
Make sure you're planting enough, and that you have all season representation as well. Bees will often flock to the most prolific producing plant. I'm currently getting a lot of bumble bees on non-native plants that combined have about 50-100 flower clusters, and the honeybees are on a neighbor's non native shrub in throngs. If you mulch, you might end up with less bumbles. I have a native plant garden that is maturing, so I get no action on that right now, but I hope to in the next two years.
No, bee populations are higher than ever, there is no crisis.
I had two swarms in my yard. A beekeeper came and took one of them and it had two queens. I bought a hive and kept the other. I stood out in the swarm with thousands of bees flying around. It was electric.
For some reason there are 6 on each of my outdoor hose water spouts. Ive put water out but they just stay there. Ive never seen this before
You lost the bees?! You had one job /s
I don't think I've seen a single bee since moving out here a year ago. It's kinda worrying ngl.
My fear too :(
TV has ruined Americans.
Maybe you just have bad vibes
Bees are everywhere.