Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Pollen Wars
les abeilles (laze abaze = the bees)
Around this time every year, bees come to the house. They inspect every nook and cranny available on the outside of the house in order to store their pollen. One year we had a swarm of bees try to set up shop in the roof. Another year we discovered a stash of pollen in our spigot when we turned it on only to have a bright yellow splash come out.
The windowsills remain, however, the storage bin of choice. Each of our windows has three ventilation holes, about the diameter of a pencil. Every Spring I stop these up with playdough which usually dries and falls out after the frenetic bee season. This year I didn't do it and here is the result :
Around this time every year, bees come to the house. They inspect every nook and cranny available on the outside of the house in order to store their pollen. One year we had a swarm of bees try to set up shop in the roof. Another year we discovered a stash of pollen in our spigot when we turned it on only to have a bright yellow splash come out.
The windowsills remain, however, the storage bin of choice. Each of our windows has three ventilation holes, about the diameter of a pencil. Every Spring I stop these up with playdough which usually dries and falls out after the frenetic bee season. This year I didn't do it and here is the result :
As I stood there watching, two bees seemed to "argue" about who had dibs on that particular silo. Apparently, bees are not into stealing each others pollen as one of them had gone through the great trouble of emptying out his competitor's stash before attempting to install his own.
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