Bees Report June 02

This morning I checked the bees to see if the queen is producing brood. Yes, she is as you can see below. These were package bees I have had them now 16 days, it won't be long before the first brood hatches.

Here on the upper right you can see some of the food stores, I think it is the syrup I have been feeding them.

I'd liked to have seen less open cells here. Not sure if these brood have just been laid and the holes will fill in or not.

On the upper right you can see where I did not push the frames close together on my last inspection and the bees have filled in some of that space. On the frames bottom corners they have eaten away some of the wax, guessing that is normal.

More open cells, not good, we'll have to see if this queen can cut the mustard.

Here are some of the round carrots (Tonda di Parigi Carrots) we planted early this spring. They grew quicker than any carrots we have tried and they are very tasty too.

Sometimes the weeds don't get pulled in out garden beds. The birds must have planted this in the front flower bed, it is Yellow Moth Mullein, Verbascum blattaria. When I get home it has no flowers, in the morning it opens up, perhaps at night too.

Other items, we had a Eastern Painted Turtle about to lay eggs in the garden. I broke the rule of nature photography and moved in with the camera and took photos. She left the site without laying her eggs. A reminder we must observe and record, never interfere.

Last thing you get a kick out of this. Meg's sister lives in Chapel Hill, right on the bus route in town. Tonight she had a deer giving birth in her tiny backyard!

Eastern least Clubtail

On Monday I went walking in Johnston Mill Nature Preserve along New Hope Creek. Right where the mill used to be I met a man and his son, later I ran into them and they told me they had seen 2 dragonflies emerging on rocks in the creek. So I went back to look for the newly emerged dragonflies, all that remained were the exuvias. Now my shoes were wet so I decided to look for my own emerging. It did not take long to find some emerging dragonflies. Turns out they were Eastern Least Clubtails - Stylogomphus albistylus,  exactly what I'd hoped to find.

This female Eastern Least Clubtail was just barely out of the water on that tiny rock. If the water had been rising, this would have been fish food for sure. Bad news is she was still in the exuvia when I found her, but my big camera died from all the sweating, it was 90 plus degrees out there.

Same female expanding her body.

Different female at least she picked a bigger rock. I took 2 photos with my little camera from about an inch away and she flew into the trees. The big exuvia is hers, the tiny one in a damselfly exuvia.

Here is an mature Eastern Least Clubtail, from the same spot on New Hope Creek in 2004 a few weeks later in the season. As you can see teneral (immature) dragonflies can be difficult to tell what they are when they first emerge.