Bzzzzz bees!

One of the things I love about the garden is the amazing variety of wildflowers, there's so many flowers I've never seen before, and it seems that there are new ones on every visit.  I was extra excited to see how much insect life was attracted to them, especially bees.  Bees have been something I've taken interest in ever since I heard about Colony Collapse Disorder, I was shocked and somewhat in disbelief that the bee population was so drastically affected. I love going to the ROM and looking at their bee colony which is housed in plexiglass with an identified queen; I could stare at them for long periods of time, fascinated by their hard work, productive lives, and high intelligence.  I was very saddened to hear that the colony died off, but am happy to hear they have started a new colony so more people can learn about bees and see them in action. I guess I always took it for granted that bees were out there diligently pollinating our crops and making honey in return, a very thankless job - and one that is extremely valuable.  According to the NRDC, bees pollinate 30% of the world's cultivated crops, and 90% of the wild ones, that's a pretty mind blowing statistic, considering the sheer amount of crops we consume regularly. So it's great to see the bees in our garden, legs laden with pollen, buzzing from flower to flower, making their honey, and giving us the gift of fruit and vegetables, a gift of life.

Team work!

You can actually see the pollen on this one's leg!