Wildlifeman:

Bees are particularly fond of clover, but are attracted by many other cover/forage crops like buckwheat. In your climate, you might still be able to till up an area and expect germination from a cover crop. If you have lots of wild clovers in your area, you may already be meeting their nectar requirements, and they can gather pollen from many sources, including many species of trees.

I would be careful about setting out containers of water, since the bees seem to fall in and drown with great frequency. They are usually able to satisfy their moisture requirements from the morning dew, if you have that.

The bees are actually not "little guys". They are all girls, with the exception of a few worthless drones, who do nothing but sit around and buzz and eventually are pushed out of the hive. Serves them right.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

jellyman,

i've nixed the water idea. i'd rather them leave than "kill them with kindness". got to thinkin about the water and do concur that it does seem to drown quite a few insects.

i have been thinking of an acre or 2 of a cover crop/food plot but probably won't get to that for maybe 2 years. the roughest thing to figure out is what will grow under under dry conditions. irrigation is not an option. in spring the animals don't need it and later on it's wasted seed money.

buckwheat has been on my mind as the bears revel in it. the commercial food plot seed mixes die out in july here. i have been watching for mixes for dry areas,but so far nothing seems to be available.

thanks,
wildlifeman

wildlifeman- you may find much better success in the west with white sweet clover. It tends to bloom till November, grows in poor soil, and is a preferred forage for honeybees in the west. Having lived in the east briefly and loving buckwheat honey on pancakes I grew some buckwheat one year. Found that it doesn't perform in the west like it does in the east. Don't remember seeing bees on it even. A second preferred foliage is everbearing raspberries. A third of course is alfalfa. Summer bloom can be extended with gumweed and sunflower. Honeybees prefer both of those in the west to alfalfa.
It is all for not I fear though. I doubt your apple tree will store enough winter stores or a large enough cluster to survive a spokane winter.

I did alot of reading on planting to attract bees among my fruit and veggies. Then there were the surprises not in the lists - it's quite usual for ten bees to work at once on each artichoke bloom. Blooms of basil and oregano get absolutely mobbed. It took literally years for them to learn how but we now have honey and carpenter bees that have learned to fly or walk up into our huge brugmansia blooms and you can hear the roar of the bees in it some distance away. My carnivorous plants trap a significant number of bees out of flower; with water all around I am amazed at the attraction. What are they enjoying already in your neighborhood that you can make more of?

gmason,

that white sweet clover sounds interesting,will research it a bit. if i had raspberries, i'd just have to go pick them whether i wanted to or not.:) they make my favorite cobbler and jelly.

my winter is worse than spokane.maybe a full zone difference.

i'm still wondering where they came from to start with. are they wild or escapees from someones hive,i dunno.

tomatozilla,

down in the valley i see bee hives sitting out in some alfalfa fields but up here i still haven't seeen them working anything. tried to watch these but am having no luck.

thanks for the info. guys !
wildlifeman

They're possibly a swarm from a wall of a barn or something like that. I removed bees from a house once that had 5 different swarms living in it. I removed one out of the chimney and one from the eaves above the back porch.

Wildlifeman:

Wild bee swarms that take up residence, whether in a hollow tree, wall, or a prepared hive, are usually 5-banded Italians, and indistinguishable from domesticated honeybees.

Colonies split frequently in spring, when they raise one or more young queens in the hive, then part of the hive flies off with the new queen to look for a residence. It is impossible to tell if they came from a wild source or a beekeeper's hive.

The trick is to keep them healthy in spite of the many bee diseases as well as varroa and tracheal mites.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I used to have moss roses -- can't think of the real name for them. Moss rose is the name they are frequently sold under -- they are a groundcover plant, not a real rose.

They attracted a lot of bees and put on a colorful display. Keep snipping the blooms before they go to seed, and they'll continue blooming.

gmason and jellyman,

it's too bad i'll never know the source, but i am thankful they are here. checked on them today and they have increased in number and i saw 1 working some wildflowers. they are keeping my attention and i will continue my self education on honeybees.

mark,
u may have hit on an option that i might be able to pull off....ground covers ! will check out moss rose.

the deer seem to not bother groundcovers that the previous owner planted. i would have to replant as they are slowly dying off from lack of care.

as always,thanks

wildlifeman