Carol: I don't have any setup for bees but I see hundred of bees in my garden everyday. Their favourite are portulaca flowers. Have a look.... it will be hard to detect them as they are small in size but rest assure, there are hundreds of them around

The bees in my house are mostly small one. Large bees are few but there are always hundreds of small one. There is always a buzz sound in the morning and their favourite are portulaca flowers show in above pics.

I haven't bought any bees but there are so many in my garden already. BTW, honey of these small bees is very expensive, more than twice the price of honey of large sized bees.

best regards

Thank you, Khalid for those lovely pics.

Carol: great thread !! Bees come where the food is. Same with lady-bugs .. some folks bought lady-bugs, but zero food (plants) for them, so the lady-bugs went elsewhere.

Bees go nuts over my garlic chives, makes really good pot-stickers too. My kid lived on that stuff over the summer .. it's healthier than hot-dogs.

Khalid - Yeah, don't buy honey from solitary bees - that's the death of the queen then - she won't be able to overwinter. :(

I can see that you have lots of bees!! Where I live, it's like a desert of grass. There's nothing for the bees to eat, except in my yard. So I have to introduce them so they can find my perennials. Solitary bees forage for about 300 feet from their nest - so unless I put them out...they'll never get here. I love how many bees you have!

Thanks Straw - I'm going out now to buy more perennials. I have a lot - but I want more spring bloomers and more drought resistant so I can plant them in places my hose won't reach.

Carol