The Unbearable Lightness of BEEing

Our bees won't make it up to Ft. Tryon; too far. (We've talked about tagging their tiny legs to track them, but it seemed too time consuming. Thoughts from anyone who has tagged the tiny legs of 5 lbs. of bees??) However, I did see some fantastic specimens of the honeybee sort gathering nectar from the myriad of colorful flora in the lovely Washington Heights. Anyone who says NYC is all concrete has another thing coming when they see these photos:

A Bonny View of the George Washington Bridge

The lush Hudson River Valley

Bumble Bee in Action

Loving Burst of a Cherry Tree

Checkered Tulip!

An unseasonably warm day in the city. I must check on the bees.

(And transplant the delicate plants onto the roof.)

When I arrived around 5:15 pm, the hive was abuzz with honeybees coated in sweet nectar. In the shot below, you can see the yellow pollen on the legs of the airborne bee in the middle. (His name is Mario.)

This is a great sign that the bees are beginning to forage out in big bad Brooklyn, despite the bee tea inside the hive and the delicious-looking clumpy marshmallow pile. (Although I caught two honeybees red-handed going for it in this photo!)

It was at this moment that I realized that I was in bee camo!

So I decided, "Why not just snuggle up for a bit?"

They felt it too.

By 7, bees were flying back to the roof from every direction. I'm sure some even made it to Manhattan and Queens. (Hopefully not Staten Island. They're smart little dudes.)