(Image: @seaforanswers via Twitter)
(Images: Rainbow Remedies)
There’s a plan to turn 11th Ave into an official Pollinator Pathway(tm!) connecting bumble bees and butterflies along a route from Seattle University, Cal Anderson and Volunteer Park.
Apparently 15th Ave E’s buzzing residents are making a pathway of their own.
This swarm showed up around 15th and Harrison Thursday afternoon.
Ross Kling of Rainbow Remedies tells CHS Rainbow’s honey suppliers came out to try to collect the hundreds of bees. “It’s a great way to populate a hive!” Kling writes.
#bees swarming on #capitolhill #seattle right outside my window. Nature is amazing and scary! pic.twitter.com/pfM39yvU1I
— Steve Mitchell (@stevepmitchell) May 1, 2015
In 2013, the folks at the Wandering Goose established a few rooftop hives (Image: The Wandering Goose)
The Capitol Hill bees seem to keep to a schedule. Last Thursday, this swarm showed up at the Polish Home on 18th Ave.
The presence of the winged pollinators in such mass numbers probably doesn’t thrill anybody concerned about stings but it could be a nice sign of a healthy environment for the bees. Why the bees are busy on Hilltop is anybody’s guess but we do know of at least one local project to keep hives in the area.
I have a p-patch at Magnuson Park (a long way to go to garden, I know; condo living), and over the last few years, we’ve been putting bee projects up, and just this year there’s been a very gratifying increase in honeybees and bumblebees. I love to see them. Haven’t seen much of an increase in butterflies, though. I’ve also seen (actually heard) more frogs and different bird species.
when honey bees are swarming like that, they are seeking new digs and are usually even more docile than usual – unless provoked, they will not bother you