Bug Squad

So you want to become a California Master Beekeeper.

A little drama in the mustard patch... A honey bee is foraging head-first in the mustard. She's collecting nectar and pollen. She does not see the lady beetle, aka ladybug, thrust head-first above her. The honey bee is dusted with yellow pollen. The ladybug, not so much. The bee moves closer.

Might As Well Be Spring "I'm as restless as a willow in a windstormI'm as jumpy as puppet on a stringI'd say that I had spring feverBut I know it isn't spring."--Frank Sinatra Wait, it is spring! Today is the day we've all be waiting for--the first day of spring.

A sure sign of spring: honey bees foraging on mustard. You'll see mustard growing as cover crops in the Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley vineyards, but you'll also see it gracing the hillsides, roadways and area gardens. It's a time when the yellow pollen dusts the bees from head to thorax to abdomen.

On St. Patrick's Day, we see green. We crave green. We wear green. And the penalty for not wearing green? You get pinched. Not so with green sweat bees. As their common name implies, they're green. A metallic green. But no pinching allowed! The green sweat bee, Agapostemon spp.