Pollinators, Pollinator Gardening, including diverse bees and others

[Steph S]

I'm kind of amazed at how organized our bumblebees seem to be.  Just spending some time watching them in the garden generally this time of year, when the density is at minimum one per square meter.  Some of the bees just seem to be intent on finding all the flowers not previously enjoyed within a certain area.  Some seem to be intent on one type.  Like queen bee said, you get oregano pollen. You get mother of thyme pollen. and they just distribute themselves into an area and work it without conflicting with each other.  Those early morning bees get the tomato pollen and I've seen a few checking later in the day for anything open - they just seem to be on task.  You have to remember that a bee collecting tomato pollen is not getting any nectar to replenish their own energy.  I would think that having nectar rich flowers near the tomatoes should help, depending on the scale of how many square meters of just tomatoes vs others.  There's a patch of mother-of-thyme just at the foot of my tomatoes and there are bees there all day long, in higher density than I see around the garden.  But I've yet to notice any movement of bees between the m-o-t below and the tomato flowers above.
And then there's flowering time.  A lot of perennials produce and then finish.  The bees have to plan for the whole season, and there has to be abundant pollen and nectar into the fall for them to have a good year and produce large queens for the next season.
We're seeing everything blooming early here.  Things that normally bloom September or October are already blooming out and being done.  This is a challenge for bumblebees.