where are all the bees?

We've got bees in our yard and garden. We're also one of the ONLY houses in the neighborhood that doesn't use a lawn poison company. Honey bees love dandylions, so that's going to get their attention. The perennial bed is a big draw and when the vegetables flower they are always covered in bees of many different types. We had a couple of years where honey bees were few and far between, but I've seen a lot of them this year and last year wasn't bad either.

Oh - I've also got a sticky note on the front door that reads:

NO LAWN
POISON
COMPANIES
---------
NOT INTERESTED
NO WAY
NEVER

They've stopped knocking and leaving shit on the doorknob since I put that up.

They don't bother me. I got to put some food out for them today as it a scorcher.

:D

When we moved here two+ decades ago we had two old lady neighbors who had signed up for outside spider eradication service.
Back then my other neighbor and I were talking about toads- we weren't seeing them anymore. He said he thought it was due to people being much more conservative with water when watering their yards, I thought the bug spray must be bad for the toads as well as decimating their food supply.

We are fortunate to have many bees, too, and this seems like a better year for the honeybees than the last two.

The most amazing bee I saw in our yard was a big, golden, male carpenter bee; like this-



the females are a bit smaller, and black,

:D

He got me interested in beekeeping and capturing swarms years ago. He's retired now, but still plays some decent jazz on the licorice stick.