Monday, July 20, 2015

The Bee's Knees

Hello!  I should write a completely different post introducing myself and all of my projects, and I'll do that when I have extra time(ha-ha, yeah right!), but I'll give ya a little sneak peak background so you have some context here.  I'm Jen - I'm a Sustainable Food and Farming student at UMASS Amherst.  I've always been super interested (See:Obsessed) in Entomology (Insects), and over the last few years I've become equally...interested.... in gardening of all kinds, especially the kind where both humans and wildlife benefit from it.    This summer, I'm working on an independent study where I basically get to obsess over bees and other garden insects and get COLLEGE CREDIT towards graduation while doing it.   Some of the things I'm learning to do:

1. How to catch insects like a real entomologist.  I get to set up cool painted cups all over the place and see what kinds of bees are attracted to the different colors.  So far, I've caught more flies and aphids than bees..  I've got a "kill jar" which was hard to get used to using - but bees are sometimes impossible to identify when they are stinging the crap out of your hand,  so yeah.   I've been collecting insects at a bunch of really cool places like Crimson and Clover Farm in Florence, MA(I totally have a farm share there) and Paradise Lot - a perennial vegetable nursery in Holyoke, MA, as well as my own vegetable/flower garden, and some more wild places like the Ashley Reservoir in Holyoke.  I go out when I can, and I'm just kind of working on initial figuring out of the things - like how to stay organized with labelling, etc.. It's been fun. 

2. Pinning!  I've got the start of a really cool bee/wasp collection going!  All of the bees I collect get pinned and put into position for drying  - I'm learning how to do this properly so that the body parts used for identification are in the right position and readily accessible - it's a lot harder than it seems.  Bumblebees are sometimes identified by the length of their tongue, some bees can only be identified by the pattern on their (extremely delicate) wings, or the cool pollen baskets on their legs.  Also, there is nothing that makes me happier than my 3 year old running up to me, beetle in hand, screaming "mom, can you pin this for me?". It's the best. 
MOM!  Pin THIS!  -  My kid 


3. Photography - I purchased a decent camera and macro lens, and after a few lessons from friends and colleagues, I've been able to take a few decent photos. I'm out there almost every day experimenting with light and depth of field, and I've learned a lot!  While pinning is super fun and interesting, I also want to have a "collection" of photos of bees on their preferred flowers in their natural body positions...   Also, bees move a lot. 
I don't want to talk about how many photos of Bee Butts I had to take before I got one decent one..


4. Plant ID - I'm decent at plant ID, but when you are working with insects, it's super important to know just as much about plants as you do the insects.  My kitchen table is covered in field guides and my camera is loaded with pictures of flowers and other plant parts.  
I feel like I should put an inspirational quote under this one! - Black eyed Susan



So, did I mention I'm getting credit for this?  

I'd be super pumped if you post a comment with some cool bee/other insect photos that you've taken this summer, and/or tell me about a project you are working on this summer!! Thanks for reading! Stay posted if you enjoy listening to people geek out about bugs and plants! 

 - Jen @ Flora & Fauna Farm