Honey bees!

At least I think they are honey bees. I'm not an expert on bees, but these are the little fuzzy ones that I've always known as honey bees. I've had about a dozen of them in the house today. They keep finding their way in through the open back door and the windows, and then they get lost and confused, buzzing around one of the closed windows or circling around. I have rescued them all at this point. Either a hive is moving, or they just arrived here from somewhere else and are checking out the new neighborhood.

I refuse to entertain the idea that they are really and truly lost or confused. I guess the virus that's been killing off the bee populations does some kind of disorienting thing to them and they can't get back to the hive? Not going to even think about that. I'm only going to believe that it's all the bee-loving plants I just put in - the rows of lavender, mounds of herbs, coneflowers, cosmos, all kinds of flowers that they lovein the garden. And they've just moved in and are hard at work pollinating stuff.

I usually have a lot of bee type things anyway, but these are new guys. The bumblies are always around, and the waspy things come and go, especially that wood-eating hornet that eats away at my fence. I've had the mason bee around for the past couple of years too. I really don't like the yellow jackets but they stop by from time to time too -usually if there is a barbeque, urgh. But I loves me some honey bees. They are so gentle and sweet.

Go here: Haagen Dasz' Help the Honeybees site. It's the cutest thing ever, and you can build your own little bee, send email greetings with it, and learn more. They are on a mission to save the honey bee.

Fer reals, dudez - if all it takes is eating tubs of Honey Bee Vanilla ice cream to save the bees? I am so there.