The Cultivating Garden #11: Fist-Pumping Carpenter Bee Urges You to “Steem On”!

Carpenter bees are gentle giants of the garden. Although larger in size than the average bee, the males have no stingers and while the females have stingers, they only used them when severely threatened. Personally, I love how awkward they look when they fly. Their bums are round and voluminous and tend to droop during flight which gives the cartoonish impression that aviation is a laborious task for them. If I spend an hour outside I will see our local resident at least once. Usually I know she is around from her buzzing sound, which is quite audible.

There is a wooden balcony above my patio. Her nest is on the underside of a wooden beam located directly above one of my hummingbird feeders.

Here she is resting on the chain that attaches my hummingbird feeder to the same wooden beam where she burrows. Her “nest” consists of a hole roughly the size of a nickle. Here she will raise her babies and store pollen.

In the above picture, the bit of yellow fuzz you see in the soil is a tuft of “saw dust” that fell into my potted sweet potato plant located directly below the carpenter bee’s nest. I’ve learned, through experience, not to sit under the beam while she is at work.

Carpenter bees are solitary creatures, “lone-riders” if you will, and do not partake in the hive-lifestyle like regular bees. I had another carpenter bee come around in previous years and I suspect that this one might be her offspring since according to carpenterbees.com new generations tend to return to their old nurseries year after year.

Recently I was standing on a chair outside hanging my hummingbird feeder when I noticed that my little friend was buzzing around so I snapped a bunch of pictures while I was already up close. Later, when I looked at them on my computer I noticed that I captured my subject mid-stride (climbing up the chain) with one of its arms stretched out.

I thought it looked like a “fist pump.” Then I decided to go with it and create a positivity meme from this busy bee to inspire and encourage the Steemit community to chug on… day or night… rain or snow…

And with the weekend almost upon us, I recruited Fist-Pumping Carpenter Bee to relay the following message:

Enjoy!