apiary creatures miscellaneous musings photographs wintering

December in the bee yard

I received a complaint that, lately, my posts have lacked pictures. Well, dah! It’s December! It is very hard to photograph bees or beekeeping when everything is on hold and waiting for spring.

Nevertheless, yesterday between rain storms I took my camera up to the bee yard to photograph whatever I could find. What I found was–don’t be surprised–fungus! After all, this is the Pacific Northwest.

Living in the mold and mildew capital of the New World, it is easy to become inured to the charms of fungus because they are everywhere. For the most part, the only ones I can identify are the ones I can eat. The rest I pretty much ignore or else I don’t see them at all–background noise of a sort.

After the first freeze of winter–which we already had–many of the larger fungi are pretty much destroyed. The slippery, slimy and brown remnants mush into the ground and disappear. But I found a few–just so you can’t complain about the lack of pictures.

Rusty

Forest floor mushrooms just below the hive stands.

Mushrooms in the winter stream.

Some of these white ones were just popping out of the ground.

Tiny cup-shaped mushrooms called "bird's nest fungi" on a twig.

No idea, but kind of pretty.

These are drooping off the side of a moss-covered tree.

Growing on a downed log near uppermost hives.

2 Comments

  • Just a bunch of fungis hanging around! Ey oh!

    Hey Rusty why don’t you take more rime out of your busy schedule to appease our incesant questions and then appease our doubting of your answers?! Then after we question you and doubt you we question the validity or content of your photos!

    Sounds like a great time! Even though I do not agree with some numbers (a theological debate not for this forum), you make awesome points and talk to us newbees like we are humans and not the scum on the bottom of your beekeeping boots. Thanks!

    Oh great photos by the way!

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