Good News for Michigan Honeybees

Posted on by farlane

Around the Bend, photo by Daniel E. Johnson

The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that the number of Michigan honey bee colonies is on the rise:

The number of honey bee colonies in Michigan rose about 16 percent over the last year. About 25,000 colonies existed at the beginning of 2016 in a census of operations with five or more colonies, according to the National Statistics Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. The comparable number on Jan. 1, 2017, was 29,000 colonies.

Varroa mites were the primary stressor of Michigan colonies over the last five quarters. They affected only 5.9 percent of the state’s bee colonies in the first quarter of 2016, but 64.1 percent of colonies in the third quarter of 2016. The Varroa mite is an external parasite that attaches to bees and weakens them.

The total number of bee colonies in the U.S. sank slightly during 2016, but held relatively steady at about 2.62 million colonies.

Colony Collapse Disorder symptoms were observed in more than 84,000 bee colonies in the U.S. from January through March 2017, a 27% increase from the same quarter of 2016.

View Daniel’s photo bigger and see more in his slideshow.

Lazy Summer Day

Posted on by farlane

Lazy Summer Day, photo by David Marvin

View the photo background bigilicious and see more in David’s slideshow.

More summer wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.

Going Purple for June

Posted on by farlane

Siberian Iris, photo by Julie Mansour

Something that you may or may not know is that my mother has some form of Alzheimer’s spectrum brain disease that has progressed to the point where she no longer knows me, or herself. While there’s no really good terminal illnesses out there, Alzheimer’s and related dementias seem to me to be among the worst as they destroy much of the essence of the person you love long before taking their life.

June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month and if you click that link, you can see some great photos shared on the hashtags #ENDALZ & #MyAlzStory along with information  about efforts to combat these diseases and a way to donate.

View the photo background bigilicious and see more in Julie’s slideshow.

Spoon Flower

Posted on by farlane

Spoon flower, photo by Bailwick Studios

The photographer writes that this flower might also be called a spooned daisy, African daisy, or a caped daisy.

View the photo background bigtacular and see more in Bailwick Studious slideshow.

More flowers on Michigan in Pictures!

Blue Monday

Posted on by farlane

blue, photo by Curt Saunier

View Curt’s photo bigger and see more in his Flowers slideshow.

Snowdrops and a Bee

Posted on by farlane

Snowdrops and a Bee, photo by Trish P.

Trish took this Saturday on the Leelanau Peninsula. View the photo bigger, see more of the same in Trish’s In the Garden slideshow, and follow her at trishy_p on Instagram!

More flowers and more from the garden on Michigan in Pictures.

Ode to Spring … and Michigan Spring Wallpaper!

Posted on by farlane

Ode to Spring, photo by Sue Fraser

Suddenly there’s no more snowing,
Balmy breezes blithely blowing,
Lilacs bloom, the lawn needs mowing–
Oh, what glee!
-Robert G. Shubinski (full poem)

Spring isn’t quite this far advanced, but if you want to add to the amount of spring in your life,take a walk through the spring wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures – lots of great pics in here!

You can see this photo background bigtacular and see lots more in Sue’s Fantastic Flowers slideshow.

Michigan Tough: Daffodil Edition

Posted on by farlane

Hopefully the daffodils are tougher than I am, photo by Bill Dolak

Bill took this shot yesterday at Celery Flats Park in Portage where it got down into the teens the night before.

View the photo background bigilicious and see more in his Portage, Michigan slideshow.

More spring wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.

A flower a day for February: Lily

Posted on by farlane
lily

Lily, photo by Joel Dinda

Joel’s Flower a Day for February project began with a flower a day for January of 2006 2013 and then (because February usually isn’t warm enough to grow lilies) moved to February for 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

View the photo background bigilicious. See more Flower a Day posts & also check out Joel’s A Flower a Day for February (x10) slideshow.

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January 5th with Joel

Posted on by farlane

lilies-by-joel

Lilies, photo by Joel Dinda

This morning I got a note from one of Michigan in Pictures’s longtime contributors, Joel Dinda letting me know that I had coincidentally featured his photos twice on previous January 5ths. The other two were Rotten Apples: 2014 Detroit Lions Playoff Edition detailing the Lions’ loss to Dallas after the pass interference call that was and then wasn’t and a look at the Ruins of the the Old Cheboygan Point Lighthouse in 2013.

The third time is the charm they say, so here’s one that Joel shared way back in January of 2006 (taken summer of 2005) as part of his “Flower a Day” series. I think he started doing them in January and then realized somewhere along the way that as bad as Michigan winter in January can be, Februarys are worse!!

View Joel’s photo background big, see more in his  in his Flower a Day for February (x9) slideshow, and check out photos from Joel dating back a decade on Michigan in Pictures!