Blue bee santa barbara how to#

By 2009, it consolidated to three stores: Blue Bee, Blue Bee Jeans and Blue Bee Men. It employed more than 60 people in 2007 in a group of six stores: Blue Bee, Blue Bee Jeans, Blue Bee Men, Blue Bee Shoes, Blue Beetle and Honeycomb, all located on Santa Barbara’s State Street. We are going to take a break from retail,” he said.īlue Bee had been one of Santa Barbara’s most prominent fashion retailers. “We want to wrap up loose ends, rest up and get back to work. The company has no assets, Bebout said, and he and business partner John Doucette had no immediate business plans.

Since 2000, the retailer offered fashions ranging from gowns to suits, premium denim and footwear from designer brands such as Paul Smith and contemporary labels such as Paige Premium Denim.

The tough economy and changing consumer tastes were among the factors that forced Blue Bee to shutter its doors. Exisle Publishing Pty Ltd.Blue Bee Inc., one of the most high-profile designer and contemporary specialty retailers of Santa Barbara, Calif., went out of business, said Marty Bebout, a co-owner of the Blue Bee compound of physical stores and e-commerce website. Owen, R (2015) The Australian Beekeeping Manual. Hogendoorn K, Coventry S, Keller MA (2007) Foraging behaviour of a blue banded bee, Amegilla chlorocyanea in greenhouses: implications for use as tomato pollinators.

Blue bee santa barbara how to#

For more information on creating bee walls, there is an excellent factsheet available from > How to > Instructions for a Bug Hotel.Ĭardinale, JC (1968) Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra. Placing soil from an existing blue-banded bee nesting site on top of the brick will help attract females to the new nest. When the mud dries, drill holes for the bees. Alternatively, you can use an extruded brick with core holes, in which the holes are filled with mud. Drill a variety of holes 10-15 mm wide and 25- 50 mm deep before the mud brick dries and place the finished brick in a sheltered position. After warming up in the morning they go on their daily routine of foraging and finding a female to mate with.īlue-banded bees can be attracted to your garden by making a mud brick. Eventually they all tuck their legs under their bodies to sleep. They vigorously shake their legs and wiggle their abdomens when a new bee arrives to settle. Male blue-banded bees roost together in small groups at night, out in the open, hanging onto twigs or stems with their mandibles. Baby bees take about seven weeks to hatch and those that do not hatch due to approaching winter, overwinter in their cells, emerging in the following spring. Cardinale (Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra 1968), blue-banded bees live for about 40 days and about three generations hatch during one summer. The female then goes in search of another nesting site.Īccording to J. Once an egg has been deposited each cell is capped, and when all cells are filled and capped the burrow is closed with a layer of soil. Inside the burrows, they create oval-shaped cells lining them with waterproof secretions.īefore depositing an egg, a mixture of nectar and pollen is placed in the cell. Nests are built in soft mortar, mud bricks or soft sandstone banks in sheltered positions. Research has shown that blue-banded bees could be valuable pollinators of greenhouse tomatoes.įemales build their own nest and are attracted to areas where other females are nesting. Header: This female blue-banded bee is robbing nectar by piercing the ower petals with her straw-like brown sheath that protects her tongue.īlue-banded bees forage on a variety of exotic and native flowers such as Hibbertia scandens, Melastoma malabathricum subsp malabathricum, tomato, chilli, basil, buddleia, lavender, abelias, Leucophyllum and cigar plants (Cuphea). Their faces have yellow, cream or white markings. Males have five stripes and females have four. The colours are caused by microscopic diagonal stripes engraved on each hair which reflect light causing these glittering colours. They have thick, reddish-brown fur on their thorax and a black abdomen with iridescent blue, whitish, green or reddish furry stripes. They have a sting but are not aggressive. Blue-banded bees are solitary and are found in all states of Australia except Tasmania. They are also known as long-tongued bees or buzz pollinators. There are eleven species of described blue-banded bees in Australia ranging in size from 8-14 mm.