Predators

Sitting in front of the hive while eating lunch this summer, I couldn't help feeling a little protective when I saw a Bald Faced Hornet tackling honey bees mid flight in front of the entrance. The Hornet would fly hard into the bee and knock it out of the air then quickly try to locate it in the grass below the hive. It took several tries before it manged to catch a bee on the ground. When it did, it stung it several times and grappled with the dying bee until it stopped struggling. The Hornet had caught dinner. In the natural order of things I suppose it is fair. My bees are not the only ones trying to eek out a living in this landscape. And my bees are, after all, not the natives.

This is a Bald Faced Hornet that flew into the trailer. I caught it in a jar and decided to take it's mug shot before I released it.

Flower/Crab Spiders usually wait in flowers to catch bees. Here are a couple of pictures I took the other day.
As crazy as it seems, I noticed what must be a mite on the back of this spider. There is an interesting,
albeit difficult to read, scientific paper about parasites on spiders.

This Flower Spider decided to set up at the one place she just couldn't miss, the entrance of my hive.
"Like shooting fish in a barrel" my Grandpa used to say.

She stayed for a couple of days and then disappeared. This video shows the bees going to check her out and then running away. EEk spider!