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I was at the Denver Botanic Gardens yesterday and saw a weird bee swarm on a specific cactus bloom.
Honestly, I've never seen bees act like that before, so has anyone else noticed odd pollinator behavior on a particular plant?
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danielnelson2mo ago
Yeah, that happens sometimes with certain cactus flowers. They produce a ton of pollen all at once, so the bees go nuts for it. I saw the same thing on a prickly pear last summer.
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paigep852mo ago
Hold on, that's not always true. Some cactus flowers barely get any bee action at all. I've watched them sit wide open for hours with zero visitors. Maybe it's just your local bees that are into it, or you got lucky with the timing. A ton of pollen doesn't guarantee a bee frenzy if the weather's wrong or there's better stuff blooming nearby.
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mia7002mo ago
Reminds me of a neighbor who planted a whole cactus garden just for the pollinators. Those flowers would open up like clockwork and then just... sit there. Turns out there was a huge patch of clover two houses down the bees liked better. Felt kind of bad for him after all that digging.
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the_jana1mo ago
Was it a prickly pear flower? I saw the same crazy bee party on one last year... it was like the cactus was handing out free candy. They were all over it in this buzzing cloud, totally ignoring everything else in the yard. I read later that some cactus flowers put out a crazy strong smell to attract them from miles away. Makes you wonder what the bees are actually seeing or smelling that we miss.
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