Honeybees In Lavender

bee, bees, lavender, Oregon, McKenzie River, Walterville, Leaburg, summer, flower, Cascades, Willamette Valley, lavender farm, honeybee

    We visited a lavender farm a few miles east of town, up the McKenzie River highway between Walterville and Leaburg.  The sweet fragrance of the lavender was everywhere, the many plants laid out in neat rows.

bee, bees, lavender, Oregon, McKenzie River, Walterville, Leaburg, summer, flower, Cascades, Willamette Valley, lavender farm, honeybee

But alongside the floral aroma was something else - a low, constant humming vibration.  Getting down to lavender flower level, you can see where that sound was coming from: thousands of honeybees, busily doing their mid-summer foraging.

bee, bees, lavender, Oregon, McKenzie River, Walterville, Leaburg, summer, flower, Cascades, Willamette Valley, lavender farm, honeybee
bee, bees, lavender, Oregon, McKenzie River, Walterville, Leaburg, summer, flower, Cascades, Willamette Valley, lavender farm, honeybee
bee, bees, lavender, Oregon, McKenzie River, Walterville, Leaburg, summer, flower, Cascades, Willamette Valley, lavender farm, honeybee

These busy honeybees are usually moving from flower to flower too fast to get a good picture of them, or to get an idea of how many there were.  In the photo below there are at least eight or nine of them in this one small area, as well as a possible bumblebee:

bee, bees, lavender, Oregon, McKenzie River, Walterville, Leaburg, summer, flower, Cascades, Willamette Valley, lavender farm, honeybee

I wonder what lavender honey tastes like?

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All photos taken with a Lumix ZS-25 pocket camera.  Click or tap on any picture above to see larger, higher def images.