Another plug for bees

I haven't kept up with recent news about the plight of our honeybees but I stumbled accross it whilst browsing Cornwall Landscaping's website. I clicked on image and the soil association page popped up with the bee campaign and research findings on the impact of using neonicotinoids for pest control. That was over two hours ago and I've been on a bee mission ever since, and it did't cost me a penny!One-click options include a moment to sign the petition, an email alert to everyone on pc address list, email to local m.p and links to facebook etc. The petition link is also on the top of Stephen's blog: Diary of a Novice Bee Keeper (which I thoroughly enjoyed) on Landscape Juice's home page http://novice-beekeeper.blogspot.com/My first encounter with a honneybee community goes back to when we moved into our bungalow. Our elderly next door neighbour Des was an amatuer bee keeper with some eighteen hives scattered around the garden. Sadly, he had become too ill to maintain the hives and the bees became overcrowded and swarmed around the neighbourhood in search of new homes. Eventually complaints to the council resulted in the bees being removed. Losing his bees was a severe blow to Des and we missed them a lot too. It was a truly magical experience to be amongst the bees when they swarmed, which happened a lot on hot days. The flying swarms would blot out the sky then cluster on branches in unbelievable fat clumps up to some six feet in length. We sat amongst them and not one touched us nor flew into the house....there must be a reason for this and, I guess,not advisable to try at home! It's not all unhappy endings because we inherited a garage full of honey, much of it given to wildlife centres and friends and the bees were relocated by a professional bee-keeping organisation.If you havn't already done it, it only takes a few seconds http://www.soilassociation.org/Takeaction/Savethehoneybee/tabid/434/Default.aspxHere endeth the desk-based bee crusade.........

Replies

Mark July 17, 2009 at 8:13pm

I know the honey bees are having a hard time....but I think the wild bees are a little more exempt from their problems ??

This year I have seen loads of wild bees, almost as if they are filling the void left from the honey bees, I love the little critters sooo involved in going about their business I have to stop the mower and shout at them to get off the clover ;-)

I've been really pleased at the drilled logs I've put up on our out house... full of leaf cutter bees & others I've yet to look up.

I think the research has yet to catch up and realise that the wild bees are filling the gap & pollinating on behalf on the others.

Bottom line is support our bees !!!!
Helen Nock July 17, 2009 at 10:46pm

Hi Mark,
I've noticed loads of wild bees this year, and wer'e not alone......your hunch may be good. My garden's not overly tidy with lots of nooks and crannys and interesting piles of decaying wood. It is a job trying not to tread on the bees, which I accidently did because our cat nip splays all over the path :- ( (just the one)
I think it was the Soil Association site highlighting ivy as a good source of late food for bees. Wev'e got a very large castor oil plant with very similar flowers and fruits to ivy???