Lack of bees

[Johnboy]

All of a sudden yesterday masses of Honey Bees on the plot. May be to do with the very fine weather that we have had for the past week or so which is sadly due to end today. Wonderful blues skies and sunshine as I write. Been working on the plot since 5am this morning to miss the heat.
Shall enjoy a siesta after lunch and work from about 6pm till dusk.
JB.

[oldherbaceous]

The Bees nest in the Church roof is still very active, with about 50 to 60 Bees buzzing about at the entrance at any one time.

[goldilox]

We have a colony in one of the oak trees next to our house, so now have plenty of bees around. They arrived when the oilseed rape was in flower (we're surrounded by it this year) - sorry Johnboy, but they really do only flower for about 3 weeks here! Maybe they're a different strain than UK, because they smell better too, I'm glad to say.

The bees are quite high up and have settled quite happily inside the tree, which must be hollow. They don't bother us at all, just get on with their own thing.

Before they arrived we saw very few honey bees in the garden, so quite pleased.

[Monika]

Lots of bees here today, today. We have a long bank of poached egg flowers which were covered with insects today, including honey bees and bumble bees. As they are not far away from the second lot of broad beans (Witkiem Manita) which are in full flower, I am hoping for the best!

[PLUMPUDDING]

There are a lot more honey bees here too, glad yours are thriving. I've noticed their favourite plant this week is the Cotoneaster. There are also lots of the most common varieties of bumble bees all over the garden. The butterflies have also been really good this year with a warmer, drier year so far.

[FelixLeiter]

We were at Sissinghurst yesterday and it was lovely to see several types of bees on flowers in the herb garden but I couldn't properly identify them all because some looked like bumble bees, but were about a third of the size so weren't sure whether they were baby bumble bees or a different variety altogether.

Bumble bees don't have babies, they have larvae. These hatch into full-sized adults. Some species are very tiny.

I've noticed a marked increase in the number of species which visit our French lavender this spring — six so far, which is encouraging. Wild and cultivated honey bees have been present, too. We kept our own bees for years, but both the hives we had were completely destroyed by hornets. The hornets nip off the bees' heads. We haven't kept them since. Hornets are a very real threat to bee health world-wide. A strain of bees in Japan, however, has learnt to smother the intruders.

[Lurganspade]

There has been very few bees and other flying insects the past two seasons, as it has been cold wet and not at all sunny here!

It may have been tipping it down the last couple of days, but we have had some smashing sunny and very warm days and weeks.

Lots of bumble and other sorts of bees, hover flies and also woodland types of butterflies, as well as some painted ladies.
There has only been a few peacock and emperor types, mostly they looked a bit tattered, last years broods I expect!

When the hellebores came out they were covered in bees, now it is the foxgloves, poached egg plants, lupins, per. geraniums and blackberry bushes that have been attracting them, both in the garden and in my allotment.

Next door feeds the birds and there has been lots of young ones about, especially young gold finches!

If we were to have a long hot summer, perhaps that would help the bees, hoverfles and other insects to prosper for a change.

Cheers!

[Johnboy]

Hi Goldilox,
We are talking about different varieties of Oil Seed Rape because the OSR hereabouts was in flower last week in March and is still in flower. The original flowers are now seed pods but there are still flowers forming above those seed pods and they were buzzing with Bees of all kinds after the rain we had yesterday morning we had a wonderfully sunny afternoon. Certainly the main flush of OSR flowers are over and this may account for the Honey Bees that appeared last week during the fine period. Just a short distance away from me there is a crop of Flax that is just coming into flower so I expect to lose the Honey Bees again shortly.
There was a lack of Honey Bees during the apple blossom time but the set of apples is remarkably good. For two years I had Mason Bees but they got wiped out by the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers or did they? Perhaps they are breeding somewhere that I have yet to find.
Mason Bees are better pollinators than Honey Bees so perhaps they are still about. Lets just hope that they are!
JB.

[goldilox]

Hope so too. We have lots of mason bees - they nest in the walls of the house. Last year they managed to make it right through into the house!!
We have hornets too - just hope they don't kill the honey bees.

[Johnboy]

Hi Goldilox,
I know that you live in wonderful France but an interesting fact came up on a Bee programme on the Bee Bee Cee the other day and they said that we actually have in excess of 250 varieties of Bee in UK. Some of the Bees we plebs would not ever recognise them as Bees.
Here the Honey Bees have gone away again now as the Flax is in bloom about half a mile away and also a late variety of Oil Seed Rape a couple of fields beyond the Flax.
I counted, I think, twelve different variety of Bumble Bee yesterday on the plot and I am sure that there are many more Bumble's than usual this year.
BTW we also get Hornets here!
JB.

[bunuel]

I highly recommend a book on the subject of Colony Collapse Disorder that I have just finished reading called Fruitless Fall by Rowan Jacobsen.

http://www.amazon.com/Fruitless-Fall-Co ... 865&sr=8-2

It is a little US-centric, although it does talk about some of the pesticide issues in France, but is a great overview of bees, the history of beekeping, the state of apiculture today and why it is essentially heading for disaster.

cheers,

Fraser

[ken]

Interesting how hornets have become much more common. We have them here in Kent, too. I don't remember seeing them 30 years ago. I expect bees, wasps and presumably hornets to be in their nests at night, but apparently not so. A number of times I've approached the house at night, the security light has come on, and moths flock to the light. Then you hear a buzzing, a hornet flies in, and the moths scarper!
I also saw the programme about wild bees v hornets in Japan. If a scout hornet approaches the bee nest, the bees let it in, and then pounce on it. They can survive a temperature a degree or two higher than the hornets, so they basically cook it to death!
Finally, loads of bees here, both bumblers and honey bees, and our mason bee nest tubes have nearly all been filled and sealed.

[madasafish]

Well here in Staffordshire Moorlands, we had a warm spell in My - few bees - then cold and rain and now warm. Our wild blue geraniums and whin and large poppies are all flowering. As a result we have hundreds of honey bees and copper , white, and yellow bottomed bumble bees.

When I get a second I will photo a poppy head with 6 bees inside.. the noise is quite overwhelming...