You’ve no doubt read or heard about the plight of the honey bee. Declining populations, entire hives wiped out due to colony collapse disorder, confusion over whether the problem lies with habitat loss, disease, pesticide use, pests, all of the above…
And then there’s the often quoted line attributed to Albert Einstein – “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live” (there’s apparently no evidence that Einstein said this, but let’s not spoil a good story). Doom and gloom. If we lose our honey bees, pollination will cease, many fruit and vegetables will become scarce and food prices will soar.
Or maybe not, because successful pollination isn’t down to just honey bees. There’s one species of honeybee in the UK, but 24 species of bumblebees and over 200 different solitary bees. And research has found that wild bees are probably even more important in pollinating many crops than the honey bees. But wild bee populations are in decline, and introducing hives into agricultural areas doesn’t make up for the loss of these native pollinators. The managed bees might supplement the pollination services provided by the wild bees, but doesn’t replace them. More doom and gloom.
Well, not all doom and gloom. This is one environmental crisis we can all do something about. Not only that, it’s a great excuse to add more colour to the garden by growing lots of nectar rich plants to help replace the wild flowers of the meadows and woodland margins that have been lost from the countryside. Choose a flower (or flowers…) you love from the RHS list of plants that are perfect for pollinators. And no excuses, you don’t even need a garden because many of the plants on the list will be happy in a pot on the patio.
It’s easy to provide a home for solitary bees too. Whether you make one or buy one, bee houses are really just a collection of tubes providing somewhere for mason bees to nest. Solitary bees don’t live in social communities like honeybees or bumblebees. Instead each female chooses a nest for their eggs, stocking it with pollen and nectar to feed the young bees as they develop. In the short time they spend as adult bees, they will lay six or more eggs in each nest tube, sealing it off with mud. In the course of collecting all that nectar and pollen, they will pollinate fruit trees and lots of other plants flowering in spring and early summer.
Solitary bees are harmless and not aggressive – they will rarely sting. This makes them ideal to encourage into the yard or garden even if you have young children – in fact most kids love to watch the bees. You may even already have mason bees flying in and out of holes in a sunny wall of the house or garage. So let’s not leave it all to the beekeepers and their hives… there’s more to bees than just honey.
The Garden Deli 
The other thing we can do is pick lily beetles off with our fingers rather than blitzing them and other bugs with Provado. Its main ingredient is thiacloprid which is a neonicotinoid. I get depressed at how many gardeners use this.
Yes, absolutely. It’s easy to forget that insecticides don’t just kill the pests. Bayer were selling bottles of insecticide with a free packet of nectar-rich flower seeds attached to attract the bees earlier this year… didn’t go down well with a lot of people.
I never knew that about bee’s. I am afraid I am not knowledgable. this was really interesting.
Thank you, pleased you liked it! I’m fast becoming a bit of a bee bore.
A lovely article about these truly amazing creatures. I have a “bee hotel” on my allotment plot, comprising short lengths of hollowed bamboo, and it looks rather like the one in your photo. The odds are so stacked against our various bee species right now, thanks to modern agricultural practices, neonicotinoids and climate change, that any little thing we can do, either individually or collectively, to encourage and support them can make a significant difference.
Good to hear that you have a bee hotel. I was really surprised how successful ours has been, especially this year – and quite a few people who have seen it say they will be getting one too. Such a simple thing to do but, as you say it can make such a difference.
Thank you for such an interesting post, and some really useful information.
Emma 🙂
Thanks Emma, that’s very kind of you to say. I’m never sure if other people share my fascination for bees.
A lovely post, I’m all for lots of bees, this year we’ve grown some flowers especially for bees. And I have some living in the holes in my shed which makes me happy. Let us hope they all thrive.
A nice long, warm summer would be good for the bees and flowers… and for us!
Gee you really know how to capture the ‘sweet spot’. Love my bees, love my flowers, love your bees, flowers and photos!
Thank you. Bees are one of my favourites – good to hear you’re a fan too!
Thank you for a very interesting post. The chive plants on our allotment are in flower at the moment and the other day were literally buzzing with bumblebees.It was a lovely sight.
Isn’t it great to see and hear the bees working away on a warm day?
Great post and you are right, I heard a programme where a lot of bee keepers said it really wasn’t a question of more hives but more flowers for bees which as you say we can all do something to help. There are lots of solitary bees in my garden, it makes me so happy!
A year or so ago there were people saying that all the new urban bee hives could mean not enough pollen and nectar left for the wild bees. But your right the solution is simple.. plant more flowers!
I’ve been trying to do my bit, planting up our modest borders with ‘bee-friendly’ plants. Love the buzz of a bee in the summer 🙂
It’s such an easy way to help the bees, and we get to enjoy the flowers too – a win-win situation, as they say!
Such a lovely post, with an important message. Earlier in the year I was a little worried as I didn’t see many bees, but just today I was thinking how many we have this year… I think more than ever! I hope my efforts to keep them “busy” make a tiny bit of a difference! (Oh, and we have some nesting in the roof again!) 😀
Thanks Cathy. What kind of bees do you get nesting in your roof? We’ve had bumblebee nests in the garden, but never had a problem with them in the house.
They are bumblebees, but I only see very small ones, and when it’s hot you can hear them in one room, as they are all ventilating the nest!
What a brilliant post and thank you for sharing that link. I always wonder when I buy plants if they are the right kind.
Thanks Urvashi. The RHS has had a big push on promoting bee friendly plants – a lot of nurseries and garden centres now use their stickers to indicate nectar rich flowers. It’s a great way to help people choose what to buy if they want to encourage bees and other insects.
thank you for teaching me something – i’d never heard of ‘solitary bees’ before. i assume we must have them here in australia too.
this past spring i became very conscious of actively encouraging bees into the garden with what i grew – i always loved having them, but never consciously decided upon companions plants to do that. i’ll hopefully be more on the ball next spring (there’s very few flowers of any kind right now, but my camellia is doing a roaring trade in wasps).
Are Australian wasps like the British ones – all too ready to sting, and a real nuisance at the end of the summer? I’ve been learning a bit about Australian bees from a book I’m reading – I didn’t realise that bumblebees weren’t native to Australia, and that they live only in Tasmania because they were introduced there.
Good post getting an important message across. It’s also important to have a source of nectar in early spring as well as all the lovely bee food in the summer. I underplant my fruit trees with spring bulbs, primulas and wild garlic so that the bees are in the right place for pollinating the blossom. Bee hotels are a great idea – I haven’t made one yet but will doing that with the children now! Thanks for the link!
Now that’s a good idea – I have spring bulbs in the garden, but hadn’t thought of planting them under the fruit trees to lure the bees in. Thanks!
With only fives species of bumblebees and two solitary bees on the islands, we really have to look after our bees by maintaining our traditional farming methods (definitely no pesticides). We can’t keep honey bees because of the short summers and fear of introducing disease into the wild populations. However there is good news, there are other pollinators apart from bees and most of our fruit crop is pollinated by flies. This is great news but we have to look after these insects too.Fortunately the message is simple, no pesticides and lots of flowers on our farms, in hedgerows, gardens and where ever we can grow them.
Do you have some of the rarer bumblebee species on the islands? They seem to be hanging on in some areas of Scotland because the habitat is right and, I guess, because agriculture is less intensive in those parts.
It’s raining today so I’m finally catching up – sorry to be so late. We have two rare species, both of which occur on our croft. It is quite a bizarre claim to fame but my broad beans are pollinated by Great Yellow Bumblebees!
And they probably taste all the better for it! But it must be quite special to know that you have such a rare species visiting your garden.