Disappearing bees

[Meta menardi]

Since this was first posted, I have looked at the flowers in the garden here. We have had such variable weatherthat almost all scenarios have been covered. Loads of Bumble Bees on the roses (old fashioned white rose), the various Cranesbills and other things. I have not seen a single Honey-bee, and that has really surprised me. Normally I would expect to see loads.

Lets's hope Einstein was better at oeoeoeoe at biology, it's not what he is best known for.

[Susie]

Well, I am having a cracking good year for bees. My latest tick for the garden is this lady.



I could sit and watch her work for hours.

[Beryl]

A few million more disappeared this morning in a road accident in Canada
BBC NEWS | World | Lorry full of bees overturns

[snowdrop]

An earlier post suggested protecting bees from wasps but alas didn't say how. This would be really handy to know.

My shed bees have changed the direction of their entrance/exit from facing west (somewhere under the door) to facing south (the side of the shed.) Has this anything to do with the unpredictable weather or is it a sign of something more sinister?

Lastly, while not wanting to disturb them, how can I ensure their wellbeing?
I have lots of flowering plants, egg plants, lavender, etc but the bees seem to have a preference for clover and visit it more often.

Gosh, its like having children, worry, worry, worry........What do they do for water?
I have a small pond but haven't spotted any bees actually drinking.

[nightshade]

I think the American honey Bees are just worked to death,trucked thousands of miles in a season working huge tracts of land ,permanently disorientated,
underfed their resistence is weakened and they die.
In Britain farmland is going monoculture these specially bred plants do not have the goodness in their nectar as their post war parents had so they work harder and their resistence to disease falls,the wet and windy conditions are no help either

[Adam Cheeseman]

Apparently it's al the Daleks' fault

Cheers,

Adam

[ellen h]

When I went for my usual walk to Hadleigh castle earlier today I saw what appears to be bees toing and froing into a hole about 12-15 ft(not good at gauging heights!)up the side of the tower.It is about 12-15ft below the kestrels nest site.If you take a look at my avatar the tower can be seen.The hole faces north east and they appear to be very busy.Would they be likely to stay there?
I am saying they are bees as I am sure they are not wasps,also
2 or 3 swarms of honey bees have been seen in Hadleigh town-about a mile away-in recent weeks.
ellen

[Paul mabbott]

The Scarborough and district beekeepers association has joined a
national effort to make the government and the public more aware of
declining honeybee numbers (
Beekeepers' cash appeal to help Yorkshire's declining honey bee population - Scarborough Evening News
).

Experts have been looking into the deformed wing virus, which causes
abnormalities such as damaged appendages and stubby, useless wings.
This can lead to bees being expelled from hives and dying within 48
hours. It had been assumed that the virus replicated inside the
parasitic varroa mite, but new research showed no such evidence,
suggesting the mite could not pass on the infection the conventional
way when it feeds on bees.

Jennifer Patterson, the secretary of the Scarborough group, told the
Scarborough Evening News: "We want the government to put more money
into sorting this out. Farmers rely on bees to pollinate the crops -
a lack of bees has a lot of knock-on effects that people might not
realise."

Earlier this month, experts at the National Bee Unit, near York,
blamed a combination of harsh weather, disease and parasitic
predators for Yorkshire's 900 beekeepers losing 14% of their honeybee
colonies so far this year.

[YRichards]

I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination but we do have quite a few bees in our garden in the West Midlands, UK. We've always had wild bees, which I presume are honey bees but I haven't seen as many bumble bees on my chives flowers (purple) of late. Come to think of it, I can't remember seeing as many bees since those HUGE Spanish ones appeared a few years back.

Anyway, the reason for my post was that we run a number of compost bins at the back of our large garden and clearing one out the other weekend found a hive of wild bees. We did have a colony of mice that would pop up and say hello when you added stuff at one time, but then they disappeared. The bees appear to have taken their place by using the access hole & tunnels the mice dug! Crafty!

We cleared off the compost we needed and made sure we didn't disturb them and moved the empty compost bin to another site. We've since been filling this up and every time we put stuff in - out flies a bee ! The only idea we can come up with is that they are going in after the smell of the fruit - banana/kiwi skins, apple cores etc. Check you compost bins - with your mask on of course to stop the airborne fungi. What next???

Anyway, it's nice to see them.

Yvonne

[shei111]

Hello I thought id got alot more bees in the garden than I had last year, seem to have 100s around the sweet peas lots on the 2 different lavertera bushes, and loads on the ox eye daisies, ive even bought them a bee box and hung it up. shei.