The Co-Operatives "Plan BEE"

[J-Williams]

The Co-ops plan to save Bee's... Personally I think its great and more people should follow their example...

Plan Bee - save the bees from disappearing

Now on their "What you can Do" page there is a section called "Help Bee's in your Garden" and on that page you can find certain types of flowers which the Co-op claims are good for Bee's...

http://www.co-operative.coop/upload/...ower_seeds.pdf

Are these good for Bee's and can anybody name any other plants that are great for Bee's, Im interested in a Bee garden you see.....

Any opinions on the "Plan Bee" Project....

Sorry if this has been posted before...

[Beekeeper]

Hi J-Williams,

Any variety of heather is excellent for bees, strawberry (cultivated and wild) another favorite, clover (red and white), dandelion is good for pollen, Lavender, fireweed (not sure its botanical name) in fact almost any flowring plant that is scented or drips nectar in warm weather.

The list on the site you have found is good and correct.


Ian

[J-Williams]

I guess I had the best person to comment looking at your name, whats your opinion on the campaign and do you keep bee's??

[eucera]

As usual, The Co-op are using the term "bee" to represent a single species, Apis mellifera, the Honey bee.

It is worth remembering that we have some 250+ species of bee in UK, many of which are far more endangered than the Honey bee.

[Beekeeper]

Originally Posted by J-Williams

I guess I had the best person to comment looking at your name, whats your opinion on the campaign and do you keep bee's??

Yes i do have colonies of bees although only four occupied hives at the moment.

I think any campaign that promotes beekeeping has to be good, there is so much reliance on bees for polination of crops, without them would be a disaster, no apples, plums, pears, strawberries for starters.

I do feel that there needs to be more information regarding keeping bees, so many well meaning programs, internet sites etc suggest it only takes an hour or so a week to look after them and the hobby is ideally suited to the retired, most retired ladies could not even lift a box full of honey, let alone move hives around by themselves.

Keeping a hive in good condition, treating with wood preservative etc. means you need another hive to put the bees in when you do it, so it is not a cheap hobby if you start with all new equipment, then there is the spring clean, you are looking at a mornings work just to do that to one hive, plus all the spares you need, frames, foundation, nails, additional supers for honey, queen excluders, cover boards and so on, and that is before you get to extracting honey, for which you will need an extractor, £500.00 for starters, then honey tanks, jars, filters, lables..

One bad infection of foul brood or something similar and it is colony destroyed along with frames and comb so hobby over until you aquire more bees.

People do need to be aware of all The pitfalls to beekeeping as well as the enjoyable side, like getting stung for instance, excuse my dry sense of humour.

Nothing worse than taking on a hobby like this and being dissapointed when it doesn't work out.

Ian