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Blog - bees

Floral visitors

Floral visitors

by Chris, 23 October, 2013, 4 comments

Bees are (usually) frequent visitors to our gardens.  Gardening catalogues and websites are ‘always’ extolling the virtues of particular flowers / plants in terms of attracting insect visitors to our gardens.  These insect visitors are important pollinators – not just for garden flowers, but also for fruit trees and other soft fruits.  But is there any evidence about the ‘best flowers’ to plant for insect visitors – other than “opinion and general  experience”. Now some research on this has been done by the Department of Apiculture at the University of Sussex.   The Department and Professor Ratnieks (which have featured in the woodland blog before) are involved in “The Sussex Plan for Honey Bee Health and Well being”. Read more...
Bees and butterflies - again

Bees and butterflies – again

by Lewis, 28 July, 2013, 3 comments

Last year, the blog commented on how the weather was affecting bees, butterflies and bumblebees, and how this in turn was affecting fruit crops etc.  Fortunately, the picture seems to be somewhat better this year - despite the extended Winter / cold Spring.  Bee keepers are reporting that the populations in their hives are on the increase (Sunday Times 28/7/2013), and the Butterfly Conservation Trust are more optimistic about the recovery of a number of butterfly populations. Preliminary information from the Big Butterfly Count 2013 suggests that the numbers of small tortoiseshells and peacocks are on the increase -as are some rarer species. Read more...
bumble bee

Bees and bumblebees – neonicotinoids

by Lewis, 21 February, 2013, 11 comments

DDT was used an insecticide at the onset of WW2, with great success in terms of controlling malaria and typhus among civilians and troops. After the war, it was available as an agricultural insecticide.  However, within a few years, there were warning signs that not all was well and in 1946, the Soil Association journal read as follows "By the wholesale use of powerful insecticides of which far too little is yet known, we may well be upsetting the whole balance of Nature. We are like schoolboys rat-hunting in a munition dump with a flame-thrower." Some years later (in 1962),  Rachel Carson published ‘Silent Spring’ – which seriously questioned the use of organochlorines, such as DDT and warned of the dangers of the indiscriminate use of insecticides.  The use of these chemicals continued Read more...
2012 – a rather wet year.

2012 – a rather wet year.

by Lewis, 8 January, 2013, 7 comments

It has been a rather strange year.  After another dry winter – March arrived and was one of the warmest and driest on record; consequently, many of us were threatened with restrictions (on hosepipes etc)  as a severe drought threatened - many reservoirs were very low on water. But then came April, which was one of the wettest recorded in the UK.  Some 121.8 mm of rain fell, beating the previous record of 120.3 mm -which was set in 2000; some parts of the U.K. had three times the ‘normal’ amount of rainfall. June was also very wet and set a record. There then followed the wettest summer as a whole since 1912.   The final rainfall figures for the year have been released and the total rainfall for the UK during 2012 was 1,330.7 mm (52.4in), just 6.6mm short of the record set in 2000. The big winners in these wet conditions were slugs – including the giant Spanish super slug, or Spanish stealth slug that was reported to be invading gardens.  These have an  ‘enhanced’ breeding cycle producing many more eggs Read more...
Back to bees, again

Back to bees, again

by Chris, 23 November, 2012, 1 comments

Further to the woodlands post about ‘bees and weather’, the British Beekeepers Association has announced that honey yields from hives are substantially down.  The average annual yield per hive is about 13.6 Kg but this year the figure is averaging 3.6 Kg per hive  – down by over 70%.   The worst results were for the London hives, where the figure was down to 2.5 Kg / hive. Most beekeepers have attributed this fall to the (wet) weather.  Bees had a poor start to the year as the poor weather this Spring (April onwards) limited the bees foraging - for early crops, such as oil seed rape.  The rain was also a feature of early summer - June and July, for much of the country. Read more...
Biting bees

Biting bees

by Chris, 15 November, 2012, 0 comments

The woodlands blog has previously posted about hygienic behaviour that is seen in some bee colonies, this involves the removal of dead bee larvae and pupae. These could act as breeding grounds for mites and other insects that make “their home” in a hive. Mites, such as the varroa mite, are small spider-like creatures that attach to bees and ‘suck their blood’ and in so doing inoculate the bees with various viruses such as acute bee paralysis virus, deformed wing virus, and slow paralysis virus etc.   Mites are endemic to both wild and domestic bee colonies, as are insects such as wax moth larvae.  Wax moth larvae can burrow into the combs of a hive / colony destroying the cells where the larvae etc. are developing and growing, and where honey is stored. Read more...
Bees - and the weather.

Bees – and the weather.

by Chris, 23 July, 2012, 10 comments

Bees are important pollinators, especially for crops like apples.  The UK apple market is estimated at some £320 M per annum. Though current estimates vary, it is pretty much certain that this year’s apple harvest will be down, perhaps only 50% of that of a ‘normal’ year.  Though the trees produced blossom in plenty and all looked good for a ‘bumper harvest’ – it then rained and rained. Because of the weather, there were few bees, bumblebees or other pollinating insects.   This has not been a good year for bees (or indeed, bumblebees).   Why? Read more...
Chelsea, urban gardens and ecosystem services.

Chelsea, urban gardens and ecosystem services.

by Lewis, 7 June, 2012, 0 comments

One of the gold medal winners at this year’s Chelsea Flower show was the garden entitled “Gardening for Champions”.  This garden shows how simple changes to urban gardens can help the environment through Encouraging pollinating insects Saving water Cutting carbon dioxide emissions The garden, which was designed by Martin Walker, is based on research carried out by academics ** from the University of Leeds; it shows how simple changes to urban gardens can make a positive contribution to ecosystem services.  The garden offers a number of practical suggestions, Read more...

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