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Adrian Thomas

I’ve now seen my first bumblebee of the year! Perhaps if 95% of my daylight hours in winter weren’t sat in front of a computer screen or incarcerated in meetings I’d have seen more (don't worry,  I’m not bitter about my job, but there’ve been some glorious sunny days down here this week which tug mercilessly at the heartstrings).

The bee paused on a mahonia in flower in a neighbour's garden before bulleting up into the sky in that amazing way they have – seemingly so cumbersome and devoid of aerodynamics and yet so nippy when they want.

These very early bumblebees are emerging queens, usually but not always the Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris, who are looking for nectar as a post-hibernation pick-me-up. It is a great reminder to check if you have the flowers they need at this lean time of year.

My top choices are:

* Winter-flowering heathers, such as Erica carnea and Erica x darleyensis (left - and you don't need a full-on acid soil for them, unlike most heathers)

* Winter-flowering honeysuckles Lonicera fragrantissima or x purpusii

* Hellebores - also known as Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) and Lenten Rose (Helleborus orientalis) and cultivars (right). (The only problem is that the bees disappear up into the nodding flowers so photographing them requires lying on your belly on wet ground for ages waiting for a bee to come by - as you can see, success still awaits me on that front.)

* Viburnum tinus (a really easy to grow shrub)

* And, if pushed, some crocuses and snowdrops, although bees don;t always go a bundle for them.

Of course what I'd really love to know now is if you have some winter flowering plants that are bumblebee magnets for you. If you've seen a nectaring bumblebee, I WANT TO KNOW :-)

If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw

  • Thanks Adrian for explaining about the Queen bee.  How lovely that I had her in my garden, and she also found her way indoors into my porch.  I managed to get her out without hurting her.  Close up she was really beautiful and very fluffy.  I wish I had taken more notice of her colouring now that you have told me what she is.  It was the noise that attracted me in the first place.  Is all that noise just made by her vibrating wings?  

    Thanks, Carol

  • Hi Carol. Your flowering currants sound great - I presume they are in a sheltered, sunny position? Flowering currants are usually so-so for bees, but it sounds like yours are perfect. Your very large bee will be a queen, probably a White-tailed or Buff-tailed. She is completely native and completely welcome :-) Within a few weeks, she will be underground laying eggs and being tended by her smaller workers, but at this stage she has got to get out and do some of the leg-work herself!

    If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw

  • I have two big flowering currant bushes which are in full bloom and seem like a magnet for the bees.

    I can't wait for all my lavender bushes to bloom though and then we do see some bee-action!  By the way, I have seen a really HUGE bee in my garden and I can't help wondering if it was one of the ones we don't want.  I have never seen a bee as big as this.  I thought someone was using a strimmer and then realised the noise was coming from this one monster of a bee!  I can't imagine how it got off the ground it was so massive.

    Carol Eyden

  • Hi Susan

    It could be bumblebees using holes in the wall, but it sounds more the behaviour of one of the mason bees. Are they going into existing holes or do they appear to be excavating their own in the masonry? Are they quite small and gingery?

    If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw

  • The first bumblebees I saw in early March, were using the Lamium flowers that just come up in my garden.

    We have quite a few bees around now, 31st March, including one honey bee. I bought the book today so I can identify them.

    I also had a bee-fly this week which is new to me.

    Some of the bees, bumble?, are using holes in the East wall of our Victorian house, where the plaster is the old crumbly, yellow kind.

    I also have house sparrows and Starlings fighting for the nest in the wall right outside our bedroom window. Last year the Starlings won and raised 2 chicks to adulthood. May the best endangered species win.!

    Live simply so others may simply live.