World Bee Day was set up by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of bees. They are one of the world’s leading pollinators of plants and their numbers are dramatically decreasing, mainly due to loss of their natural habitat.
White-tailed Bumblebee: Tom Mason (rspb-images.com)
They not only need the pollen end nectar of flowers to feed, they also require undisturbed places to nest like dry ground and banks where they can make burrows, plus holes and crevices in plant matter and wood. With the three main causes of bee decline being loss of habitat, climate change and the use of pesticides, helping bees could increase numbers, save some species from extinction and help with the natural pollination of our plant based foods; a third of the world’s food production depends on bees!
There are many things we can do to help bees; the soil association suggests 5 ways in which we can support bees.
We can plant bee friendly plants and wild-flowers in the garden or around the patio, we can try building a bee hotel or buy a bee house online and we can avoid using pesticides. If they're really necessary, only use them early in the morning or in the evening and not in the sunshine when bees are likely to be active.
The UK has more than 250 species of bee in a variety of categories: honey bees that live in colonies in hives, bumble bees that are also social and live in smaller colonies (up to 400) with a queen usually in the ground, and solitary bees that as the name suggests, live alone in a burrow or crevices in plant matter and wood. The Wildlife Trust offers some tips on their blog on how to tell the difference.
You can buy a handy bee I.D. chart from the RSPB shop if you’d like something simple on hand to help you identify what you might be looking at in your environment, but if you’d like more detailed bee information there are some recommended books from the Bumblebee Conservation Society.
Let’s hope for a sunny day here in the UK so that we get to see lots of busy bees on World Bee Day on Thursday 20th May!
The Flatford Wildlife Garden is now open every day until October from 10.30am – 4.30pm. Entrance to the garden is free and well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome. Car parking is £5 at the Flatford National Trust car park and this gives you access to the stunning countryside walks around Dedham Vale in Constable Country.