Hello all,
How are you?
Have any of you been to the reserve over the last week?Well round on the main path by the Kingfisher loop (instead of turning left to the Kingfisher hide if you were to go straight on its on that path there) we have a couple of swarms of honey bees Apis mellifera.
It's quite unusual, and rather nice (I love bees).
When the size of a honey bee colony reaches a certain stage, usually in spring and summer when the nectar flow is at it's greatest, the queen and a number of workers, leave the hive in a swam. The swarm comes out to nest in a great cluster on a tree branch or similar. Scout bees, who may have left the hive some days before, seek out a suitable situation for a new nest and return to the swarm and communicate this information, the swarm then moves off to the new site. In the old hive, one of the new queens hatches out, mates, and takes over the colony that is left.
So please bee careful (see what we did there)!
We don't want to provoke them so please try not to disturb them! We are talking with some local bee keepers - with this weather we want to make sure the bees are ok!
You know 80% of the food we eat is due to bees (not just honey from honey bees) ... They are so important for us, and their numbers are decreasing - you can help by planting your garden with bee friendly plants (Alyssum, candytuft, knapweed, scabious, bee sage, chives, comfrey, common poppy, cornflower, and sedum to name just a few - have a look at the planting for wildlife section of the RSPB website - it couldcount as one of your steps to step up for nature).