Love your pollinators

This week we kick of national Bee month with our friends at NZ Gardener, by bringing you Plan Bee.

Pollen gives the bees vital proteins and fats, and the sugars in nectar provide the energy source they need to make honey. Without them, bees not only become malnourished, they are also weaker and more vulnerable to pests and diseases.

In the early stages of their life cycle, when they are helpless larvae, they are voracious eaters, consuming each day some 1300 meals of ‘‘bee bread’’, a mix of pollen, honey and bee secretions. Female worker bees live for about six weeks, during which their most exhausting job is visiting plants to gather food for the colony, spreading pollen as they go. Bees will also seek out shallow ponds and puddles. What you can do in your garden: * Put a birdbath or simply a saucer of water on a window ledge. Somewhere to perch while drinking is appreciated too, so put in some stones or clean gravel. * Plant lots of bee-friendly wildflowers, herbs, shrubs and fruit trees. Even flowering vegetables such as winter savory, cucumber and broccoli contain the pollen and nectar that bees need. bees make their nests in holes in tree trunks, soil or sand, with only one family in each nest. Each female lays three to 10 eggs before dying. Any females from those eggs go on to build their own nests. Our native bees overwinter either as adults or prepupae.

When honeybees and bumblebees emerge from their nests or hives as the weather becomes warmer, it is important they find a source of nectar and pollen immediately. Without it, their populations will decrease and crops will suffer.