Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
BE KIND TO OUR BEES
Until recently, the average gardener did not feel that bees needed tending. But in the late 80s, the varroa mite arrived from Asia and the disastrous impact on bee populations made headlines. Bees needed help.
However, unrestrained use of pesticides, insecticides and fungicides was affecting them too, in particular neonicotinoides, a class of systemic insecticides used by non-organic farmers on grain, fruit and vegetable crops. Bees that foraged on the crops showed twice the decline of those that didn’t. This damage gained political attention when it became clear the world population of bees was dangerously low – an estimated 84 per cent of crops grown for our food rely on pollination by bees and other insects.
This shows the complex relationship between plants, insects and man. It also shows that gardeners play a very important part in preserving bees.
All bees gather nectar from flowers, which gives them their basic source of energy. The residue is deposited as honey, a stored food supply. Pollen provides proteins and fats, and is collected by females and mainly consumed by nurse and queen bees in the form of jelly. It is mixed with water to create the combs.
While gathering this pollen, some of it – from the male part of a flower, the stamen – becomes stuck to the bees. When they land on another flower, this pollen rubs off onto the stigma, or female part of the flower – allowing reproduction. This is the process of pollination.
Honeybees are gorgers rather than grazers so like blocks of the same plant. But of course they are not our only bees – there are around 250 UK species of solitary bees that unlike honeybees don’t live in colonies. All pollinate early spring flowers like heathers, daisies and dandelions. The most common you’ll see are mining bees, which make holes in the ground, or mason bees, which make holes in mortar or use existing cavities.
LOVABLE BUMBLERS
There are around 24 species of bumblebee here but only six are widespread. They all have a cuddly, benign quality but can sting and, unlike honeybees, do not kill themselves in the process. They are less temperature sensitive than honeybees, so start work earlier in the year. Spring-flowering plants such as hellebores rely on them for pollination.
Bumblebees need different types of vegetation for nesting, foraging, mating and hibernating, so the ideal garden has areas of thick grass as well as a range of flowers. But they will travel up to 2km to a prime foraging site. The queens hibernate over winter and are the big bees bumbling around dandelions in spring. They breed a colony of workers, drones and young queens – all of which, save the new queens, die in autumn.