Spring is in the air…

Posted by Jon on Mar 7, 2011 in Beekeeping, Wild bees | 0 comments

We’ve been enjoying some fantastic weather here – days full of sunshine and temperatures rising rapidly. The honey bees have been out in force, making the most of the flowering box (Buxus sempervirens) which we have in large quantities all around the garden. They’ve already been busy with the early flowering willow on warm days through January and February but the volume of pollen entering the hives now is much larger – the sunshine and the box must be to their liking!

Late Summer Bees

Posted by Jon on Sep 12, 2010 in Wild bees, Wildlife | 4 comments

There’s a definite autumnal feeling to the days here as they start to draw in and there are fewer insects around.
At the end of August, we watched our red-tailed bumblebees (Bombus lapidarius) from the nest in the middle of the lawn grow up and leave home – the queens were huge, struggling to get their bulk off the ground for their maiden flight. The much smaller males sunbathed on the nearby stones living up to their French name Bourdon des pierres (stone bumblebee) before heading off into the distance.

Garden sightings

Posted by Jon on Aug 18, 2010 in Asian Hornets, Beekeeping, Wild bees | 1 comment

It feels as though autumn has arrived all of a sudden – wet grass and cool winds in the mornings with grey skies. This has definitely slowed down the beehive activity (although they are enjoying the huge plum crop this year) so my thoughts are turing to honey, but I’m hoping the sun may come back for a while and give them a final burst of activity first.

Whilst I ponder, here are a few of the sights in our garden over the past few days….

How do bees sleep?

Posted by Jon on Jul 9, 2010 in Wild bees | 0 comments

Given that bees are known for being busy and that the swarms I pick up at night still seem quite lively, I’ve wondered about how and when bees sleep? I haven’t looked inside my hives at night as I don’t want to disturb them,  but I did find this little guy the other night out in our wild flower meadow. He had tucked up for the night by sundown and didn’t seem to stir when the flash went off so it was a great opportunity to get some close ups of one of our local bumblebees (Bombus terrestris).

Bee rescue!

Posted by Jon on Jun 21, 2010 in Swarms & Nests, Wild bees | 0 comments

A local riding centre rang at the weekend worried that they had a swarm in one of their barns – with children around the site they were concerned to get it moved quickly so I popped round to have a look.

On arrival, I realised that no-one had actually checked if these were indeed honey bees and a quick peek behind the buzzing hay bale answered the question – bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) had built a nest into the bale beside the wall (and no, bumblebees don’t make honey as we know it!). My first reaction was just to leave them there to carry on their vital work, after all bumblebees are very unlikely to sting anyone unless they are being attacked. At the end of the summer the flowers would be pollinated and the nest empty so it could be safely removed.