Wild bees

[Pure Seeds]

Wildflowers are great for our pollinating insects and are especially important for saving the UK bee population. This website has launched a special seed mix that's safe for all pets and grazing animals, which is brilliant! www.pureseeds.co.uk

[Plot70]

I have mostly relied on plants that have self seeded.
There are spring bulbs and dahlias in a semi wild vehicle border or dust guard planting and then there is cardoons and teasels that are purely left for the bees plus the odd bolted onion. There is a small patch of celery that comes back each year.
I even left some ground ivy to keep the soil cool during a hot period in places.
I did see the wild bee queens exploring the tool shed this year but they turned it down due to too many rats.

[billyhills]

AWW so beautiful ... Honey bees are fundamental in developing blossoms and plants. They utilize the course of fertilization where they move little grains of dust from the blossom of one plant to the bloom of one more of a similar sort of plant. Moving this dust assists the blossoms with proceeding to develop.

[Plot70]

The buff tailed bees never nested under my shed last year but the whole place has been humming with queens looking into every shadow for a nesting place. Some have been looking in the shed. I have seen one or two other lighter brown queens too.
With luck I might have another nest of these useful pollinators.
I have seen a few that look like honey bees mostly in the garden.

[Babru]

My mother had some tiny bumble bees nesting under her floor. You could hear the hum when you were in the bathroom. Her lawn was full of clover, and we could see them flying in and out. They only stayed a few months, and never returned, which she was sorry about.

I had some kind of bumble bee nest in a flower border. There was an entrance in the soil, which I was surprised at. I had to leave that area well alone till there was no activity.

This year, I've had to foil two wasps nests in my two side by side sentry-type huts. I imagine it's the same queen. The nests are tiny, I knocked them off with a stick, and the queen moved on. I feel sorry for her! I need in and out of my huts every day though, so a wasps nest is no good. Best to deal with it before they're large. Oddly (and thankfully) the queen didn't get aggressive either time, though I had my running shoes on.

[Plot70]

There were a number of what look like honey bees on the rosemary. The flowers have there pollen on a part that dabs the pollen onto the back of the bee right between its wings.
It made them look very odd.

[Snoop Puss]

I left all my brassicas from last year in the ground. All the secondary heads (and now perhaps fourth or fifth heads on the broccoli plants) have burst into flower. There's a mass of yellow heaving with mostly honeybees. No bumbles, but lots of tiny bees as well.

[mothhawk]

I left all my brassicas from last year in the ground. All the secondary heads (and now perhaps fourth or fifth heads on the broccoli plants) have burst into flower. There's a mass of yellow heaving with mostly honeybees. No bumbles, but lots of tiny bees as well.

Brassica flowers are a honey bee magnet. They will pass over any amount of other blossom to reach the yellow flowers, I suppose because they are nice open blossoms with lots of pollen and nectar.

[Snoop Puss]

Brassica flowers are a honey bee magnet. They will pass over any amount of other blossom to reach the yellow flowers, I suppose because they are nice open blossoms with lots of pollen and nectar.

I left the plants deliberately and am really glad I did. I bought a hive a few years back, but it was terrible workmanship and I haven't installed it. Nor could I send it back because of the cost. I really must get another, this time from a different source.

[mothhawk]

I left the plants deliberately and am really glad I did. I bought a hive a few years back, but it was terrible workmanship and I haven't installed it. Nor could I send it back because of the cost. I really must get another, this time from a different source.

Bees don't care about bad workmanship. They'll smooth the rough wood and plug up any gaps. Set it up somewhere suitable and see if a swarm will take an interest.

[Snoop Puss]

Bees don't care about bad workmanship. They'll smooth the rough wood and plug up any gaps. Set it up somewhere suitable and see if a swarm will take an interest.

It's a good point. I shall discuss with Mr Snoop. Thanks.

[Plot70]

I would set the hive up now as there are plenty of wild queens hunting in the shadows for nest sites.
There was a male mining bee on the same rosemary bush as the honey bee I showed earlier.

[Snoop Puss]

Gorgeous photos, Plot70.

And yes, now would be the time. There are scout honeybees looking at some abandoned hives on some land up over on the far side of the valley. First time I've seen a lot of bees in a while, so I rather abandoned hope.

[mothhawk]

If you have any lemongrass, rub it around the entrance as an attractant - not too much. And if you have or can scrounge a bit of beeswax, rub that inside on the walls.

They do seem to prefer "preloved" hives

[Snoop Puss]

I've got lemon grass oil and some wax I took from one of the abandoned hives years ago. Maybe that would do. Certainly, I know it's varroa-free. Those hives hadn't been managed in all the time we've been here but they were always full. They only died out because some environmental criminal shut them all up to take the honey and of course the bees were inside and died. I never found out who it was but it certainly wasn't the landowner because he liked the fact that bees were in the hives, untouched.