The fate of bees

Apparently the UK currently has about 26 bumblebee species. Several species have become nationally extinct in the last 70 years. At the moment there are six species that are threatened with the same fate. Shrill Carder and Great Yellow bees are only surviving in small isolated habitat fragments. Bees are a very valuable creature. Without them entire sections of our agricultural industry would collapse. European bees are estimated to be worth €14.2 billion as farmland pollinators. The main problems that have caused declines in bee populations are the over use of pesticides that have reduced the number of wild flowers and the destruction of valuable habitat like hedgerows and hay meadows. It's estimated that we have destroyed 98% of the kind of habitat filled with the flowers bees love in the last 60 years. Our honey bees are also suffering from disease.
The future of our bees is mostly in the hands of our farmers and the agricultural industry. Hopefully they can find a balance in the way they farm and manage the land that allows our bees to recover. More hedgerows, wildflower meadows and the like would greatly help the situation. Bees work hard for us. As for the rest of us; just a few more wild flowers in our gardens could make all the difference.
On a brighter note, it has been noted that a species not native to the UK is starting to get a foothold here. This European bee is the first new species of bee to take up residence on our island in the last century and a half. The bee is called Bombus hypnorum, or tree bumblebee. It has a light brown thorax, black abdomen and a white tail. They make their homes in bird boxes or holes in trees. If you see one you could try to get a picture of it so that it can be positively identified by the experts. You can fill in a form at the bumble bee conservation site and email your picture at the same time.

Purple, pink and yellow

So they promised us a long hot summer. Or is that just the cider adverts hoping for the best? This week has been pretty much what we've been used to getting from our British summers; lots of cloud cover, short sunny spells followed by showers and the odd rumble of thunder. In short - pretty much perfect weather for our gardens and the wildlife that lives in them.
Thanks to the weather for providing the essential ingredients that made it possible for the flowers to thrive, without which the bee would not have had such a splendid backdrop to pose against, resulting in the new picture Debbie supplied for my Talk of Bees blog entry. I only had one other bee photo which I'd already used. I flipped and skewed the original picture to give it a new look but it still didn't look much different. I've now retrospectively added the new bee/foxglove picture alongside my little poem, which I'm much more happy with now.
The gardens are looking very good this year, alive with colour and life. The resident gardeners here are always trying to grow new things, experimenting with new seeds and cuttings.
The mice have returned, creeping out of the undergrowth to join the equally mouse-like Dunnock, who can often be seen hopping through the leaves to get to the oats left out for him.

Talk of Bees

I wrote this poem last week. My laptop troubles nearly killed this one off. Not because I nearly lost a copy of the verses but because it all happened between verse two and three. Getting my mind to switch from thinking about bees to fixing comps and then back to thinking about bees again isn't the best way to focus my muse. Anyway here it is. I dedicate this one to my very own queen bee whose birthday was only last week.

The Talk of Bees

If you could know

The talk of bees,
What tales they'd speak
Of flowers and trees.
How warm the wind
Or cold the rain,
Would set your mind
To sleep or gain.

Cry hide among

The folk's glove fingers,

When heart alarms
And peril lingers.
What nature's wrath
Or heavy tread,
Can breach your fort
Of hanging head?

Your wistful hum

Of gyring flight,

Turns homeward through

Day's waning light.

Does love of queen

Your soul appease?

A secret held

By talk of bees.

Michael Finn

Bombus and the impostor

We're not easing off on the save the bees strategies this year. These little guys are massively important in our ecosystem. Here is a white tailed bumblebee visiting one of Debbie's foxgloves. We're trying to provide nesting places as well as favouring plants they like. My sister and my dad are the hands on gardeners in my family. Debbie is my resident horticultural expert (she watches Gardener's World y'know). She loves being able to name flowers at a glance, although she still makes the odd gaffe. She's been envious of a flower in a neighbour's garden recently. The other day she was passing that way hoping to catch the neighbour to ask about getting a cutting. She was in luck - the woman was talking to a friend.
"Excuse me. Could you tell me what that flower is?" Debbie asked.
"It's a rose," the woman replied.
"Oh, but..."
"It's plastic! I told my husband it would look ridiculous!"
The neighbour's friend exclaimed incredulously,"I've been admiring that for ages!"
Debbie slunk away.