Summer Bee News by Michelle at Eco Action Hub/Green Skills . . .
- clairecharrie
- Jun 19
- 2 min read
Well we’ve certainly had a very different spring and start to the summer from last year! Last year I was writing about how bees had been struggling with the constant rain we had and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust confirmed it had been a very poor year for bumblebee numbers. This year so far definitely has seemed better, although the dry weather and upcoming heatwave will certainly have less than positive effects on our bees too - ‘The Buzz club’ (www.thebuzzclub.uk - a citizen science project led by Dave Goulson) has released a guide about supporting bees during heatwaves and it’s definitely worth a read. Some of the plants it recommends which were seen to be visited more regularly during hot weather included open flowered dahlias, borage, globe thistles, geraniums, lavender and scabious.
I talked to some lovely workshop attendees at Nature’s Haven community garden recently and they asked a very good question about how best to go about identifying bees in your garden. As bees are always so busy(!) it can be very difficult to get a good look at them. Taking a photo of them whilst they’re still on a flower is a good way to go back and have a look at their features, maybe with an ID guide or website open (highly recommended for this is Steven Falk’s extensive collection of photos on Flickr). However, one big thing I recommend doing is just sitting and watching. No cameras, no guide books (not until later anyway!) and just observe. Not only is it amazingly peaceful and meditative (and we all need a bit of that in our lives!) but you’ll see things that you never would have noticed with a quick glance . . .
One such event I watched recently was the behaviour of the Large-headed Resin bees (Heriades truncorum) that use one of our smaller bee hotels. At first I thought I was watching two females fighting over a tube to nest in. But on watching for a while longer I realised it was a male, tugging, tugging on a nesting female trying to mate with her. It was quite exhausting watching him! It went on for quite a while. He momentarily got his way and then the struggling continued. I certainly wouldn’t have noticed this behaviour if I hadn’t paused and watched.
Some summer bees to keep your eyes out for include Wool Carder bees (Anthidium manicatum), often seen on Lamb’s Ears flowers, and Leafcutter bees (Megachile sp) - photo at the start of the article. And as always, keep a wide selection of flowering plants for the bees and other pollinators over the summer and late summer months, plus a shallow dish of water for honeybees in this hot, dry weather. Happy bee spotting!
Please take a look at the RHS suggestions for Bee Friendly flowers throughout the year -
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