Give BEES a chance...

Bees love gardens. In fact bees are more likely to call our gardens home than anywhere else in the UK, favouring our plots to grassland or woodland. However these charming creatures with their brightly coloured bodies and in the case of bumble bees, erratic bumbling flight, are struggling for survival.  

The honey bee has been suffering heavy over-winter colony losses due to disease and of the UK’s 27 species of bumble bee, three are now nationally extinct, largely due to habitat loss. Others such as the Shrill Carder and Great Yellow are of particular concern due to their very small populations.

Why their numbers are in decline is a bit of a mystery. In the case of honey bees, a number of diseases seem to be involved spread by the Varroa mite. However, some sources point out that our modern farming methods, which create large swathes of countryside filled with just one or two plant species are responsible in reducing the quality of bee habitat. All bees need a wide variety of pollen to keep them healthy.

That is where we can come to the rescue. Collectively our great British gardens are the largest nature reserve in the UK. Our ponds have played a dramatic role in the survival of frogs, and now our flower borders could be vital to the survival of bees.

10 Reasons why we should encourage bees into our gardens

1.) Bees add charm and character to our gardens, bringing them to life

2.) Bees are declining due in part to a lack of variety in the pollen they feed on. Gardeners can correct this by growing a wide range of bee friendly plants and become part of the solution

3.) They can help you to teach children about our native wildlife

4.) Creating a garden for wildlife can be a project the whole family can become involved in from toddlers to Dads and mums!

5.) You might be helping to preserve an endangered species by creating nesting sites

6.) They will work hard in your garden pollinating fruit and vegetables

7.) Encouraging bees also attracts hoverflies and other beneficial insects into the garden, helping to control pests and protect garden plants

8.) Nothing is more rewarding than watching wildlife take up residence in your own garden

9.) A third of all the food we eat is on our table thanks to bees pollinating our crops; so looking after bees is actually the same as looking after ourselves

10.) The United Nations has declared 2010 as the international year of biodiversity; so there has never been a better time to get involved

It must BEE love…

BEE beautiful - Fantastic flowers for bees

Many of the old fashioned flowers that our grandparents grew encouraged bees into the garden with their flowers literally filled with nectar. However many of our more modern garden plants, whilst having larger petals do not have as much if any nectar and so are not so friendly to bees, butterflies or other wildlife.

There are a range of bee friendly plants from Buddleja, Cornflowers and Sedum. They look wonderful and are easy to find in nurseries and garden centres. They are easy to grow and will attract bees and other wonderful wildlife into your garden.

Click here to download our Attract bees into your garden guide. This factsheet gives a list of plants that encourage bees back into the garden with hints and tips on how and where to plant and care for them. 

If you follow the instructions in this simple guide you could easily attract different types of bees into your garden.

HerBEE - Herbs that bees simply can't resist

Herbs are so important to bees that The Herb Society have marked 2010 as their Bee Aware year. Their website is full of useful information about which herbs are best to attract bees.

We like the ones that are also good to use in the kitchen!

• Lemon balm - makes a wonderful tisane or herbal infusion
• Borage - flowers look so pretty floating on a glass of Pimms
• Rosemary  - the woody stems make great skewers for cooking lamb
• Thyme - chop a few leaves, infuse in good olive oil, leave in the sun for an hour, then serve with fresh bread to dip
• Mint - another great herb for tisanes or herbal infusion
• Lavender - cakes baked with lavender sugar taste soooo good

BEE Wonderland - 6 things bees adore

Bees absolutely love:

1. Wildflowers, which are often rich in nectar

2. Old fashioned cottage garden perennials, which again are often rich in nectar

3. Blue flowers; particularly blues, violets and lilac colours

4. Some of the solitary bees, such as Mason Bees, Miner Bees and Leaf Cutter Bees like to nest in dried mud or soil. So making a big mud pie and letting it dry can create a perfect home for bees

5. Some of the solitary bees also love hollow stems, which need to overwinter. So just collect up 20 cm lengths of suitable stems, tie them loosely together and pop them into shrubs and trees to make perfect overwinter bee hotels.

6. Safe places to drink. They do not like open water as they prefer areas of damp sand, mud or even damp sponges

Make a BEE line to my garden...

BEE Happy - How to make the perfect bumblebee home

Creating the perfect home for a bumblebee is so easy, and is an activity the whole family can enjoy.

• The home is made out of a 20 cm clay flowerpot
• The house is furnished by filling it very loosely with either dry moss from an old hanging basket or moss and grass taken from the lawn
• Location, Location, Location! Pop your nice newly furnished bumblebee house in the garden under some shrubs or in a quiet corner with the hole facing upwards and the whole pot sunk and inch or so into the ground
• To make the new home warm and snug; a piece of slate needs to cover the drainage hole to keep the water out, and yet still let fresh air in
• Now you are ready to add the entrance porch, bumblebees like to enter their stylish new homes through an underground tunnel, so a length of hosepipe can be used, which is at soil level outside and come up an inch or so into the house.
• Make several small nicks/cuts in the hose so that any water that might collect in it can drain away

Some bumblebees like to nest above ground, buy roosting pockets (designed for small garden birds) from your local garden centre. These should be filled with a little moss as bumblebees are a little lazy and don’t build nests like birds. Then hang the pouches in a shady spot.

BEE in the know

• There are about 250 species of bees native to the UK
• Honeybees visit 2 million flowers to make just 1lb of honey
• Bees have a very low carbon footprint as it only takes 1oz of honey to give a bee enough energy to fly round the world once
• Some bees are social like honey bees and live in large colonies or hives
• Social bees that live in colonies communicate by dancing to tell other bees where the best pollen and nectar is to be found
• If you see a swarm of bees contact your local beekeeping association straight away so that they can come and collect them

BEE popular - how to attract bees into the garden..

• Follow our Attract bees into your garden guide and plant bee friendly plants
• Create your very own bumblebee homes
• Stop using garden chemicals and start to garden organically
• Create bumblebee bars in shady spots of the garden, but remember bees don’t like open water, preferring to drink from damp sand or sponges
• Attract honeybees into the garden by planting up a container with bee friendly plants, such as sunflowers, cornflowers and poppies and herbs.
• Have a weedy lawn, clover and dandelion

BEEfore you go...

To find out more information on bees, please visit:

www.britishbee.org.uk
www.adoptabeehive.co.uk
www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity
www.biodiversityislife.net
www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk
www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/wildlifegarden
www.herbsociety.org.uk
www.rhs.org.uk/plants4bugs

This initiative is funded through the HTA’s contribution to PlantforLife