Who Killed The Honey Bee
Did anyone watch this? I have just watched it on the iplayer and found it horrifying, I knew there were issues with bee colonies and knew they were potentially under threat, but this programe is a real eye opener to the extent of the problem.
So I thought I would ask you all what you do to protect your local bees and is there any good advice out there/ best practise? Have any of you got bee keepers on your site and how practical is it to have them on allotment sites?
I would be really interested to hear everyones ideas and opinions and if you haven't already try and catch the programe it is still avaialable on the iplayer.
Regards
Hayley
only saw the last 5 mins but i'll be planting more flowers that help the bees, i did hear that it was going to be printed on seed packets which plant would help bees.
Hello Hayley
I share your concern about Honey Bees and the best way for us allotmenteers to help them is to plant anything which has a single flower so that they can easily get at the pollen. Try not to use insecticides when plants are in flower. In my case the exception to that rule is when spraying peas
As far as I am aware there is some kind of parasite which gets into the hive and can kill the whole colony if not caught in time
The farmer does not help the situation when he sprays the oil seed rape while in flower to kill the pollen beetle
Due to human nature as soon as a bee or a wasp comes near you tend to start wafting your arms about and they take it as a signal to retaliate and attack so I think keeping bees where children are around is not a good idea but believe me if you can pluck up the courage to ignore them they will not harm you
I know other insects help to pollinate various flowers but I shudder to think what will happen to the food chain world wide if all the bees get wiped out
Lottyman
The simpleist thing to do is plant more beneficial plants/flowers for the bees, you are more likely to find bees in towns & cities now because of the pesticides used on farms.
Tests also seem to show that honey from bees in towns & cities has a better taste because of the variety of flowers/plants pollenated.
Next year I am definatley going to be planning in special areas for bee attracting plants, In September I get my new half, which currently has a lot of waste ground with nettles on, my initial idea was to use it for green manure, but I may now combine that with bee loving plants as well. I have also been on my local bee keeping site for further advice.
I am going to be on a Bee Mission in 2012!!
Thanks for the advice
H
I know it's been a few weeks since this topic was started but last week I watched 2 leaf cutter bees build nests in my shed, one in the door and the other inside the shed in the holey wood. My uncle wanted to kill them but I stepped in and told him in no uncertain terms that they are to be made welcome and are here to stay!
I agree with Lottyman, too many humans swat them without realising that certain bee's don't sting unless they need too. I had to educate my uncle that these bees will only sting if you squash them between your fingers and you're mean begger if you do that. I'm looking forward to meeting my new buzzy friends next year and also all the flowers that will be sown for them.
Theresa