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... 'cos I think it's been a chilly spring for the little chaps.
Anything this community feels it could do to help?
Knit coats for them.
I've seen quite a few this year already. It's been nice and warm in the South you know.....
I've seen loads about this year... but then I've also moved house since last summer, so it might just be a location thing!
Anything this community feels it could do to help?
yeah - we have a bumble bee nesting box in our garden
Plenty here in Cornwall.
Is it me or are they massive this year?
Loads going around here too in the NE.
Is it me or are they massive this year?
that's the queens looking for somewhere to nest
Had a good few fly into the office that needed herding out.
Thatcher and GM crops are to blame.
Don't mind bes, but hate bloody wasps!
Maybe you invent a cure to the virus killing them off? 😉
I made some nesting boxes last year too, for Bumbles & Bees.
Not had a look to see if they have been used, got the design from here for the Bumble and Bee homes:
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/bee_home/ ]http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/bee_home/[/url]
Looks like the Bees prefer to be inside my shed on my allotment though, as I had to move a Queen Bee last week, (with the help of a Bee keeper).
Bees are in a decline aparently and the Keeper was well happy to have another Queen to add to his collection 😉
Seen a few big bumblebees around here as well. Not sure whether this is the norm or not, can't remember this time last year very well.
[i]Bees are in a decline aparently[/i]
Humans will follow...
WTF? Chilly in Vietnam ?
My dog has eaten about 30 so far this year! 😯
plant some bee friendly plants in your garden....
They do seem quite big & buzzy this year.
32C at the mo'.
i just thought i should post something warm and fuzzy. did i do ok?
Scotia Seeds do some bee / bumblebee friendly seeds to sow.
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/Einstein-was-wrong-Demise-of.5247636.jp
"They are very important to the quality of the environment, to the quality of human food and to the diversity generally in food and the wider world.
all the bumblebee info you could want
http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/
This looks like a comedy bundle of dynomite
[img] 
[/img]
You have to be nice to Bumblebees... They are wicked... Bzzzz...
As someone noted up there ^ the really big ones are the queens looking for nests...
The friendly people at the [url= http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/ ]Bumblebee Conservation Trust[/url] have some advice on being nice to them...
The very large early season bees are queens looking for a nest site. You'll notice they fly around the ground looking at dark areas, rather than the smaller workers that you'll see on flowers.
Oh and 'chaps' isn't that accurate, mostly they're chappettes... 😉
I read a few glossy articles in the Sunday papers and it is worrying. I must admit I did think there was some big company plot going on to replace pollunisation with a suitably engineered product off their shelf but destroying bee populations.
We rely on alot of our food don't we for the services Bees carry out.
Does anybody have any tips on how I can get my daughter to not act out her Tim Booth impersonation everytime one comes within twenty yards of her? I can hardly breathe in the house with all wasp killing spray floating around. I'd really rather not splatter them but my sanity is hanging by a thread.
Monksie - My little one was the same, she got stung by a wasp on the tongue at the age of three.
(Try getting a dead chomped wasp out of a screaming three year old was a challange!)
We had 3 years of our little one holding her mouth while running and screaming from anything that buzzed.
Lots of books about bees and wasps, what they do and why they are important, we even got her to look at a dead wasp close up with a magnifying glass to spot the differences, plus make homes for them, see my post above.
Now if she finds one inside, she catches them and lets them go next to their homes outside.
Not told her yet that I suffer from anaphylactic shock from bee stings!
😉
"Try getting a dead chomped wasp out of a screaming three year old was a challange!)"
I'm sorry Ski- I shouldn't have found that at all funny but it made me laugh :-]
Bees in general are in decline ... so big thumbs up to looking after and helping the little ladies.
The big fuzzy ones are big and fuzzy 'cos they haven't taken their fleeces off yet. Had to carefully shepherd one out of my shed recently when it flew in as I opened the door to get my bike out. As the shed is locked most of the time it wouldn't have been a happy bumbly bee.
Big difference between honey bee problems and bumble bee problems. Bumble bee species at risk/extinct due to habitat loss, there pollination service provision is much lower than that provided by honey bees. No one seems sure whats causing honey bee losses and their pollination service is much bigger. Talking economic pollination rahter than wild flower pollination which bumble bees are important for.
Einstein estimated that the human race would die out 4 years after the extinction of bees.
We're all doomed!!!
There's been loads of bee's in my garden(Yorkshire) but they're mainly mason bees taking advantage of all the digging and loose earth/mud/clay in my garden , I was sat watching about 80 of them this afternoon when I should've been cutting the grass.