Bees


Bees






Winter faithful flowers still giving! Adventurous Honeybees brave the cold and refuel on their reliable garden favourites. Not just one or two, but the small flowers packed with nectar come in multiples with Rosemary and Heather, making a big resource, much needed. 

Meanwhile it is cosy in the open-sided barn packed with summer stuff, like hoses.

(3) What are the leaves doing? Well, this illustrates ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. Garden wildlife sees things differently to us, maybe you’d call it lateral thinking, very opportunist and practical for an individual’s immediate agenda. The leaves are part of a nest... looped soft hose = stable platform, appropriate lookout height ,in sheltered position away from prying predator eyes... a robin’s ‘des res’.






The green hose is thick walled, less pliable, stiff tube... the occupants of this ‘des res’ had a nasty wakeup call as did my husband when he started siphoning with the hose. Out came what looked like wet dead bees. Then a leg appeared, straightened and flexed, then another... then three ‘drowned’ insects became live!







 We cut some lengths of dry hose and I carefully lifted each with a handy dry leaf and a slight shove, and they were back in some protective pipe. I closed off the pipe end carefully with my finger so they wouldn’t fall out in transit to the bee hotel zone of the barn. They are now with the seven bee hotels all enclosed within a bag arrangement of a thin airy old skirt and, hopefully, protected from attentions of hungry spiders.

I reckon they are leafcutter bees. This year only a few used the hotels which were very populated by Red Mason Bees. There were a couple of green leaf ‘doors’ in cardboard tubes, but I have noticed in previous years they tend to choose the slightly bigger openings of the bought hotels. During last summer a short offcut of hose was stuffed with bits of leaf. Fingers crossed the three survive their ordeal...



Find out more about these amazing pollinators and how your garden can help them in a challenging world at:- 

https://www.hartley-farm.co.uk/event/a-buzz-in-the-garden-gardening-for-pollinators-with-richard-rickitt/




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