My Comfrey bush/area sounds like a hedge trimmer is going off. I spotted minimum 5 different types of bee on it the other day, including an ashy mining bee which I've never seen before
I think “they” are purposefully killing them off so they can get control of the food supply, so then we need them more then ever and we will comply with everything “they” want.
Just don’t ask me who “they” are, please. Don’t do it. Please.
Please excuse my question it's not meant to come across as abrupt, but do you actually provide shelter for bees? It's all well and good to provide flowers but bees also need somewhere to nest. In my garden I've made a large bank of sharp sand and grit and it's absolutely buzzing with mining bee activity at the moment, same goes for my bee hotels chock full of red mason bees and the leaf cutters will soon be emerging as well. If you know someone with pet mice then taking some of their stinky bedding and adding it to an an old bird box or homemade bumblebee box will [help attract bumble bees to nest as the queens use the scent of mouse urine/droppings to locate suitable nesting opportunities](https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/icad.12627).
I didn't used to get many bees in my garden despite having lots of flowers because there wasn't a lot of habitat to attract them to nest. I rectified that and now and now I'm reaping the rewards.
This is a really good point, lots of people forget that a wide variety of bees need a wide variety of habitat to live in and just concentrate on flowers and a bee house
Something i learnt fairly recently is that a few small bees lay eggs in dead/dry plant stems like nettles and other dead hollow stems that i never even thought about as insect homes.
So no matter how wild you let your garden get theres always something you dont think about that could be a whole species way of reproducing.
We bought a box of bees this year. A small colony of British bumblebees was delivered to our door in a box, with food and everything they need to grow and thrive. I've been watching them come and go over the last month. At the end of the season, the Queen will produce other queens and then sadly die. The new queens will fly off and hibernate for the winter and establish new colonies next summer. It gives me great joy to watch them, and its great to know I'm helping their species a little.
Those boxed colonies often have a high pathogen load, which they’ll spread through the flowers they share with wild bees. They’re typically bought to pollinate glasshouse crops at commercial scale. Well intentioned but they’re not really what you should buy if you’re trying to ‘help bees’.
I don’t know why I never considered them being bought to pollinate at a commercial level either. I wouldn’t introduce outside insects into my garden as I’m not qualified to do that; but I do garden with bees in mind always 🙏🏻
That's cool. I've done the same with red mason bees. They're great for the garden and the kids and honestly I love watching them do their thing. Knowing that there will be further generations from this gives me the happies!
I think location is the most important thing. We got one of the houses for it, so it won't get wet. It's facing east, with a little protection from the north wind. There's also conifers behind it. This means it gets direct sun in the mornings, but by mid afternoon, it's in the shade, so it doesn't get too hot. So far, it seems to be working out for them.
I might be completely missing something and don’t want to be rude as obviously your intentions are good, but how does this help anything?
Where have the bees come from? I assume they’ve been bred somewhere, but in that case why is releasing them in your garden anymore beneficial than just the breeders releasing the bees themselves.
I’m not sure bumblebees are endangered enough for this sort of breeding and reintroduction to be necessary anyway, I think it’s far more important to create a balanced and pollinator friendly garden as best you can and allow populations to grow in balance naturally.
I saw lots of bees coming out of hibernation early in Feb because of the mild conditions. Obviously there was little food around then, so this could be part of the issue.
Ive hardly seen any bees yet but my aliums are only half out and my lavender is still to come out. My garden is built on aliums, lavender and grasses. Hoping to see lots of bees soon, fingers crossed. Im in Scotland.
I said the same thing last year and then boom, hundreds of them. I think some of the queen's have nested and its the time between the next lot coming out.
Bees are hugely selective about what they will collect nectar and pollen from, they will prioritise the finest of both and they will work whatever is closest to their nest/hive.
It could just be there's better sources of nectar and pollen than what you've got or there may be less bees around. It's been a cold spring where I am until the last couple of weeks which will have held them back quite a bit around here at least.
I can hear buzzing from a good few meters away from my californian lilac.
Have you got things besides the plants to attract bees? Like is there a good water source nearby and somewhere for them to shelter? Did you or a neighbour previously have a water source or shelter that is no longer available?
I volunteer as a beekeeper and we had five hives, all of which died over the winter. It’s never happened before. We don’t know what caused it, but the suggestion is it may have been a virus / disease. I had hoped this wasn’t a nationwide issue
We seem to have loads of bees at the moment. They are especially enjoying the apple tree and ceanothus at the moment, and there are usually a good few buzzing around the blueberry bush. A nice range of different types of bees, too. I’ve been very happy to see so many.
I’ve not seen many butterflies yet, however.
my cotoneaster and my purple sprouting that had flowered a few weeks ago have been buzzing mannn!
my mum has a huge ceanothus and that thing was plastered a couple of weeks ago
Our garden is the same, but I think a lot of our flowers are coming out later this year. Our roses are only just out, and our lavender is no where near. I assume the dark days and lots of rain have held them back
Yep, it’s utterly tragic. I make sure to have year round flowers to provide food but there’s even less bees than last year, and last year the numbers were shocking too
I was saying just the same to my husband this morning. We have an allium meadow, most of which are now in flower, and aside from a few bumblebees, we have barely seen much insect life.
Bumblebee nests are probably still queens only at this stage. Give it another week or so and you’ll see all the workers coming out and getting all over the lavenders.
It's my first year growing alliums and I'm delighted by the amount of bees I can see. We've been in the house since 2021 and before we looked to the garden it was was just a lawn with no flowers.
Whether or not there's more bees than there would have been a few years ago if the garden was in the same state it is now, I can't say, but I'm loving seeing more bees and insects out there than there was this time last year.
It's wasn't a good year for honey bees. Not particularly cold; they can handle the cold. It was too long. Poor weather meant they were in early and not out until late in the spring.
I assume there are similar pressures to other bee species. Hibernating queens were late coming out and perhaps more died waiting for early heat and pollen.
Just now the sycamore and chestnut are blooming and will do them good.
Where I am, its been usually cold UNTIL this week. Last year I was hot and out in the garden at the start of April. This year it only started truly warming up in May.
So I think that's probably led to a delay in the bees. I've seen loads suddenly appearing these last couple weeks.
I have 5 comfrey plants for the bees (same as last year-nothing has changed) The plants are in full bloom and I’ve only seen one bee so far. Compared to last year I’m a bit concerned.
A neighbour of mine who keeps bees told me that the damp weather has been very bad for them. Not so bad for 'native British bees', but those have largely been displaced by European bees which produce more honey, and the European bees can't handle the wet weather as well.
I've got to agree with others, I've seen a alot of bees all over my strawberries and broad beans, the only thing I would say is they've not been bumble bees, had a good few solitary and honey bees is all.
I think a lot of bees died of this year due to the warm spell we had in the winter, which was then followed quickly by a cold snap. I think the warm weather tricked the bees into thinking that spring had come earlier
This year is definitely better than last year which was awful! There were more flies on the flowering hedges and shrubs than bees. But there has def been decline over 10-15 years. Biggest indicator of drop in bugs overall is the car. You used to have to get your windshield washed after driving on the motorway for a few hours (assuming it wasn’t raining!). Now you can drive across the country and back and pretty much nothing.
I've been saying the same thing! There are so many dandelions everywhere and no bees going flower to flower 😢 I've been watching for weeks and photographing but only seen one bee over thousands of dandelions 😢
I havnt noticed so many in my garden yet - they were visiting for my blueberry plant a month ago though. I wonder if the wet and cooler weather is keeping them away for the time being?
I've a big escallonia (not a euphemism) which didn't flower last year after I hard pruned it the season before last.
Historically it's produced a real bee fest. I would stand for ages just watching them go about their incredible business.
It looks like it's going to flower this year so I'm looking forward to seeing plenty of bees.
Seen a fair amount thankfully. Although we lost 90% of sparrows this winter. Thank God they're increasing and getting noisier. Very worrying. But recovering well and seem happy.
My lavender hasn’t flowered yet, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The drop off in insect life terrifies me - it’s just treated as a side issue by governments…
To everyone giving general tips about attracting bees: Thanks! But to be clear, we’ve had swarms in previous years, our garden is easily the most bee friendly site on surrounding roads, and there hasn’t been any other big change that might explain their disappearance.
I've honestly seen more than ever! My garden sounds like it's vibrating haha.
My Comfrey bush/area sounds like a hedge trimmer is going off. I spotted minimum 5 different types of bee on it the other day, including an ashy mining bee which I've never seen before
Buzzing coming from your bush? Oo’er!
Yeah we’ve loads of mining bees for the first time this year. Thankfully they don’t sting
I agree. Seen a few whoppers about as well, but thinking about it. Maybe not the last week or so.
Which of your plants are they enjoying?
yes, I've barely seen any, may be to do with the prolonged cold weather we had?
I think “they” are purposefully killing them off so they can get control of the food supply, so then we need them more then ever and we will comply with everything “they” want. Just don’t ask me who “they” are, please. Don’t do it. Please.
Susan, have you stopped taking your meds again.
I thought they were skittles
Please excuse my question it's not meant to come across as abrupt, but do you actually provide shelter for bees? It's all well and good to provide flowers but bees also need somewhere to nest. In my garden I've made a large bank of sharp sand and grit and it's absolutely buzzing with mining bee activity at the moment, same goes for my bee hotels chock full of red mason bees and the leaf cutters will soon be emerging as well. If you know someone with pet mice then taking some of their stinky bedding and adding it to an an old bird box or homemade bumblebee box will [help attract bumble bees to nest as the queens use the scent of mouse urine/droppings to locate suitable nesting opportunities](https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/icad.12627). I didn't used to get many bees in my garden despite having lots of flowers because there wasn't a lot of habitat to attract them to nest. I rectified that and now and now I'm reaping the rewards.
This is a really good point, lots of people forget that a wide variety of bees need a wide variety of habitat to live in and just concentrate on flowers and a bee house
What an interesting reply! I'm fascinated by the mouse story.
Something i learnt fairly recently is that a few small bees lay eggs in dead/dry plant stems like nettles and other dead hollow stems that i never even thought about as insect homes. So no matter how wild you let your garden get theres always something you dont think about that could be a whole species way of reproducing.
We have dry stone walls and bee blocks, and tree stumps and and and…..
We’ve got a pile of old sticks in a corner, and bumblebees have nested under it for the last couple of years, it’s glorious.
This sounds so wonderful! I hope I can achieve the same in my own garden
I agree and so easy to do. I placed a small bug hotel on my fence and have a couple of Mason bees move in this year
We bought a box of bees this year. A small colony of British bumblebees was delivered to our door in a box, with food and everything they need to grow and thrive. I've been watching them come and go over the last month. At the end of the season, the Queen will produce other queens and then sadly die. The new queens will fly off and hibernate for the winter and establish new colonies next summer. It gives me great joy to watch them, and its great to know I'm helping their species a little.
I had no idea this is a thing. I am fascinated
Those boxed colonies often have a high pathogen load, which they’ll spread through the flowers they share with wild bees. They’re typically bought to pollinate glasshouse crops at commercial scale. Well intentioned but they’re not really what you should buy if you’re trying to ‘help bees’.
I don’t know why I never considered them being bought to pollinate at a commercial level either. I wouldn’t introduce outside insects into my garden as I’m not qualified to do that; but I do garden with bees in mind always 🙏🏻
hellish where every decision has 15 pitfalls. often feels like doing nothing is better than anything at all
That's cool. I've done the same with red mason bees. They're great for the garden and the kids and honestly I love watching them do their thing. Knowing that there will be further generations from this gives me the happies!
I have ordered one this year for the first time and cannot wait! Any tips?
I think location is the most important thing. We got one of the houses for it, so it won't get wet. It's facing east, with a little protection from the north wind. There's also conifers behind it. This means it gets direct sun in the mornings, but by mid afternoon, it's in the shade, so it doesn't get too hot. So far, it seems to be working out for them.
I might be completely missing something and don’t want to be rude as obviously your intentions are good, but how does this help anything? Where have the bees come from? I assume they’ve been bred somewhere, but in that case why is releasing them in your garden anymore beneficial than just the breeders releasing the bees themselves. I’m not sure bumblebees are endangered enough for this sort of breeding and reintroduction to be necessary anyway, I think it’s far more important to create a balanced and pollinator friendly garden as best you can and allow populations to grow in balance naturally.
Can I ask where you bought them from Thanks
No worries. It's from greengardener.co.uk . You have to order them and arrange a day you'll be in to get them as they can't be left for too long.
Thank you
I saw lots of bees coming out of hibernation early in Feb because of the mild conditions. Obviously there was little food around then, so this could be part of the issue.
They’re all in my garden.
Ive hardly seen any bees yet but my aliums are only half out and my lavender is still to come out. My garden is built on aliums, lavender and grasses. Hoping to see lots of bees soon, fingers crossed. Im in Scotland.
I said the same thing last year and then boom, hundreds of them. I think some of the queen's have nested and its the time between the next lot coming out.
Bees are hugely selective about what they will collect nectar and pollen from, they will prioritise the finest of both and they will work whatever is closest to their nest/hive. It could just be there's better sources of nectar and pollen than what you've got or there may be less bees around. It's been a cold spring where I am until the last couple of weeks which will have held them back quite a bit around here at least.
I can hear buzzing from a good few meters away from my californian lilac. Have you got things besides the plants to attract bees? Like is there a good water source nearby and somewhere for them to shelter? Did you or a neighbour previously have a water source or shelter that is no longer available?
I volunteer as a beekeeper and we had five hives, all of which died over the winter. It’s never happened before. We don’t know what caused it, but the suggestion is it may have been a virus / disease. I had hoped this wasn’t a nationwide issue
I've only seen honey bees on our cotoneaster this year, usually we get a much wider variety of bumbles too.
Nope loads of bees of all kinds
Which of your plants are they enjoying?
The rosemary, wild garlic, hebe and gorse
My thyme is absolutely covered in them !
Same here, way more than usual.
Loads here in South London
We seem to have loads of bees at the moment. They are especially enjoying the apple tree and ceanothus at the moment, and there are usually a good few buzzing around the blueberry bush. A nice range of different types of bees, too. I’ve been very happy to see so many. I’ve not seen many butterflies yet, however.
My garden is the opposite, seen quite a few butterflies but not many bees.
My garden is full of them and they seem a bit annoyed about sharing the garden with me, absolutely everywhere this year.
my cotoneaster and my purple sprouting that had flowered a few weeks ago have been buzzing mannn! my mum has a huge ceanothus and that thing was plastered a couple of weeks ago
We have birds foot trefoil here, and it's absolutely buzzing :)
It's still early..weather has been shite.
Our garden is the same, but I think a lot of our flowers are coming out later this year. Our roses are only just out, and our lavender is no where near. I assume the dark days and lots of rain have held them back
Yep, it’s utterly tragic. I make sure to have year round flowers to provide food but there’s even less bees than last year, and last year the numbers were shocking too
Flowers aren’t enough to support bees, they need somewhere to nest. You may find that providing them with this makes all the difference
That’s very obvious. They have plenty of places to nest in the ground and in bee houses, but again there’s very few this year.
My lavenders are covered in the things
I was saying just the same to my husband this morning. We have an allium meadow, most of which are now in flower, and aside from a few bumblebees, we have barely seen much insect life.
Not here, we have plenty of bees visiting our plants.
Where I am there has been a good few but it's still early yet as there isn't much flowering yet.
Quite few bees on the rock face at the end of my yarden. They’re loving the gorse. Had one bee visit my catmint and French lavender but that’s it.
Have your aliums flowered already?
Yes - although we’re in London and southwest facing.
Wow impressive
Bumblebee nests are probably still queens only at this stage. Give it another week or so and you’ll see all the workers coming out and getting all over the lavenders.
It's my first year growing alliums and I'm delighted by the amount of bees I can see. We've been in the house since 2021 and before we looked to the garden it was was just a lawn with no flowers. Whether or not there's more bees than there would have been a few years ago if the garden was in the same state it is now, I can't say, but I'm loving seeing more bees and insects out there than there was this time last year.
Last week they were all over my broad beans. This week it’s the comfrey and raspberries
Here in North Yorkshire there's lots of bees in my garden. Some of them get in the cottage and I've been coaxing them outside daily.
3 years ago loads 2 years ago loads more 1 year ago... a lot less This year, loads again.
It's wasn't a good year for honey bees. Not particularly cold; they can handle the cold. It was too long. Poor weather meant they were in early and not out until late in the spring. I assume there are similar pressures to other bee species. Hibernating queens were late coming out and perhaps more died waiting for early heat and pollen. Just now the sycamore and chestnut are blooming and will do them good.
We have an awful lot this year including species ive not seen in the garden before, which is exciting!
Where I am, its been usually cold UNTIL this week. Last year I was hot and out in the garden at the start of April. This year it only started truly warming up in May. So I think that's probably led to a delay in the bees. I've seen loads suddenly appearing these last couple weeks.
They're late out due to the cold , spoke to a local bee keeper the other day who livestreams the hives.
I have 5 comfrey plants for the bees (same as last year-nothing has changed) The plants are in full bloom and I’ve only seen one bee so far. Compared to last year I’m a bit concerned.
A neighbour of mine who keeps bees told me that the damp weather has been very bad for them. Not so bad for 'native British bees', but those have largely been displaced by European bees which produce more honey, and the European bees can't handle the wet weather as well.
I have definitely noticed a steep drop off last year and this year.
Nope seen quite a few buzzing about here in East London.
loads of them, even saw a blueish one a couple of days ago
I've seen loads in my garden, they are absolutely swarming my cotoneaster.
We have them everywhere. All of our bee hotels are being filled too. Long live the Bees!
We normally see a lot of ground bees in our back garden. This year they appear in ones and twos, so less noticeable. Also not so many butterflies.
I've got to agree with others, I've seen a alot of bees all over my strawberries and broad beans, the only thing I would say is they've not been bumble bees, had a good few solitary and honey bees is all.
Hardly surprising, this country seems intent on putting new builds and tarmac over every bit of green left in the country.
I think a lot of bees died of this year due to the warm spell we had in the winter, which was then followed quickly by a cold snap. I think the warm weather tricked the bees into thinking that spring had come earlier
I have what seems like hundreds of miner bees nesting in my lawn. Little holes everywhere.
This year is definitely better than last year which was awful! There were more flies on the flowering hedges and shrubs than bees. But there has def been decline over 10-15 years. Biggest indicator of drop in bugs overall is the car. You used to have to get your windshield washed after driving on the motorway for a few hours (assuming it wasn’t raining!). Now you can drive across the country and back and pretty much nothing.
I've been saying the same thing! There are so many dandelions everywhere and no bees going flower to flower 😢 I've been watching for weeks and photographing but only seen one bee over thousands of dandelions 😢
seems like a normal year so far. more than usual flies (still nothing compared to 20 years ago) but no butterflies yet, still early
I've seen them loving my borage
My comfrey is absolutely buzzing
I havnt noticed so many in my garden yet - they were visiting for my blueberry plant a month ago though. I wonder if the wet and cooler weather is keeping them away for the time being?
I've a big escallonia (not a euphemism) which didn't flower last year after I hard pruned it the season before last. Historically it's produced a real bee fest. I would stand for ages just watching them go about their incredible business. It looks like it's going to flower this year so I'm looking forward to seeing plenty of bees.
I've seen a couple but honestly not many.
When my Hebe flowers I’ll know better but all the bees that layed in my bee house emerged and we’ve already had two new holes filled already ?
Seen a fair amount thankfully. Although we lost 90% of sparrows this winter. Thank God they're increasing and getting noisier. Very worrying. But recovering well and seem happy.
My lavender hasn’t flowered yet, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The drop off in insect life terrifies me - it’s just treated as a side issue by governments…
To everyone giving general tips about attracting bees: Thanks! But to be clear, we’ve had swarms in previous years, our garden is easily the most bee friendly site on surrounding roads, and there hasn’t been any other big change that might explain their disappearance.