Bee Friendly

This month I have mostly been spotting Walnut trees and busy, buzzing Bees! 

Yet Another Walnut Tree

Ordinarily I would be harvesting the vast quantities of wild plums that are currently filling the trees but I have been unusually busy. 

If you have any spare time, I suggest getting down to the cricket ground opposite the Cricketers pub on Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh, where they are available by the thousands.

Beeware

I have had the pleasure to meet several colonies of very busy bees. In previous years we have found Bumble Bees making a nest in our lawn and they are back again this year, which makes mowing the lawn more complicated.

Very Busy

I have also found Wild Bees nesting in hollow trees, we located a fantastic one on Danebury Iron Age hill fort, where we had visited for a picnic and to collect Elder and Juniper berries.

More recently, my parents told me that they had a colony of Tree Bees in a nesting box that was normally reserved for a Blue Tit family.

This year, to my delight, a swarm of bees began to build a nest in my work car park, on an industrial estate. The honeycombs are attached partly to a shrub and partly to the perimeter fence. The bees are constantly attending to and extending the combs. The bees do not trouble anyone and I was easily able to approach the nest to photograph it.

Busy Bees

During walk in Hedge End today I very nearly trod on a lovely frog. He was crouched in some grass and I stopped to photograph him. When I paused, I realised I could hear the background buzz of busy bees.

I saw a bank of blackberry bushes and wondered if it could be covered in bees looking for nectar. On closer inspection, there were a few but not enough to make the noise that I could hear.

I glanced around and spotted a large oak tree with a small (about 10cm) hole in it, there were one or two bees flying around the opening. It looked to me like an old woodpecker’s hole.

Then, I looked further up the trunk and there was another, similar hole… A huge mass of bees were swarming around the aperture, zooming in and out and crawling all over the entrance. It looked like a very safe place to have a nest and I think that these wise bees are going to keep all their honey.

Bumblebees

While pushing the mower over the garden lawn recently (it’s a non-powered mechanical mower), I spotted a bumblebee flying up from the grass. As I went back over the same patch again, I saw another.

I had a closer look at the spot and as I watched I saw several bees fly in and out of a small hole in the ground; there was obviously a nest. I gently banged in a couple of pegs  as a marker and more bees came out at the disturbance, one even landed on my leg and got hastily brushed off.

My children were delighted not to mention very excited and phoned grandma and mum before settling down to observe and count our bees. At least we won’t have to worry about our (bee friendly) flowers being pollenated. We believe they are White Tailed Bumblebees.