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Author Topic: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK  (Read 42257 times)

Anke

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • St Boswells, Scottish Borders
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #60 on: January 24, 2022, 01:56:13 pm »
"Plenty of snow"????

Penninehillbilly

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • West Yorks
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #61 on: January 24, 2022, 01:59:15 pm »
I think it is worth having as a reference book.  I know I simply could never keep all that info in my already overstuffed brain  :roflanim:
I can hardly wait now for the queens to start coming out of hibernation so I can check them out, although we have plenty of snow to look forward to before they can do that.
If I can find a minute I could share some of what I have learnt about Bumble Bees and the flowers they like, according to the guru  8)  Right now I'm in a spring cleaning mood  :tired: :tired: :tired:  but I'm sure I'll recover soon  :D
Looking forward to any info FW, and don't worry, some  winter weather will soon knock you out of spring clean mode.  ;D

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #62 on: January 24, 2022, 05:24:45 pm »
I think it is worth having as a reference book.  I know I simply could never keep all that info in my already overstuffed brain  :roflanim:
I can hardly wait now for the queens to start coming out of hibernation so I can check them out, although we have plenty of snow to look forward to before they can do that.
If I can find a minute I could share some of what I have learnt about Bumble Bees and the flowers they like, according to the guru  8)  Right now I'm in a spring cleaning mood  :tired: :tired: :tired:  but I'm sure I'll recover soon  :D
Looking forward to any info FW, and don't worry, some  winter weather will soon knock you out of spring clean mode.  ;D

Thank goodness for that  :relief:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #63 on: January 25, 2022, 12:25:31 am »
Here are the most common BBs found in the UK, so probably the ones you will find in your gardens and smallholdings.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/white-tailed-bumblebees/buff-tailed-bumblebee/
 The Buff Tailed BB is found throughout the UK except the Scottish Highlands.  Short tongued. Nests can have up to 400 workers. Bred for pollinating glasshouse crops across the world, so is now an invasive pest in S America and Japan. This species is the most commonly seen in the UK.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/white-tailed-bumblebees/white-tailed-bumblebee/
The White Tailed BB is found throughout the UK. It is short tongued and tends to  'rob' deep flowers by biting into the nectar tube.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/ginger-yellow-bumblebees/common-carder-bee/
The Common Carder BB is a gingery brown, hard working bee with a medium length tongue. They fly late into Autumn.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/red-tailed-bumblebees/red-tailed-bumblebee/
The Red tailed BB is short tongued and found throughout the UK, especially on chalk downlands, although a bit scarce in the Scottish Highlands.  The queen is large and glossy black with no stripes, just her bright red tail.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/red-tailed-bumblebees/early-bumblebee/
The Early BB is found throughout the UK.  It is small and short tongued and is the most placid of bees.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/white-tailed-bumblebees/garden-bumblebee/
Garden BBs are found throughout the UK but they are not very common anywhere. Quite like white tailed BB but has 3 stripes not 2.  Very long tongues, with a long face.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/white-tailed-bumblebees/tree-bumblebee/
The Tree BB is now found throughout the UK although it hasn't fully colonised all of Scotland yet.  It has flown across to N Ireland. Short tongued and dies off after the end of June

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/ginger-yellow-bumblebees/great-yellow-bumblebee/
The Great Yellow BB is now found only on the North Scottish coast, Orkney, S Uist and a few other Scottish Western Isles.  It used to be found throughout the UK but was not common. I only mention it because it was thought to be extinct but was recently refound, to great celebration.


Ideally these links would be replaced by the ID photos to make it easier to see them all together.  If anyone knows how to do that, please do so  :thumbsup:

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/gardeningadvice/

Next episode will be 'other pollinators', then later 'best flowers for pollinators'.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2022, 10:43:20 pm by Fleecewife »
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #64 on: January 26, 2022, 10:20:50 pm »
Oh dear, by the total lack of reaction I assume that the format of my last message wasn't very helpful.  I need to be able to take the pics of the relevant bees from the internet into TAS then here so you can see them when you open the thread.   I just don't know how to do that, sorry.  There's so much more info to post but there's no point me doing so if it's not helpful.


A question: yesterday I noticed that some of the previously tiny Hazel catkins in our hedges have opened into flower.  This seems earlier than usual.  Has anyone else got catkins flowering and if so, where are you?
I'm in Southern Scotland at 1,000'
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Penninehillbilly

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • West Yorks
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #65 on: January 26, 2022, 11:20:31 pm »
Your last post IS very interesting FW, i was switching backwards and forwards through the links, trying to see the differences. Just never thought to come back and comment, sorry.
Thinking of trying to copy images all into one document, so they are alongside each other, but as we are probably a couple of months off seeing much, I've got time.  :)

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #66 on: January 27, 2022, 12:47:54 pm »
That would be brilliant if you could do that PHB  :bouquet: .  To be able to compare the various bees side by side would be so helpful.  I think we might see some queens on the wing especially further south, from late Feb which isn't so far off now  :bee: :bee: :bee:
Should I go ahead with links to other pollinators or wait until you see what you can do with the bees?
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #67 on: January 27, 2022, 05:08:02 pm »
I've only recently come across this thread. Great stuff.


Today we spotted half a dozen or so honey bees enjoying the heather flowers in a dose of Welsh sunshine.


And a little off topic but ..... a red admiral butterfly making its way around the garden. Seems very early but my daughter tells me that the first ones can be seen in January.




Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #68 on: January 27, 2022, 10:53:10 pm »
That's great [member=24384]in the hills[/member]. Keep the observations coming in.  Other critters are welcome too and any minute I shall put up links to Solitary bees, butterflies and moths, hoverflies and such like - they are all pollinators.
I wonder what happens to the butterflies that come out of hibernation too early.  I wonder if they can go back to sleep or if they die? There was a similar thing on Winter Watch - I asked the TV but it never answers me back  :roflanim:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #69 on: January 27, 2022, 10:59:14 pm »
I'll ask my daughter if she knows about the early butterfly, Fleecewife.


She is planning to do her university dissertation on the role of moths in pollination and is very interested in Lepidoptera.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #70 on: January 27, 2022, 11:18:06 pm »
What a brilliant dissertation.  I love moths - I've never done a moth trap, but I do go round at night with a torch to spot them and which flowers and grasses they're on.  We get those huge Elephant Hawk moths on our Honeysuckle - they sound like a motorbike in the distance  :roflanim: Maybe your daughter can help you spot a few moths to note on here?
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Penninehillbilly

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • West Yorks
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #71 on: January 28, 2022, 12:21:20 am »
We have a butterfly, hopefully still hibernating in the bedroom, it's cold in the window, and i put a board over it so sun doesn't warm it up. I don't know best thing to do with it.
Talking of moths, I was fascinated that their eyes glow orange in torch light (before high powered LED bulbs) some were on the fruit netting, I had to go and see what the iny orange lights were LOL



Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #72 on: January 28, 2022, 12:46:09 am »
So now I'm ready to put up some information about the Solitary bees.  I'm sorry it's in the same format as the BB list so you have to click on the link, but there's more info than just a picture, so worth a read. I hadn't know much about solitary bees until recently but I find them fascinating.  Here are a few of the possible 224 varieties of solitary bee found in the UK:


www.bumblebeeconservation.org/ashy-mining-bee/

The ASHY MINING BEE is an easily identified bee of sandy places, found mostly in the southern part of the UK but there are some found in the west of Scotland

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/ivyminingbee/
I have included the IVY BEE because I first found one in my garden last year and had a hunt to identify it.  It looks like a chimera of a Common Carder bee at the top end and a large bright wasp at the bottom end.  The one I saw wouldn't stay still for long enough for me to get a a good photo.  On the distribution map Ivy bees are not shown as reaching into Southern Scotland, but it is spreading further north. The one I saw could be nothing else!  They feed largely on ivy, so are the latest solitary bees to fly, but if the ivy is not in flower they will sip from other flowers.  Mine was on a garden geranium - Roxanne which I have discovered is sterile but nonetheless popular with many bees and wasps.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/patchworkleafcutterbee/
LEAF CUTTER BEES are fairly common and readily identifiable, not by their appearance but more by their activity of cutting out neat sections of leaves to line their larva holes.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/goodens-nomad-bee/
NOMAD BEES are cuckoo bees ie they are predators on mining bee hosts and tend to resemble the host as part of their disguise. There are 73 species of cuckoo bees in the UK, only 6 of them are BBs, the rest being solitary bees. Cuckoo bees are necessarily rarer than the hosts.  I think this one could readily be mistaken for a large hoverfly. Being cuckoos they don't have to collect pollen to feed a brood so tend not to visit many flowers except daisy family flat flowers.

 www.bumblebeeconservation.org/redmasonbee/
RED MASON BEES are found throughout the UK but predominantly in urban areas, not the countryside.  Most people when they put up a bee hotel hope to attract the red mason bee.  They are reared commercially to pollinate fruit orchards as they are more efficient at this than honey bees

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/woolcarderbee/
I have included The chunky  WOOL CARDER BEE because I love their lifestyle! The female combs fibres from woolly leaved plants such as Lamb's Ears and great Mullein, while the males defend the plant against others, sometimes to the death, then the female uses the fibres to line her nest

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/hairy-footed-flower-bee-anthophora-plumipes/
The HAIRY FOOTED FLOWER BEE is one of Dave Goulson's favourites, because the male has a hairy fringe on one leg which it uses to stroke the female's face and to cover her eyes during mating - cute and hilarious at the same time. It is an early bee, small and dark for the female, so tends to be confused with a worker BB.  It occupies the southern half of the UK.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org/tawnyminingbee/
The TAWNY MINING BEE is the most striking of the solitary bees, with a furry red coat.  It occurs throughout Britain up to the Central Belt of Scotland.  This is the bee whose cuckoo predator, the LARGE BEE FLY, flicks it's eggs into the Tawny bee's nest from the entrance. Females often nest in large groups, in spite of being solitary by name.

There are many many more solitary bees, these are just a sample.  If you spot any solitary bees they are just as important to our project as BBs so please tell us about them.  If you can get a good clear photo then we can try to identify them.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2022, 12:52:47 am by Fleecewife »
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #73 on: January 28, 2022, 12:59:30 am »
We have a butterfly, hopefully still hibernating in the bedroom, it's cold in the window, and i put a board over it so sun doesn't warm it up. I don't know best thing to do with it.
Talking of moths, I was fascinated that their eyes glow orange in torch light (before high powered LED bulbs) some were on the fruit netting, I had to go and see what the iny orange lights were LOL


When I was growing up and all insects were far more numerous than they are now, every winter we had several tortoiseshell and red admiral butterflies hibernating in our curtains upstairs.  We had no central heating, or any heating at all upstairs so the butterflies were safe (we were freezing!).  It was just a case of letting them out when they did wake up, and not disturbing them by closing the curtains.  Yours should be fine with what you are doing PHB.
Did you think you had some tiny glow worms  8)  How lovely
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Gardening for Bumble Bees in the UK
« Reply #74 on: January 28, 2022, 09:14:41 am »
Fleecewife .... Apparently red admirals don't hibernate as such but 'roosr' in a sheltered spot until it's warm enough to fly. Most die off as winter approaches and only a few survive our winters.


They are migratory so it could have been an early arrival.


If you have an interest in moths then a trap would be hours of fun for you FW! Not many on the wing here at 800ft in Wales at the moment but plenty to be caught in the summer months. Over 2,500 moth species, including the micro moths, in the UK. My daughter traps, identifies and sends records to the county recorder and the local moth group runs moth trapping events.

 

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