Forage | Beespoke Info

Pollen and Bees

Gimlet — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 17:03:44 +0000

A good supply of pollen is essential to a honeybee colony because…

… despite its complexity, bees cannot live on honey alone. While the sugars in honey supply their energy needs, in addition they require protein, minerals and trace elements. Pollen is the source of these but like all things dietary – bees need variety as well as quantity.

Importance of Pollen

The protein content of the pollen of different plants is variable but generally very high, containing amounts comparable with peas and beans (Witherell), or seeds and peanuts (Dietz).

Protein is important because it is the building material for growth and tissue repair. As a measure of the importance of the protein in pollen, it has been shown that the amount available to a colony influences the size of the emerging brood. In fact it has been calculated that the amount of pollen required to rear a bee – from the hatching of the egg to the emergence of the adult – is between 120 and 145mg.

But it doesn’t stop there because bees continue to grow after emergence. On average, emerging bees contain 13% protein (Witherell) but by the time they are 5 days old, the heads, thoraces and abdomens of young bees contain 93%, 38%,76%, more protein respectively than those of the newly emerged (Dietz). This huge increase is brought about by a massive consumption of pollen which is initiated within a very short time of emergence, perhaps as little as two hours, and rises to a peak at about 5-9 days old before gradually diminishing and eventually tailing off at 15-18 days (Dietz).

However not all this protein intake is used in growth of the bee or development of the hypopharyngeal glands because it is on about the 3^rd day after emergence that the bees are directly employed in brood rearing, an activity that continues up until about the 13^th day (Gary) and involves the passing on of pollen-derived protein to larvae in bee milk.

During brood rearing, a nurse bee needs to digest about 10mg of pollen to produce 4mg of protein per day in brood food which is produced in the hypopharyngeal glands. The more protein that is available to the nurse bees either by concentration in, or sheer bulk of, pollen the more larvae a bee is able to feed.

Principal constituents of pollen…

In addition to protein and lipids (fats) pollen contains:

free amino acids;
carbohydrates (sugars, starch and cellulose);
minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, aluminium, manganese, sulphur and copper);
vitamins – pantothenic acid, nicotinic acid, thiamine, riboflavin, ascorbic acid and small amounts of vitamins D and E;
enzymes and coenzymes;
pigments xanthophyll and carotene;
sterols (Witherell).

Because these ingredients are so variable between different pollens, it is thought that bees need a good mixture of pollens to be sure they are having a balanced diet.

Minerals and Trace Elements

Who knows what minerals and trace elements are now missing from the bees’ diets as a result of the decline in wild flowers and wild flower species.

We humans know the importance of a balanced diet with lots of variety to cover the full spectrum of our dietary requirements. Peculiar conditions like ricketts or scurvy can arise when small amounts of vital vitamins or nutrients are missing. Malnutrition also affects the immune system.

The likely effects of a shortage of pollen in late summer and autumn are…

…that the amount of pollen the bees manage to store will be insufficient to take them through to April and the start of the season proper. The significance of this is that the queen perks up and starts to lay, albeit at a slow rate, very early in the spring and long before fresh pollen becomes available in any sort of quantity. At this time nurse bees need to increase their pollen intake to kick-start their hypopharygeal glands so that they will be able to feed the emerging brood. If the required pollen is not there, it could mean that the colony will be unable to feed the larvae properly resulting in small bees and a possible late start into the season.

The bottom line of all this could be a reduction in colony strength especially if spring, and summer for that matter, are delayed, poor or cancelled altogether. A late start to the season could also mean them failing to make the most of the early flows such as dandelion. More generally it could leave the colony weakened and vulnerable to all of the assorted brutalities of nature.

This situation arose in the spring of 2013 which became very cold and continued forever. The effects of this were made worse because it followed the miserable autumn of 2012 where the bees failed to work the ivy to any significant extent. And of course the autumn of 2012 followed the most disastrous summer for beekeeping in history with record breaking queen failure because of the atrocious, striped weather. But don’t get me started.

It is advisable to keep a stock of pollen supplement or substitute for situations such as this. In that terrible spring it was impossible to buy supplement or substitute because of course everybody was in the same boat.

Some important sources of pollen…

… in this locality important sources of pollen include:- Gorse, Hazel, Willow, Dandelion, Oilseed rape, Hawthorn, Apple, Sycamore, Horse chestnut, Clover, Raspberry, Lime, Blackberry, Thistles, Ragwort, Knapweed, Native Ling and Bell heathers, Ivy.

Dandelions flowering, early pollen source for bees

Sycamore in full glorious bloom

Ivy in bloom – valuable autumn pollen source

Reseeding

In addition are the many native wild flowers too numerous to list which are commonly known as ‘weeds’. These used to be common and widespread in agricultural pastures but unfortunately these species-rich meadows are rapidly being ploughed up and replaced with single species grasslands. To pollinating insects, these ‘improved grasslands’ are wilderness areas. Clovers are being encouraged as a forage crop and soil improver but the cultivars popular with farmers tend to be large plants bred for rapid biomass accumulation and nitrogen fixing. The bees don’t seem to like them perhaps because the flowers are so big the bees tongues cannot reach the appropriate part but who knows when, or even if, these plants secrete nectar at all.

Scrub

The grubbing out of ‘scrub’, which includes important early spring pollen sources such as gorse, willow and hazel has further reduced availability locally meaning bees must fly further to forage leaving fewer bees to feed the brood. A shortage of nurse bees can lead to a chilled brood nest which can kill brood or lead to proliferation of brood diseases such as chalkbrood.

Hedgerows

Hedgerows of flowering trees such as hawthorn and blackthorn, blackberry, gorse and holly were once great pollen sources for pollinators. However, the relaxation of quotas and the mushrooming of intensive dairying has seen the removal from the landscape of thousands of miles of hedgerows. More have been decapitated and are ritually scalped year on year by tractors with flails so they can never flower.

Flowering hawthorn hedge

The last tree in the hedge

Malnutrition and Disease

Anyone who has read Roger Patterson’s excellent article on Chalkbrood cannot but be suspicious of the possibility of malnutrition in the upsurge in chalkbrood. Here’s an exerpt:

“I will give details of one of my colonies (called “Rampion”) in 2013 that was a very cold wet spring, following a poor summer and winter. At inspections there was bad chalk brood and on 1st May I made a note to requeen the colony. It had built up very slowly. On 16th May the chalk brood was still bad with a covering on the floor, apart from one largely sealed comb that was very different from the rest. There wasn’t the “pepperpot” appearance of other combs and only a handful of infected cells. The obvious explanation is that this was a new comb, but it wasn’t, having been in the colony the previous year. I checked back and we had 3-4 days of good weather soon after that comb was laid up by the queen, so my thinking was the brood on that comb was fed better. An inspection on 7th June, after a spell of fine weather when the bees were doing very well, showed there was virtually no chalk brood in any of the combs. In this instance I think it showed the chalk brood was possibly caused by poor nutrition and was not genetic. In other respects the queen was good and I could have culled her when there was no need to. In the spring of 2013 chalk brood was bad in many colonies, so it would have been unreasonable to cull queens for that reason.”

Some serious research into the nutrition status of bees and other pollinators is needed urgently.

References and Bibliography

Dietz,A. Nutrition of the Adult Honey Bee. In The Hive and the Honey Bee. Ed. Dadant and Sons. Dadant Publications. Illinois. USA. 1979.

Gary,N.E. Activities and Behaviour or Honey Bees. In The Hive and the Honey Bee. Ed. Dadant and Sons. Dadant Publications. Illinois. USA. 1979.

Hooper,T. Guide to Bees and Honey. Blandford, London. 1991.

Witherell,P.C. Other Products of the Hive. In The Hive and the Honey Bee. Ed. Dadant and Sons. Dadant Publications. Illinois. USA. 1979.

Click here for a gallery of pollen loads

Click here for Roger Patterson’s Chalk Brood article

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We need to talk about ragwort

Gimlet — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 14:26:36 +0000

We all tend to have a knee-jerk reaction when we see a field of ragwort. Most of us regard it as a squalid poisonous weed which spreads like wildfire and until recently it would be difficult to find anyone with a good word for it. But why is that and where does it come from?

Here are just a few of the things we say:

It’s toxic to horses and cattle;
It spreads like wildfire;
Ragwort honey is vile and it’s toxic to humans.

Anyone who has read Isabella Tree’s book ‘Rewilding’ will have come across a chapter entitled ‘Living with the Yellow Peril’ where she goes into great detail about Ragwort – what is true and what is untrue.

Yes, it is toxic to horses and cattle but it has a horrible taste and they will not eat it in its green state unless there is overgrazing and they have nothing else to eat or when it is chopped up and included in silage or hay in which case it loses it’s obnoxious taste. But they need to eat a lot of it to experience toxic effects ie 5-25% body weight for cattle and horses.

It doesn’t quite spread like wildfire – or not in the way we are led to believe. Yes the seeds are carried on windblown fluff but most fall quite close to the parent plant. The fluff that can be seen blowing further afield tends to fly further because there are no seeds attached to it. However, the seeds can survive up to 10 years in the soil’s ‘seed bank’ and if the ground is disturbed – or overgrazed – and the soil surface is exposed then there can be a population explosion as many seeds all germinate at once. Overgrazing again.

Ragwort honey is rare. Only once in my 22 years of beekeeping have I seen a quantity of ragwort honey. It is easy to see because it is bright yellow and it is a bit vile, it’s got that obnoxious, rank smell and a bitter after-taste. They say the bitter taste fades in time and that might be true but I just gave it back to the bees. I sort of doubt ragwort honey is poisonous though.

But here is the good news:

There are 3 native species of ragwort in Ireland – plain ragwort, Buachalán buí (Senecio jacobaea), marsh ragwort, Buachalán corraigh (Senecio aquaticus) and hoary ragwort – Buachalán liat or (Senecio erucifolius). There is also the introduced Oxford ragwort, Buachalán Pheadair (Senecio squalidus). In Scotland they call it Stinking Willie.

Great tit eating cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort. Photo: Martin Bennett

For insects it is a most valuable plant – 7 species of beetle,12 species of flies, one macromoth – the handsome red and black Cinnabar (see below) – and 7 micromoths are entirely dependent on ragwort. It is a valuable source of nectar and pollen for 30 species of solitary bee,18 species of solitary wasps and 50 insect parasites. In total 177 insect species dine out on ragwort. These figures come from Ms Tree’s book which is about an estate in the south of England so they will be a bit different here in Ireland but the general message is clear – especially nowadays where we know that our biodiversity is shrinking daily and insect popluations are crashing – ragwort needs to be cherished a bit more and blamed rather a lot less. Perhaps we should instead be frowning on overgrazing and encouraging something less intensive.

Click here for more information about ragwort

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Irish Hedgerow Destruction

Gimlet — Sun, 04 Apr 2021 14:48:01 +0000

Everytime you see a severed stump, or more commonly a row of severed stumps like this – imagine the lovely flowering trees that once stood there and ask yourself who could do such a thing and more importantly why.

Badly cut hedge

Hedges like these are not the exception in this country – they are the rule and when you consider the number of trees subjected to this abuse it’s no wonder we’ve got a biodiversity meltdown!

And why on earth was this tree cut? It’s the only one left!

The last tree in the hedge

Look at this brutal mess.

Massacred Hedge

If mature trees are decapitatated then cut to the knuckle year after year they cannot flower and they cannot fruit. No flowers and no fruit means no pollinators and no birds. It’s very simple isn’t it?

Furthermore – this annual savagery slowly kills the hedge as the height is reduced year after year and those poor shredded stumps cannot heal properly so fungal diseases get in leading to rot and death. Eventually you are left with a gappy hedge consisting of elder and grass. Lovely.

Hedges need to be at least 2 metres tall or birds can’t nest in them. If they are too low to the ground, predators can reach into the nests and take the young. They also need cover above the nest or crows will walk along that lovely flat top and take the eggs or the young birds.

If a hedge is encroaching onto a road then lightly trim the sides there’s no need to cut the bloody top off.

Let’s not forget that hedges are carbon sinks but only if you let them grow. The taller they get the more water they will use so there will be less waterlogging and less soil washed into the rivers. The list of benefits is very long and I’ve hardly started.

A couple of links here for further reading:

Bee Trees – Hawthorn

https://www.thejournal.ie/shear-force-article-2-5358956-Feb2021/

https://www.noteworthy.ie/nw-shear-force-pt1-5359014-Feb2021

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Green pollen?

Gimlet — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 19:17:59 +0000

Towards the end of the season you will probably have observed bright green pollen loads coming in – like this. Please excuse poor photo.

Green pollen loads

If you ask your local beekeeper, he or she is likely to tell you that it is meadowsweet. However, if you doggedly search the drifts of meadowsweet in your locale for a bee with full pollen baskets, you will see that the pollen they are carrying is actually a creamy yellow. See photo below:

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmeria) pollen loads

A riddle then.

We all know that bees are very specialised in their foraging behaviour during the height of the season – ie they are recruited via excited waggle dancers to ‘go fetch’ a particular pollen or nectar and will go where they are directed and concentrate on that one crop. This strategy allows them to make the most of a resource when, where and if there is a proliferation – farmers permitting.

At the shoulders of the season though, when the main flows are over and forage is becoming thin on the ground – does that strategy continue to be sensible? Or is it wiser for bees to fuzzy the focus and become more generlist/opportunistic in their foraging behaviour.

We know that bees visit both crocuses and snowdrops in the spring when both are in bloom together but the pollen loads of both those flowers are brownish orange so we can’t really tell from the pollen loads just where those bees have been. Unless of course we have a microscope and a fixation.

To come back to the point though – what is the source of the green pollen loads? Is it a single source or could it be a mixture of two different coloured pollens from two different species? For example meadowsweet (yellow) and rosebay willowherb (blue).

Blue rosebay willowherb (Chamaenerion angustifolium) pollen loads

Personally, I think it is a mixture of the yellow meadowsweet pollen and the blue rosebay willowherb pollen.

What do you think?

Click here for August bee flowers

Click here for September bee flowers

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Bee Flower – Coltsfoot

Gimlet — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 18:03:14 +0000

Coltsfoot is in bloom now – 9th March 2017. It is an Irish native and a member of the aster family – their asterness is obvious in this rather poor header photograph.

I didn’t realise the bees visit this plant but here is the evidence – note the lemon yellow pollen loads.

Honey bee visiting Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) note yellow pollen loads

Coltsfoot is unusual in that the flowers come out before any leaves are visible. The heart shaped leaves come along later and are not at all like a dandelion.

It is thought that Coltsfoot flowers are a cure for coughs.

Click here for more March bee flowers

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Noxious Weeds!

Gimlet — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 21:16:27 +0000

You know how we all go on about how there’s a law out there that says farmers should remove ragwort from their land or face the consequences?

Well beekeepers, read this and weep – the full list of ‘Invasive Species and Noxious Weeds’ as specified by the Department of Agriculture is as follows:

"...Invasive Species & Noxious Weeds

Ragwort, Thistle, Dock, Common Barberry, Male Wild Hop and Wild Oat are noxious weeds under the Noxious Weeds Act 1936

Invasive species include Rhododendron, Giant Hogweed, Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Balsam as well as the invading hardwood species e.g. Hawthorn, briars, furze/gorse, Elder and Willow...."

This is taken not directly from the 1936 Act, but from the Cross Compliance Handbook for farmers from the Department of Agriculture. Click here to download that disturbing document

I don’t know about you but it leaves me wondering whether to make a big noise about it or just keep quiet because rather a lot of those species – especially the natives – are vital to our bees and all those wild pollinators out there – for the moment anyway.

And here’s a thought – landowners are not allowed to remove a hedgerow unless they plant a replacement hedge first. Hmmm.

They are also not allowed to remove a line of trees across a field. Being as hawthorn and willow are categorised here not as trees but ‘invading hardwood species’ in the Cross Compliance Handbook – does that mean landowners can remove a row of hawthorns?

Where does that leave us?

Here are some links for you. The first two are particularly important if you want to understand the current wave of hedgerow mutilation and scrub destruction.

Click here to download the Cross Compliance Handbook for farmers from the Department of Agriculture.

Click here to download the Land Eligibility Booklet from the Department of Agriculture

Click here for the stupid Heritage Bill

Click here for February Bee Flowers

Click here for March Bee Flowers

Click here for April Bee Flowers

Click here for May Bee Flowers

Click here for June Bee Flowers

Click here for July Bee Flowers

Click here for August Bee Flowers

Click here for September Bee Flowers

Click here for October Bee Flowers

Click here for November Bee Flowers

Click here for more about Gorse

Click here for a general seasonal guide to important bee flowers

Click here for photos of pollen load colours

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Irish Beekeepers Protest

Gimlet — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 18:01:57 +0000

Beekeepers of Ireland rise up and protest against the Heritage Bill before all this goes up in flames!

Gorse in full bloom

Meet outside Dáil Éireann with Gerry Ryan et al at 12.30 on 2nd March 2017 and let our Senators know we are against this stupid Bill!

Click here for more about the Heritage Bill

Click here for the full text of the Seanad debate on this Bill in November2016 and which will be continued this Thursday

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Heritage Bill?

Gimlet — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 10:15:13 +0000

The Heritage Bill, due before the Seanad this week (21st February 2017 ) seems to have nothing at all to do with Heritage other than to extend the period landowners or County Councils can burn, cut, grub or otherwise erase the natural bit from the landscape. That natural bit is the bit our bees rely on.

This the part of the bill that will most affect us:

“…permit to the burning of vegetation in March, during such period or periods and in such areas of the State as the Minister may specify. Section 8 also provides for the amendment of section 40 to allow landowners or their agents to cut, grub or destroy vegetation in any hedge or ditch during August, subject to such Regulations as the Minister may make….”

I don’t need to tell you that the gorse (aka furze) is in bloom in March and our bees are all over it gathering vital early spring forage. If it is grubbed out and burnt at all, but especially in March, our bees, wild bees and other insects will all be deprived of a valuable early spring pollen source.

Gorse in full bloom

As for cutting, grubbing and burning in August – well I also don’t need to tell you that – although our honey crop may be in, our bees are busily working all the other flowers in the hedgerows for as long as the weather allows in their build up for winter. Blackberry, for one, can flower well into October.

Let’s not forget that the heather will bloom all the way through August and into September. Heather is defined as scrub too.

Heather in August

Hedgecutting usually means decapitating mature hawthorn trees so there will be no flowers for the bees on such victims for several years.

Then there’s other important bee trees – willow and hazel – otherwise known as scrub. We need all of this stuff!

Let’s not forget the ivy either!

This bill is due before the Seanad this week – 21st February 2017 -and beekeepers need to make their feelings known to their TDs, Senators and MEPs before it is all too late:

Independent Alliance

Detail

Here’s the section or the ‘Heritage’ Bill that will have most effect on bees, birds and other wildlife – vertebrate and invertebrate:

Part 3

Wildlife

Section 7 sets out definitions relating to the wildlife primary legislation.

Section 8 provides for amendments to section 40 of the Wildlife Acts. The new provisions under section 8 give the Minister power by Regulations to permit to the burning of vegetation in March, during such period or periods and in such areas of the State as the Minister may specify. Section 8 also provides for the amendment of section 40 to allow landowners or their agents to cut, grub or destroy vegetation in any hedge or ditch during August, subject to such Regulations as the Minister may make.

Section 9 relates to updating references to Inland Fisheries Ireland and to current fisheries legislation.

Section 10 provides for clarification of the powers of authorised officers of the Department and An Garda Síochána under the Wildlife Acts.

Section 11 provides for the updating of penalties for offences under the Wildlife Acts and the introduction of fixed payment notices for certain offences.

The bill in its entirety can be viewed here: https://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2016/216/b216s-memo.pdf

Click here to sign a petition agains this bill

Click here for Birdwatch Ireland reaction to this bill

Click here for AnTaisce reaction

Click here for Bee Flowers in August

Click here for Bee Flowers in March

Click here for more about Gorse

Click here for more about heather

Click here for more about Willow

Click here for more about Hawthorn

Click here for more about Hazel

Click here for more about Ivy

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Bee Flowers – February

Gimlet — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 12:07:10 +0000

February 1st is the Feast Day of St Brigid (AD450-525) female patron saint of Ireland.

For us Celts it is also the first day of Spring but you Saxon Dogs will have to wait till March 20th!

For the bees though – read on:

There are a few hardy plants that flower in early spring but only the willow (Salix spp) can produce enough nectar for a small surplus and only in a very warm spring.

Of course the Native bee will forage at lower temperatures and is better able to take advantage of what little fresh nectar and pollen is available.

Until today – I’ve never seen a bee on a dandelion and didn’t really believe they found them interesting but here’s the evidence they do and the pollen loads are yellow:

Yellow daffodil pollen

The table below shows some possible bee flowers for February. Green lines are Irish natives. Click it for a better view:

Some bee flowers for February

Click here for March Bee Flowers

Click here for April Bee Flowers

Click here for May Bee Flowers

Click here for June Bee Flowers

Click here for July Bee Flowers

Click here for August Bee Flowers

Click here for September Bee Flowers

Click here for October Bee Flowers

Click here for November Bee Flowers

Click here for more about Gorse

Click here for a general seasonal guide to important bee flowers

Click here for photos of pollen load colours

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Ireland Pollinator Plan 2015-2020

Gimlet — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 16:01:55 +0000

The picture above is by Vincent Van Gogh (obviously says you), it lives in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam and is called ‘Wheatfield with Crows’. It was painted in 1890 – possibly his last picture. Vincent didn’t know about climate change or intensive agriculture; if he had, he would probably have cut the other ear off and left the crows out.

Pollinator Decline

Pollinators, including honey bees, are in decline all over Europe due to habitat loss, climate change and modern agricultural practices. All the usual culprits. This is fact.

Anybody in doubt about that should cast their minds back to the good old days when car windscreens would be so plastered with crushed insects – regular stops were needed to scrape them off.

Mind you, cars were rather less streamlined then and a bit more – er – ‘boxy’:

My dad had one of these when we were little – there were toadstools growing in it.

Einstein

Einstein said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years left to live“.

Einstein defying gravity

They now say he probably didn’t say that at all but then they would wouldn’t they. Whether he said it or not – the bleak nugget of truth in that sentence seems to have reached most people.

Threatened Pollinators

Ireland’s wild pollinators include 20 species of bumble bee, 77 solitary bee species plus 1 species of honey bee. All of these are entirely dependent on flowers to exist so it is bees that carry out most of the pollination services.

33% of these are threatened with extinction.

Other pollinators include flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, ants, beetles.

Between them, their pollination services are thought to be worth €153 billion worldwide and at least €53 million in Ireland.

In response to the very real threat to these insects and (god forbid) the economy, many countries including Ireland have put in place plans to attempt to reverse the trend of pollinator loss.

Ireland’s Pollinator Plan 2015 – 2020

Biodiversity Ireland with Trinity College Dublin and a 15 member steering panel of experts have devised a 5 year plan to address pollinator decline and protect the pollination service these insects freely provide to agriculture, horticulture and the countryside in general.

Click this to download the All Ireland Pollinator Plan

Objectives

The plan has 5 objectives:

Making Ireland pollinator friendly.
Pinpoint things that can be done on farmland, public land and private land, to create an interconnected network of wildflower-rich pollinator-friendly habitats.
Raising awareness of pollinators and how
to protect them.
Increase awareness of the importance of
pollinators and the resources they need to survive.
Managed pollinators – supporting beekeepers and growers. To achieve healthy, sustainable populations of managed pollinators that can play a full role in delivering pollination services.
Expanding our knowledge of pollinators and pollination service Increase research and knowledge to find the best and most cost-effective ways to protect pollinators.
Collecting evidence to track change and measure success Survey pollinators and monitor change to ensure the Plan is working.

Eighty one actions have been indentified to achieve these aims and have been shared out among sixty-eight governmental and non-governmental organisations which have agreed to support the plan.

The recommended actions include:

Hedgerows

Planting new hedgerows with native species such as hawthorn, hazel, willow and blackberry etc. Old hedgerows should be maintained properly and cut less often. Vegetation at hedge bases should not be sprayed so wild flowers are conserved.

Wildflowers

Should be encouraged along hedges, lanes and field corners. Buffer strips containing native wild flowers should be planted along field margins and cut between September and April only. Further management practices can include grazing to conserve and improve these areas.

Nectar and Pollen rich shrubs and trees

Planting of willow, hazel, hawthorn, horse chestnut and blackthorn in hedges and field corners, parks, schools etc.

Nesting Areas

Tussocky grass and nettles provide nesting areas for bumble bees. Bare uncompacted ground for solitary bees.

The Other Bits

I added the photo below to demonstrate just how much land is not hedgerow or hedge base. When these fields are planted with rye grass, rye grass, rye grass or in modern day crop rotation of barley, barley, barley, wheat, barley, they are as about as useful to bees and other pollinating insects as these flooded fields:

Funding

The plan points to government initiatives that are already in force and it is hoped that communities and local authorities will formulate projects and seek funding from local and national government. There is also the possibility of funding from Europe.

Honey Bees

All of these measures will help honeybees and that is to be welcomed. However, apart from the spectre of mapping and education on diseases the plan is a bit short on specific help for honey bees. All beekeeping associations already provide education on diseases.

The plan describes honey bees as being ‘domesticated’ or ‘managed’.

Domesticated

Before the Varroa mite, which came in with imported bees in 1999 or thereabouts, the honeybee lived as wild as all the other Irish pollinators. Until recently it was thought to be extinct as a wild species but recent research has shown that Ireland’s native bee – Apis mellifera mellifera is in fact alive and kicking in the wild. Presumably it is adapting to cope with Varroa – perhaps becoming swarmier.

Imports

It is a shame that no steps are suggested in this plan to prevent further imports of foreign bees and the exotic pests that come in with them. That would have helped to protect the honey bee.

Managed

Also the plan says this, “The needs of managed honeybees are very different to those of wild pollinators. Beekeepers can move colonies to where forage sources are available, and can provide extra resources over the winter.”

Well, that’s just not true. The majority of beekeepers in Ireland are hobbyists – that is they have a couple of hives in the garden and no other apiary.

To move bees, you need to have somewhere to take them and you need the know-how to move them. It’s not a walk in the park you know. Moving bees is stressful for both bees and beekeepers. It is not for the fainthearted – it is ticklish, potentially dangerous and certainly not for the novice. But that’s for another post.

Conclusion

Much is made of planting wildflowers but there are wildflowers and there are wildflowers. Anyone thinking of sowing wildflowers should try and get Irish natives. Foreign wildflowers evolved with foreign insects and may not be appropriate here.

Irish wildflower seed is available from Sandro Cafolla – more info on his website www.wildflowers.ie

Click here for Biodiversity Ireland and the Ireland Pollinator Plan

Click here for Irish Wildflower seeds

Click here for Hedgelaying Ireland

Click here for more about Bees and Climate Change

Click here for Bee Trees – Hawthorn

Click here for Bee Trees – Hazel

Click here for Bee Trees – Ivy

Click here for Bee Trees – Horse Chestnut

Click here for Bee Trees – Sycamore

Click here for Bee Trees – Willow

Click here for Bee Trees – Lime

Click here for Bee Trees – Poplar

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