Another birthday posy from my village WI - the benefits of going to two!
Everyone felt safe enough (from covid threats) to sing Jerusalem at the start of the meeting which was good.
The speaker was brilliant and he gave a really good talk on "The Forgotten Bees"......that is all the hundreds of species of bee that are Not Honey Bees. In fact Honey Bees are causing all the other bees real problems because they carry some very nasty diseases and can get quite aggressive. He had photos from the US of Honey Bees unable to find enough food on their own attacking other bees and stealing pollen from their pollen sacs.
More and more people are keeping bees but the way land is farmed means that there isn't enough food for them and gardeners prefer cut grass instead of dandelions and clover so we are no help either.
The speaker, who's appropriate name really is Hawk Honey, was a long distance truck driver until an injury forced him to find a new job and he now works part time for Suffolk Wildlife Trust and gives talks about bees and advises on gardening for wildlife.
He had slides and videos of some of the various different solitary bees - some only feed on one type of flower or one family of plants. So many bees are on the Red Endangered lists but there's still time to help them. We should grow a wide variety of flowers for our gardens and pick those that have easily accessed pollen......and (special note for Pat) dandelions are brilliant for bees.
My favourite bee of those he told us about - not sure of it's Latin name - was a solitary bee who makes it's home only in empty snail shells. It has to be laying on bare ground because this clever bee burrows under the shell taking out the soil so the shell sits in a little hollow. Then it lays its egg inside, closes up the shell and then..............covers it all with little twigs and dried grass - how amazing is that!
When I got home I searched out the bee chart that I'd got from Friends of the Earth last year, along with the wild flower seeds.
After the talk there was coffee and cakes of course and one of the ladies had made Red Velvet Cup Cakes to celebrate her Ruby wedding, which were lovely. The last thing at WI is usually the raffle and what a surprise - I won something and picked a box of chocs rather than some soap!
Quite a late ending as there had been lots of business to get through - arrangements for outings and other meetings and we sang The National Anthem at the end.
It's so good to get back to normal meetings and now it's nice just to have a 5 minute walk home from this WI. Something I've not been able to do since 1991.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
Congrats on winning the raffle! I love the idea of bees nesting in empty snail shells. When I was a child we grew lots of lavender, which always attracted lots of bees.
ReplyDeleteWith love from,
Kelly (Mrs. Kiwi)
Yes Lavender is another good plant for bees. Incredible how many different bees there are
DeleteThat sounds a really interesting talk. I grow lots of different flowers here (last owner didn't!) although the Lavender and Marjoram she did plant attract a lot of bees.
ReplyDeleteGlad you won a raffle prize. I only have ONCE - and it was a bottle of aftershave!
Marjoram is another thing I could squeeze in somewhere here. I shall look out for it at the boot sale tomorrow
DeleteWhen my daughter was 3 she came in from the garden and said "The tree is singing, Mummy". I went outside and discovered some ground bees were nesting in the roots. It did sound like the tree was humming! You're right, we forget that there are many sorts of bees.
ReplyDeleteIt was a surprise to learn how honey bees are pushing out the other sorts
DeleteI hardly see any bees around here, though there is plenty of planting of flowers and fruit bushes. I love bumble bees and each year always look out for the queens and 'rescue' should they be stationary in the cold.
ReplyDeleteIt's been quite breezy here despite the sun, don't think bees like that much
DeleteIt sounded like the WI I was in for 30years, I always enjoyed the singing Jersalum and singing the National Anthem and pleased you had an interesting speaker.
ReplyDeleteThe chocolates look nice.
Hazel 🌈🌈
The subject didn't sound very interesting but he really put it across well
DeleteI did not know there wasn't enough food for them all or that honey bees were aggressive. Bee keeping is very popular here in the US I do not want to fight the bears for honey so I have no interest in keeping them.
ReplyDeleteI would have taken the chocolate too.
Cathy
We hear so much about Honey Bees but really all the others are just as important
DeleteLovely to see the bee poster...I shall take a snapshot of it and hopefully do some identifying whilst out in our garden. x
ReplyDeleteI had a look round yesterday for bees but it's quite breezy - not sure they like that much
DeleteWhen we lived at Jointers Farm we had bees that lived in the walls of the house (on the outside), there really are so many types aren't there but I have never heard of those that lay their eggs in snail shells, how clever!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on winning a raffle prize, and chocolate wins over soap every time ... unless it was a VERY expensive kind of soap.
I once sat in the car waiting for Colin somewhere and watched a leaf cutter bee taking leaves into a hole in a wall - fascinating
DeleteThat bee info is great. We used to build insect 'lodges' in all our gardens, and bumblebee nesting places. It is very satisfying to see small clouds of solitary bees hovering around the lodge, picking up mud yo seal their egg deposits.
ReplyDeleteI've got a little insect hotel - but nothing has moved in yet
DeleteI was just noticing several bees on my grape hyacinths yesterday and was surprised that they would like those since they don't look like normal flowers.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting meeting and congrats on the win!
I shall examine my Grape Hyacinths, I cleared some out last May but they still spread like crazy
DeleteI love reading about your WI meetings. I wish we had something like that here. We have a woman's club, but it is rather 'elitist'.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that 100 years ago the WI was started and still going strong!
DeleteThe snail bee sounds amazing! The world is a wonderful place.
ReplyDeleteI had not heard that honey bees were pushing out other bees. I've seen only one hornet this year. We usually see: honey bees, hornets and carpenter bees. I would not mind if the honey bees pushed away the carpenter bees. They drill holes and then build nests in the cedar overhang on my house. I did some big repairs last year to fix bee damage. I've hung my carpenter bee traps.
ReplyDeleteSounds a very interesting Talk.. I haven't got round to joining the WI yet.
ReplyDeleteYour W.I. meeting sounds very good. Congratulations on winning the chocolates! My redbud tree is in full bloom now and it is full of bumble bees happily buzzing around. We are not short on dandelions either so they should do well.
ReplyDeleteGood for you on winning the raffle. Chocolate was an excellent choice.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Definitely a good meeting, and an especially interesting presentation.
ReplyDeleteEuropean honey bees are a bit of a scourge here in Australia. They compete with our native bees for food and in some places have become so feral and invasive you really can't enter safely (including a large Nations Park in my home state). Interestingly, a particular one of our native bees has been found to be a more effective pollinator of some crops than honeybees,and is being used in the growing of hydroponic tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteHoney bees aren't the benign little helpers they are sometimes made out to be!
That sounds like a really interesting talk. Congrats on winning a raffle - always fun!
ReplyDelete