I’ve mentioned bees a few times in these blogs, but I’m going to mention them again because I like them!
Some entomologists get rather irritated with all the publicity that bees receive, and tell me that by focusing on bees, we forget all the other thousands of insect species.
I disagree.
Why help the bees?
First, because bees are a good place to start if you want to learn about insects. They are easy to find, they have interesting life cycles, and they are (reasonably) easy to identify.
To identify bees, you also need to be able to recognise other common insects like hoverflies and wasps, so before you know it, you’re engrossed in the whole world of insects!
Secondly, bees are at risk and need our help.
Bumblebees are at particular risk due to global warming: they are temperate creatures, having evolved in the highlands of India, and have furry bodies to keep them warm. When the temperature creeps up above 30 degrees, as it has done in London recently, they (like me) do not like it.
And at least I can take off my woolly jumper.
A balance of bees
I’m one of a group of volunteers who run Bee Buddies sessions in the Horniman Gardens on select summer Sunday afternoons. We talk with visitors of all ages about the bees and other insects you can find on the Horniman’s plants.
One thing that surprises me is how many people think that honey bees are native to the UK, and that they are endangered. The opposite is true.
Honey bees originated in China and were transported around the world by people because of the human love for honey. In Europe, they are domesticated animals; almost all honey bees in the UK live in man-made hives.
Far from being endangered, they may put other wild bees at risk.
All bees feed on nectar and feed their larvae on pollen. They need a large supply of flowers.
This is all very well in a nectar-rich grassland on a nature reserve – but in urban settings and intensively farmed or overgrazed land (which together account for most of the land in the UK), there are precious few flowers and less pollen to go around. If we keep putting honey bee hives in our gardens and nature reserves, we are actually depriving our wild bees and other wild insects of their food sources.
A single honey bee hive may contain 30,000 bees. That’s a lot of bees to feed! Contrast that with the nests of bumblebees, which will house about 300 bees.
The London Beekeepers Association recognises this and calls for a sensible compromise, arguing that we need to limit the number of beehives in urban settings.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has a sensible and balanced position on the honey bee issue, recognising the many benefits of honey bees but also the risks of honey bees to wild bees. In short, there’s room for honey bees if we are careful about where we put our hives and allow lots of nectar-rich plants to flourish.
Bee spotting at the Horniman
Where’s a good place to find bees at the Horniman? Anywhere where there are flowers.
Wherever there are flowers, you’ll find bees. But this simple rule does have some exceptions.
Bees need flowers that are rich in pollen and nectar, which their little tongues can reach. Flowers with complicated petal patterns that have been selectively bred by humans for their looks, rather than their production of nectar and pollen, can be avoided by bees. You’ll probably notice there are not many bees on the roses for this reason.
They like the red-hot pokers in the Grasslands Garden. They adore comfrey, and at this time of year, foxgloves – a favourite of the common carder and garden bumblebees. They have longer tongues which can reach the nectar at the bottom of the tubular flowers. If you’re lucky, you may catch a crafty – and shorter tongued – buff-tailed bumblebee eating into the base of the flowers so they can access the nectar too!
A bee about to investigate the foxgloves
Bees enjoy scented herbs like lavender, oregano, thyme, marjoram, and mint. They seem to have a particular love for the catmint in the climate change beds – or Xerophytic Garden – near the Clocktower along London Road. In high summer, they are crawling with buff-tailed and southern cuckoo bumblebees, and any number of other insects.
The new Pollinator Garden further along this path, closer to the Avenue, has been specifically designed to attract lots of insect species. The bare banks of sand and mud are there for a reason – they provide nesting sites for our very precious solitary bees who lay their eggs in little tunnels in the sand and mud in the spring.
Volunteers Ben and Sam identifying bees in our drought tolerant beds
A few weeks ago, this area was buzzing with tiny little Lasioglossum bees whose offspring will hopefully emerge from the banks next year. It will be exciting to see how – as development and planting of this area continues – what other new species will be attracted.
Who’s who of bees
Right, so now you know about honey bees and you know where to find them.
Now let’s meet three common wild bumblebees who are all over the Gardens in the spring to summer months. Before we start, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust is a great place to learn about bumblebees and solitary bees, with a simple video to help you start.
Buff-tailed bumble bee
First, the buff-tailed bumble bee (Bombus terrestris). These are probably the most common bees you will see in the Horniman Gardens.
They are the ‘stereotypical’ bumblebee with two golden bands and a whitish tail. If you look carefully, you will see that there is a buffish tinge to the white tail, at least at the upper part of it. This distinguishes them from the white-tailed bumble bee which is very similar to the buff-tail but tends to have lemon yellow rather than golden stripes and a purer white tail.
However, to be brutally honest – many of us (myself included) – find it almost impossible to tell the difference between worker white-tailed and buff-tailed bumblebees. So don’t worry about it too much! Buff-tailed bumblebees at the moment seem to be doing alright, partly as they make nests all through the winter. You may see them buzzing around on the Nature Trail in the middle of January, feeding on the winter heliotrope flowers and mahonia.
Bombus terrestris or Buff-tailed bumblebee. Thanks to S. Rae via wikicommons CC BY 2.0
Common carder bee
Second, the common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum). These are a great one to learn as they are very common.
They’re variable but their most important characteristic is that they have a fluffy area on their thorax which is gingery or yellowy brown. They nest at the bottom of long grassy areas and, as already mentioned, have long tongues so they’re happy to feed on plants with tubular flowers such as comfrey and foxglove.
The Common Carder Bumble Bee (Bombus pascuorum). Thanks to Евгений Самарин via inaturalist and wikicommons CC BY 4.0
Early bumblebee
Lastly, the early bumble bee (Bombus pratorum). They are called early bumble bees because they tend to nest early. So there are a lot are a lot of them around in May and June. The main distinguishing feature of the early bumble bee is they are significantly smaller than other bumble bees. They also have a very pretty gingery tail.
Early Bumble Bee (Bombus pratorum) queen. Thanks to Martin Cooper, via wikicommons CC BY 2.0
Here’s a little video of me doing my Bee Walk survey for the Bumble bee Conservation Trust in the Horniman Gardens:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZKeWAViBEz/
I urge you to take a walk around the Horniman Gardens and see how many of these bumblebees and other bees you can find. If you’d like to help our bees or you’d like to tell other people about them, please do contact Volunteering Manager Karen Sheldon at volunteering@horniman.ac.uk
Daniel Harwood