Category: pollinators

Walking among bees with Steven Falk

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Nicola Temple

Steven speaking to us in front of the limestone
meadow. Photo: Nicola Temple
I thoroughly love watching insects visit my garden (aphids and a few other pests excepted). However, I have to admit that beyond broad groupings, bumblebee, honey bee, hover fly, fly etc, I’m not very good at identifying them down to species. This clearly isn’t necessary to enjoy them, but I do find that when I know a species, when I know its routines and habits (as much as anyone does), then I have a deeper appreciation for them. So, when the University of Bristol Botanic Garden offered a bee identification workshop with Steven Falk, I signed myself up.
Steven Falkhas had an interest in insects since his childhood in London in the 1960s and 70s. Insects inspired his artwork and his skill as an artist earned him the honour of illustrating the book British Hoverflies, which he began working on when he was only 15. He has gone on to illustrate and write many publications since, including my newly acquired Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland (Bloomsbury, 2015).
Steven began the talk with some fast facts about insects in England. There are about 24,000 species of insect in England, 6,000 of which are regular visitors to flowers. “The biggest slice of this insect pie is wasps,” he explained. Even parasitic wasps visit flowers, and all together there are around 2,800 species.  Bees make up a mere 280 species and hover flies another 280. However, though they are less diverse in terms of species, bees and hoverflies are both abundant and extremely effective pollinators – so they punch above their diversity, so to speak.
Steven holding a yellow-legged mining-bee.
Photo: Nicola Temple
We start our walk in the Botanic Garden in the limestone meadow, just beside the West Terrace and the pond. If you unfocus your eyes a little and stare across the flowers, it is alive with activity. Steven shows us Myathropa florea, a reasonably sized hoverfly that has distinct grey markings on its thorax. It has an aqueous larvae, which lives in little rot holes at the base of trees. Then Steven points out a bumblebee mimic, Cheilosia illustrata, which tends to spend time near Hogweed because its larvae tunnel through the stems and roots. Apparently you can tell the age of a forest by the species of hoverfly present because they are so closely associated with certain plants.
Within minutes we’ve also spotted a common carder-bee (Bombus pascuorum) with its chestnut thorax – though Steven explains that this can be quite variable. It has a longer tongue and so this species is able to get down into the clover flowers. But there are also some buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) flying about also, which have shorter tongues and so they bite a hole at the base of the flower to rob the nectar. We spot lots of honey bees (Apis mellifera), which Steven also explains can be extremely variable in appearance, ranging from the typical striped appearance to almost entirely black – the tell tale sign being that its hind legs hang down as it flies. We haven’t even moved on the tour and we’ve already spotted at least six pollinator species – probably far more, I just can’t write fast enough to keep up with Steven listing them off!
The ‘fuzz’ of lamb’s ear is used by the female
wool-carder bee to line her nest.
Photo: Nicola Temple
Using what he calls his ‘praying mantis’ technique, Steven grabs a yellow-legged mining-bee (Andrena flavipes), and holds it so that we can all have a look at it. The long antennae tell you that this is not a fly, however, Steven goes on to list the colour variations that you can encounter. With all of these colour variations, I’m pretty sure I don’t stand a chance of accurately identifying anything on my own!
As we wander past some Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina), Steven mentions that the female wool-carder bee (Anthidium manicatum), a solitary bee, uses the fuzz from the plant’s leaves to line its nest. Steven then spots a patchwork leaf-cutter bee (Megachile centuncularis) and explains that it doesn’t collect pollen on its hind legs, but rather on its underbelly. Using his insect net, he catches it and place it temporarily in a little tube so that we all get a chance to look at it.
We walk past the wall germander (Teucrium chamaedrys) and there doesn’t appear to be a single flower that isn’t being visited by a bumblebee. It becomes obvious that while many of the tour participants are interested in the bees, they are equally interested in noting down which of the plants in the Botanic Garden are popular with pollinators so that they can create more bee-friendly gardens at home.
A great pied hoverfly (Volucella
pellucens).
Photo: Nicola Temple
As one would expect, near the end of the tour Steven begins to discuss some of the challenges that our pollinators face these days. He discusses the use of pesticides and the loss of habitat. He mentions that more erratic weather patterns and mild winters can lead to mortality – the latter causing over-wintering bees to go mouldy. But, he also finds the silver lining, stating that some bee species are expanding their distribution due to climate change.
It was only the commitment to another tour that forced Steven to end our walk. His love and enthusiasm for insects was apparent and he could have no doubt gone on to discuss far more than he did.
I definitely had different expectations for the workshop. I’m not sure whether it was the term ‘workshop’ or my own background in biological sciences that set my expectations that we would be looking at example specimens and comparing their features so that we might be able to better identify them. This was more of a garden tour and pollinator walk, which was lovely, but I’m not entirely sure I feel better equipped to identify bees in my garden as a result of being on the tour. If anything, it has shown me how much variation there can be within species let along adding in mimics and related species into the mix!  In the end I bought the Field Guide because really, in the end, that’s what it takes…good ol’ practice! And if I’m unsure Steven said to send him a picture on Twitter and he’ll help me identify it, which is brilliant! Not to mention, he has a fantastic free site on Flickr with pictures and information about all the British species, which is an incredible resource.
Germander (Teucrium chamaedrys) attracts
a tremendous number of pollinators.
Photo: Nicola Temple
This is the Year of the Pollinator at the Botanic Garden, so there are any number of pollination themed activities happening this year, including a beekeeping taster day, short courses for encouraging pollinators to your garden, and of course the annual bee and pollination festival in September.  And if you happen to snap a great photo of a pollinator this summer, you can enter the Botanic Garden’s photography competition, which will earn you a signed copy of Steven’s Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland as well as tickets to the Bee and Pollination Festival, visit the website for more details on how to enter.

In the guts of bees

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Nicola Temple

We hear a great deal about the beneficial bacteria that live in our digestive system and commonly referred to as the microbiome, which help us turn indigestible materials into nutrients that we can absorb. There are countless probiotic products on the market that are meant to introduce more of these beneficial bacteria into our system, enriching our microbiome. However, humans and indeed mammals are not alone in having helpful microflora in the gut.

The microbes that inhabit the guts of social bees has been of particular interest recently. These microbial communities have been studied for their role in bee health, but also as a model organism to help understand the relationship between hosts and their gut microbes, potentially providing insight into our own system.

The specialised cast of microbes

The microbiome of bees is relatively simple, but very specialised. There are about eight to ten bacterial species, but different species of bee will carry different strains of these bacterial species. The bacteria are so specialised that a strain from one bee genus isn’t able to colonise the gut of a bee from a different genus. This suggests that these bacterial strains have been evolving with their hosts over a very long period of time.

Nest entrance of the stingless bee, Geniotrigona thoracica, is
from Malaysia. Photo credit: Eunice Soh.

Like us, these bacteria help the bees break down complex molecules through fermentation in order to make the nutrients available to the hosts. There’s also evidence that they might help to neutralise toxins in the gut. These friendly microbes also outcompete nastier pathogenic species that can make the host ill. For example, the gut microbes in bumblebees have been linked to lower levels of the parasite Crithidia bombi.

The gut microbes of non-social insects, including solitary bees, aren’t as specialised because they acquire them from their environment rather than from other members of their species. Among social bees, it is behaviours such as passing food between individuals and feeding larvae, that allow an exchange of microbes. However, these exchanges pass along the bad microbes as well as the good.  Beekeepers are painfully aware that pathogens can pass through a colony like wildfire. Social insects therefore need a very responsive system that helps keep these pathogens in check. And the key to this might be a very ancient relationship between the good microbes and the host bees themselves, which allows the bee’s immune system to quickly identify the less desirable critters.

A long-term relationship

Research published this week in the journal Science Advances suggests that five of the species of gut bacteria found in modern social bees have been evolving along with their hosts for about 80 million years. It was around this time that the first solitary bees began socialising with other bees – sharing nests and food resources and making concerted defence efforts. The descendants of these first social bees are the hundreds of species of honey bees, bumblebees and stingless bees that are alive today.
This finding not only shows that social creatures, such as bees and humans, transfer bacteria among each other during the same lifetime, they pass them along generations, enabling the microbiome and host to evolve together.

“The fact that these bacteria have been with the bees for so long says that they are a key part of the biology of social bees,” says Nancy Moran, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas who co-led the research with postdoctoral researcher Waldan Kwong. “And it suggests that disrupting the microbiome, through antibiotics or other kinds of stress, could cause health problems.”
The co-evolution of the gut bacteria and the bees is so closely linked, in fact, that the researchers found that when a new species of bee branches off in the evolutionary tree, a new strain of bacteria branches off with it. The result being that each of the hundreds of species of social bees alive today has its own specialised strains of gut microbes.

Human influence on this long-term relationship

It’s currently unknown how toxins introduced by humans, including pesticides, might affect the bee microbiome. There is recent evidence, however, that the prophylactic use of antibiotics by bee keepers in the US has resulted in some gut bacteria in honeybees developing antibiotic resistance.

References

Engel, P. et al. 2016. The bee microbiome: impact on bee health and model for evolution and ecology of host-microbe interactions. mBio 7 (2): e02164-15.

Kwong, W.K., Medina, L.A., Koch, H., Sing, K-W., Soh, E.J.Y., Ascher, J.S., Jaffe, R. & Moran, N.A. 2017. Dynamic microbiome evolution in social bees. Science Advances 3: e1600513.

Kwong, W.K., Engel, P., Koch, H. & Moran, N.A. 2014. Genomics and host specialization of honey bee and bumble bee gut symbionts. PNAS 111 (31): 11509-14.

Look out for the early bumblebee…they’re emerging now!

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Alida Robey

I am always so impressed and uplifted when I see the first bees out, braving the cold and wind to forage in the spring sunshine. The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) braves the winter, emerging on fine winter days to forage, but another species that you are likely to see right now is the ‘early bumblebee’ or Bombus pratorum.

The early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum).
Photo credit: S. Rae [via Flickr CC by 2.0]

How to tell one stripy buzzing creature from another

Being larger and hairier than honey bees, bumblebees in general have a bit more protection to cope with colder weather conditions, giving them an advantage when it comes to foraging in the early spring. The early bumblebee is common throughout Britain from March until June or July, and in milder parts of the south of England, as early as February.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has a very good identification chart and video guide to help distinguish different bumblebee species. When trying to distinguish between species of bee, size, tail colour and stripes are the features to look at. Bombus pratorum is noticeably smaller in size than other bee foragers at work in the spring. Queens, workers and males have a yellow band on the thorax and abdomen, though the band across the abdomen is less obvious or sometimes absent in workers.

The tail is a strikingly dark orange-red, but can be tricky to see as this colouring is only in the final tail section and may also fade with time. Males have a broad yellow collar that wraps around the thorax, and yellow hair on the face.

The bee’s choice of diet

The early bumblebee is a  good pollinator of flowers and fruit, enjoying in particular white clover, thistles, sage, lavender, Asteraceae, cotoneaster, alliums and a range of daisy type flowers; it is also an important pollinator of soft fruit, such as raspberries and blackberries.

Habitat and lifecycle 

B. pratorum’s nesting period is shorter than other bumblebees at just 14 weeks. Queens are fertilised in late summer and then usually go into hibernation. They will emerge from hibernation between March and May depending on the climate in that location and find a place to make their nest. However, because of their short nesting period, they can have two or even three colonies a year in the warmer, southern regions of the UK; new queens mate and, instead of hibernating, immediately start a nest.

At the start of a colony cycle, the queen has a large store of food, which allows her to start laying her eggs to produce workers and foragers who will then gather all the supplies she needs in order to remain in the nest and continue to lay eggs. As the colony cycle nears its end, she will produce more queens before dying herself, allowing the young queens to take up the cycle for the next spring. These young queens will go out to forage for themselves and return to the nest for shelter, but they don’t contribute to the dying colony. When they are ready to mate, the young queens follow the scent of chemical attractants deposited by males. The old colony dies off, with B. pratorum rarely seen after July in the UK,  and so the cycle continues for another season.

The early bumblebee is known for nesting in unusual places such as abandoned bird boxes or rodent nests or just under the ground. Colonies are small at less than 100 workers.

Cuckoos

The bumblebee is no more immune than other creatures to being taken advantage of. Of the 24 bumblebee species in the UK, 6 are ‘cuckoo bees’, which don’t make their own nests, but rather kill off the queen in another nest and get the worker bees to raise her larvae. It is the species Bombus sylvestris, which is a nest parasite of the early bumblebee.

Buzz Pollination

I was intrigued to hear this term, describing a process unique to bees, whereby they catch hold of a flower and by emitting a high pitched buzz shake free the pollen trapped inside (watch a video here). I had also often wondered if bees had any way of knowing whether others had raided the pollen stores before them. It turns out that they have smelly feet that leave a distinctive odour on flowers, which indicates to other bees that the supplies have been raided.

What can we do to help?

As you will know, our pollinators are in decline not just in the UK, but globally.  I was saddened to learn that two species of bumblebee have become extinct in the UK since 1900 – Cullums bumblebee (Bombus cullumanus) and the short-haired bumblebee (Bombus subterraneus). Having lost 97% of wildflower-rich grasslands, we can take action to plant the flowers that are rich in pollen and nectar and therefore of most benefit to bees – some flowers, like pansies, and most double flowers may look pretty, but are of little benefit to bees.

Then there is the whole issue of pesticides. Neonicotinoids, used in some pesticides, are lethally toxic and infiltrate every aspect of the plants systemically – one teaspoon of neonicotinoids is enough to give a lethal dose to one and a quarter billion bees. Professor Dave Goulson, Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex and a bee expert, has been on a mission to see how widespread the use of these pesticides are as plants with a ‘Bee-friendly’ label may have been treated with these pesticides before being put on the shelves of the plant nursery.

Splitting and sharing plants and growing from seed can help ensure the plant hasn’t been exposed to these pesticides – it’s another thing we can do as gardeners to help these valiant and much-assailed vital workers in the garden. Also, as a Friend of the University of Bristol Botanic Garden, you have a unique opportunity to grow special plants from seed collected at the garden!

Another fun way you can help is to take part in The Great British Bee Count using an app developed by Friends of the Earth and which will be running again this year from 19 May – 30 June 2017. This is an initiative to help monitor the numbers of the different bee species found in the UK.  You can see the results of last year’s survey and access various educational resources on their website.

Alida Robey has a small gardening business in Bristol. For several years in New Zealand she worked with others to support projects to establish composting on both domestic and a ‘city-to-farm’ basis.

Bumblebees who brave the winter

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Nicola Temple

This past weekend, my family and I met with friends in the village of Shipham, in Somerset, for a walk. It was torrential rain, yet we were determined. We dressed ourselves and three children under the age of 10 in waterproofs and set out. We arrived at a local country pub, not more than 3 km away, resembling drowned rats. And as a Canadian living here in the UK, I still marvel at the fact that nobody took one bit of notice at the state of us. It’s what you do. You get wet. You find a pub. You hunker down for a hot Sunday lunch. And you hope it tapers off before you have to head out again. (It didn’t.)

Pollinators, at least of the flying insect variety, aren’t terribly keen on this kind of weather either. Most hunker down for the winter months as there is generally not a lot of nectar to forage this time of year anyway. How they do this depends on the species. Honeybees reduce the colony to a minimal size and rely on their honey stores to see them through, while they dance in order to regulate the temperature of the hive. Most bumblebee colonies die out completely and the queens that mated at the end of the season find a place to hibernate. Solitary bees may hibernate as adults or as larvae, emerging only when the weather conditions are suitable. To each their own.

Martin Cooper spotted this buff-tailed bumblebee queen
foraging on his Mahonia flowers in Ipswich on a sunny
January day in 2015.
Photo credit: Martin Cooper [via Flickr CC]

However, there is one flying pollinator that can be spotted this time of year here in Bristol, and indeed, other warmer regions of the UK. It is the common buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). This species was first spotted during the winter of 1990, in Exeter. Sightings have been increasing ever since and include nest-founding queens, workers and males, suggesting this is a winter generation of the species.

The mated queen will emerge from her subterranean dormant state (diapause) during warm winter weather and set about establishing a new colony. The potential cost of waking up early is that the warm weather could be short-lived and temperatures could plummet. The benefit, of course, is that there’s nobody to compete with for food. If successful, the queen can establish a colony before the other pollinators even wake up from their winter nap.

Introduced plants provide winter forage

Of course, there is potentially another cost to emerging early – there could be nothing to eat. Bees are able to forage at temperatures around 0oC, but if there aren’t enough plants in flower, they won’t find the pollen and nectar needed to sustain the colony. Few native UK species flower in winter, but species introduced by avid gardeners to bring some winter colour to the garden, also bring some much-needed food to the buff-tailed bumblebee.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London and The London Natural History Society, conducted a study of buff-tailed bumblebees foraging in London parks and gardens during winter about ten years ago. They wanted to see just how much food the bees were finding as food is directly related to the success of the colony.

The researchers found that there was plenty of forage to sustain the colonies and, in fact, the foraging rates they recorded near the end of winter were equivalent to peak foraging rates found in the height of summer. This doesn’t mean that the winter-flowering plants, such as the evergreen shrubs of the Mahonia spp., are providing more pollen and nectar than all the plants in the height of summer. But it does mean that each flower might have more pollen and nectar available because there aren’t other pollinators out and about also using the resource. The bumblebees, therefore, don’t need to go as far to find an equivalent amount of food and so they can collect it at a faster rate.  

Strategies for tolerating cold

Buff-tailed bumblebees aren’t as tolerant to cold as some other bee species; workers will freeze solid at about -7.1oC while queens freeze at -7.4oC. The bumblebees can obviously find warmth in the colony, but they need to forage and therefore be able to tolerate short spells of cold during the winter months. They may even need to tolerate cold temperatures for up to 24 hours as bumblebees often overnight away from the colony when they are unable to return from foraging.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham looked at the different cold tolerances of this bumblebee species a few years ago. They found that 50% of workers died after being exposed to 0oC for 7.2 days while queens could last over 25 days at this temperature – likely due to their fat reserves. However, as the forage study showed, the bees seem capable of finding food sources closer to the colony during winter months, which may reduce the likelihood of them having to endure cold temperatures for a lethal period of time.

These bumblebees may also have adopted some strategies to help reduce their possibilities of freezing. Pollen is an ice-nucleating agent in that it promotes the development of ice at higher temperatures. Other insects have been observed to expel any ice-nucleating agents from their gut when they experience low temperatures to avoid freezing. While this wasn’t observed in the bumblebees, it is a strategy that individuals might employ when caught out in the cold.

The more frequent observation of buff-tailed bumblebees in winter is thought to be a result of warmer autumn temperatures brought about by climate change. In a study from 1969, researchers reported a 6-9 month dormancy of all bumblebees in southern UK, so in a relatively short period of time there has been a considerable change in their seasonal pattern. There seems to be some flexibility in these patterns among bumblebees and for now, establishing winter colonies seems to be working for the buff-tails. However, with so many of our pollinators under threat, there is obviously also concern among the scientific community that more frequent extreme weather events could also spell disaster for these colonies that have selected to brave the winter months. As gardeners, we can perhaps do our bit by planting some winter forage species.

This year, the University of Bristol Botanic Garden will embrace a pollinator theme, with the aim of highlighting some of the lesser-known pollinators that are so important here in the UK. We love our pollinators, but research is still revealing so much about their unique and complex relationships with plants. So watch this space as we share some of these wonderful stories through our blog. We will also be posting pictures of pollinators we see in the Botanic Garden on our Twitter feed and Facebook page. But to see these pollinators in action, take some time to visit the Botanic Garden. Make space in your busy schedule to watch nature at its best – it’s worth it.

Sources:

Alford DV (1969) A study of the hibernation of bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Bombidae) in Southern England. Journal of 
     Animal Ecology 38: 149-170.
Owen EL, Bale JS, Hayward SAL (2013) Can winter-active bumblebees survive the cold? Assessing the cold tolerance of 
     Bombus terrestris audax and the effects of pollen feeding. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80061.          
     doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080061
Stelzer RJ, Chitka L, Carlton M, Ings TC (2010) Winter active bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) achieve high foraging 
     rates in urban Britain. PLoS ONE 5(3): e9559. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009559 

‘Tis the season…or is it?

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts

As I sit at my desk this morning, staring out the window, the weather is dire. There is slanting torrential rain and high winds, a typical December day perhaps.
Here in the UK, the seasons are changing and we are experiencing extremes of weather. For example, we have had wetter, milder winters in the southwest over the last couple of years along with increased flooding, particularly on the Somerset Levels. And then there was the very slow start to spring this year, with temperatures well below average in April. This was followed by a very hot end to the summer and warmer-than-average temperatures throughout autumn.
These changes to the seasons are linked to global climate change and are throwing the UK’s wildlife into disorder and affecting the fine balance of habitats and ecosystems. This is not a good scenario for biodiversity in the UK. Seasonal timing is off. When seasons start and end is shifting, and the length of the season itself is changing, making ‘growing seasons’ a more fluid concept. There is also increased risk for most gardeners of a ‘false spring’. Many plants and animals are changing their geographical ranges in order to adapt to these changes.
One of the most significant effects has been the disruption of lifecycle events and these are manifesting themselves in different ways. Bird migration, insect emergence, incidence of pests and diseases and flowering times are being thrown out of kilter.  
Researchers from the University of East Anglia recently analysed 37 years worth of data from the UK Butterfly MonitoringScheme (UKBMS) and found that extreme weather events were causing population crashes of butterflies. Uncommonly high rainfall events during the cocoon life stage affected 25% of UK butterfly species. And more than half of species were affected by extreme-heat during the overwintering life stage, possibly due to the increased incidence of disease or the effect of a ‘false spring’, causing butterflies to emerge too early only to be decimated by a return to cooler temperatures.
Warm temperatures are not all bad for butterflies though, as they will benefit from hot temperatures over the summer months when they are in their adult form and resources are plentiful. However, if populations crash more frequently than they expand, these extreme weather events could threaten UK butterflies.
The spider orchid (Ophrys sphegodes).
Photo: Jacinta Iluch Valero via Flickr [Creative Commons]

Changes in seasonal timing are also knocking the relationships between plants and animals out of sync, including the delicate balance between plants and pollinators. Thiscan be detrimental to the balance of entire ecosystems. An elegant study carried out by scientists from Kew and the University of East Anglia found that earlier springs brought about by rising temperatures are affecting the relationship between a rare spider orchid (Ophrys sphegodes) and its sole pollinator, the solitary miner bee (Andrena nigroaenea).   

This particular orchid has a flower that resembles and smells like a female miner bee and it uses this deceit in order to lure the male miner bee in. The male attempts to mate with the flower and by doing so, pollinates the flower. The plant has evolved to flower at the same time as the male bees emerge, but before the females do.
What the researchers discovered, by looking at the data set going back to 1848, was that rising temperatures are causing the relationship between orchid and bee to break down. Although rising temperatures cause both the bee to emerge and the orchid to flower earlier, the effect on the bees is much more pronounced. The male bees emerge much earlier and the orchids now flower as the female bees emerge. This means the males are not “pseudocopulating” with the flower because the real thing is already available and so the rare spider orchid is having fewer pollinations.
However bleak this picture may seem, plants and animals do have the ability to adjust to seasonal changes caused by climate change, it is just whether they can adapt quickly enough for these intricate ecological relationships to remain intact.
Helen Roberts is a trained landscape architect with a background in plant sciences. She is a probationary member of the Garden Media Guild and a regular contributor to the University of Bristol Botanic Garden blog.


References

Bristol is buzzing, how the city is helping pollinators

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts

There has been a substantial amount of press coverage recently on the plight of our pollinators. They are now less abundant and widespread than they were in the 1950s. A number of threats are responsible, including habitat loss, disease, extreme weather, climate change and pesticide use.
A swathe of flowers for pollinators bring a
lot of cheeriness on a grey autumn day on
Horfield Common, Bristol.
Photo credit: Nicola Temple
There is not one smoking gun among these threats, but rather the combination that has endangered some species in the UK. Loss of wild flower rich habitat (due to intensive agriculture, industrialisation and urbanisation) escalates the effect of disease, extreme weather, climate change and pesticide use. Without food or shelter, pollinators are more vulnerable.

 Whilst visiting the University of Bristol Botanic Garden this autumn, I noticed the abundance of pollinators busily visiting many different flowers from the orchid look-a-like flower of Impatiens tinctoria to the swathes of Rudbeckia sp. and Verbena bonariensis. This year saw the 6th year of the University of Bristol Botanic Garden hosting the Bee and Pollination Festival in September. The Community Ecology Group from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences was exhibiting and promoting their research as well as the exciting Get Bristol Buzzing initiative.
To find out more about pollinator research at the University, I met up with Dr Katherine Baldock, a Natural Environment Research Council Knowledge Exchange Fellow from the School of Biological Sciences and the Cabot Institute, to discuss the group’s work.
“Most people know that pollinators are important, but quite often don’t know what to do to help them, “ explained Katherine. “And this is where our research at the University comes into play”.
The aim of Katherine’s fellowship is to improve the value of the UK’s urban areas for pollinators by working with various stakeholders, such as city councils, conservation practitioners and the landscape industry. 

Translating science into solutions

NERC KE Fellow Dr Katherine Baldock.
Photo credit: Nicola Temple.

Up until 2014, Katherine worked on the Urban PollinatorsProject, which is researching insect pollinators and the plants they forage on in urban habitats.
Building upon research from this project and her current Fellowship, Katherine and her Bristol colleagues have contributed to the development of  a Greater Bristol Pollinator Strategy(2015-2020). The University research group has teamed up with Bristol CityCouncil, the Avon Wildlife Trust, Friends of the Earth Bristol, Buglife, SouthGloucestershire Council and the University of the West of England to implement this with the aim of protecting existing habitat and increasing pollinator habitat in the Greater Bristol area.
The group is also raising awareness of the importance of pollinators to a wide-ranging audience within the city and further afield. This is the first local pollinator strategy within the UK and follows closely in the wake of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ National Pollinator Strategy launched in 2014. It will help to promote aspects of the national strategy relevant to urban areas and hopefully set a precedent for the development of other local pollinator strategies throughout the UK.
The local pollinator strategy outlines actions that will help fulfill the strategy aims, including:
·         formation of a Local Pollinator Forum intended to share knowledge and best practice,
·         establishment of a joined-up approach to pollinator conservation by linking projects through the Get Bristol Buzzing initiative,
·         working with the public in local areas to explain actions they can take as individuals.
“Urban green spaces are important corridors for wildlife and help to provide linkages across the country”, explained Katherine. I envisaged a series of insect aerial motorways linking the whole of the UK, invisible threads connecting countryside, urban fringe and city centres.

The bee link-up

The Get Bristol Buzzing initiative is doing just that, as one of its strategic aims with the local pollinator strategy for 2016-2020, is to “Map pollinator habitat and identify target sites that allow habitat networks and stepping stones to be created to enable pollinators to move through urban areas”.
Katherine talked about how engaging the public at ground level was really important to Get Bristol Buzzing. The initiative is the pollinator component of My Wild City, a project whose vision is for people in Bristol to help transform spaces into a city-wide nature reserve. A number of interactive maps have been created that allow people to add what they have been doing in their area to help wildlife. The Get Buzzing initiative will feed into these maps.
Kath said, “The fact that you can add yourselves onto a map makes the Get Buzzing Initiative really visually appealing to people and much more personal.”

So, what can you do at home to help urban pollinators?

·         Plant for pollinators. Think about what plants you have in your garden. Could you change the planting or improve on it to make it more attractive to pollinators? Think about growing species that have nectar and pollen rich flowers and let your lawn grow longer to allow plants to flower.
·         Avoid pesticides. Most gardeners like their plants to remain pest free but avoid the temptation to use pesticides and accept the fact that you will lose some plants to pests. Instead try to encourage wildlife that will devour those pests or cultivate plants that will deter pests. 
·         Provide habitat. As pollinators need a home, you can always make your own nest boxes if you want to give your pollinating visitors a helping hand by drilling holes in a log or by bundling up lengths of hollow sticks such as bamboo. Visit the Botanic Garden’s bee hotel for inspiration!
“Setting aside a wild bit of garden can help pollinators by providing food, but provides nesting sites too”, remarked Katherine.

Additional information:

·         The Urban Pollinators Project was recently listed as one of the top 10 ground-breaking research projects in the Daily Telegraph. Read more.

·         Results from this research have recently been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B with more publications in press. A list of publications can be found here.

·         You can read more about Dr Katherine Baldock and the Urban Pollinators Project on page 7 of the 2015 edition of the Cabot Institute’s magazine.

Green roofs part II: lofty havens for wildlife

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Helen Roberts

The green roof industry has been aided over the past few years by an unlikely character. The black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros), a robin-sized bird of strange habits, has not only helped draw attention to the green roof industry, it has advanced development of green roof design.
The black redstart is unusual in its call, looks and ecological preferences. Its song starts with a hurried warble followed by a sound similar to that of scrunching of a bag of marbles. Males have a fiery red tail and the species has a propensity to hang out in industrial places.
Within the urban environment, brownfield sites can be rich in biodiversity and can be lost when they are developed. The story of the black redstart is inextricably linked to that of humans and urban centres. Black redstart population numbers have fluctuated in the urban environment due to human activity, and this is where the story of the black redstart has impacted the green roof industry in a positive way.
During and after the Second World War the black redstart population soared because bombsites provided a habitat that closely replicated their preferred habitat found on the scree slopes of the Alps. With redevelopment of areas of London, however, populations declined. Other cities also saw a drop in numbers as a result of development.

Laban Dance Centre in London.
Credit: rucativava,
CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Deptford Creek in London, an area that was earmarked for development, was important for its populations of black redstarts. The developers were pushed by wildlife groups to provide suitable habitat for the birds through the implementation of green roofs. This truly innovative solution to mitigate the decline in black restart populations led to the development of green roofs designed specifically for black redstarts. The rubbleroof of the Laban Dance Centre in London, installed in 2000, was the first of these in the UK. Rubble roofs, such as the Laban Dance Centre’s, replicate the features of a brownfield site and often incorporate materials from the original site. They have a mix of aggregate materials such as crushed brick and concrete, stones and boulders. The Laban Dance Centre roof also incorporates features such as logs and sand boxes in order to study nesting bees. It has been monitored since 2002 and a number of rare invertebrates have been recordedusing the habitat.
Numerous studies have shown that green roofs help support several Red Data book invertebrates and UK Biodiversity Action Plan species such as the brown-banded carder bee (Bombus humilis) and the nationally scarce Bombardier beetle (Brachinus crepitans) and that these green roof conditions can be replicated at other sites.

The right plants for the right roof

Incorporating the right plant species in to the design of a green roof is important for achieving biodiversity objectives. Simple sedum matting has been shown to have little ecological benefit for invertebrates, though they do provide sources of food for foraging bees in summer.
A truly exemplar green roof that is rich in plant species is the Moos Filtration Plant in Zurich, which cleans all the water for the inhabitants of Zurich. Yet, this green roof came about by chance as there was no original intention to create a green roof as part of the building design. When the filtration plant was built, the multiple roofs were covered in exposed waterproofing which subsequently caused the water below the roof deck to become polluted with bacteria due to high temperatures during the first summer. In order to moderate the temperature of the roofs, a 5cm sand and gravel layer was laid down followed by a layer 15-20cm deep of local meadow topsoil. This soil was teeming with flower and grass seed and it became a flourishing 30,000m2 meadow. Today these expansive roofs provide habitat for 175 species of plants, many of which are rare and endangered at a local and national level, including 14 species of orchid. The roofs now have special protection under Swiss nature conservation laws. 

Due to the pressures of habitat loss through urbanisation, it is becoming increasingly important for biodiversity to be retained. If land is lost at the ground level through building, then green roofs help provide stepping stones above for wildlife and can provide valuable habitat for flora and fauna that would not ever be found on a conventional roof. 

The science of nectar

Posted on by andy.winfield
Nectar is that sweet reward that flowering plants provide animals in exchange for their services as pollinators. It sounds incredibly simple on one level – much like rewarding a dog with a treat after it obeys a command. However, dig a little deeper and you realise that the reproductive success of the plant is dependent on very subtle yet complex characteristics of this substance – including when it’s produced and how much is produced, as well as its very composition.
Flowering plants will optimise the characteristics of their nectar in order to influence the foraging behaviours of pollinators and ultimately improve their reproductive fitness. The characteristics of the nectar not only determine which pollinators are attracted and when they come, but how frequently they visit and how long they stay. Suddenly one realises that there is an extremely complex system of regulatory mechanisms behind nectar secretion, which have not only influenced the evolution of flowering plants, but of the pollinators themselves.
Red admiral butterfly close up
Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) drinking nectar. 
Photo credit: Shelby Temple.

Nectar isn’t just about sugar

But before we get into the evolution, let’s first consider what nectar is, because as it turns out it’s not just about sugar – there are a number of things in nectar that are important for pollinators.
There is no denying, however, that carbohydrates – sugars such as glucose, sucrose and fructose – are usually the main constituent of nectar. Nectar will be anywhere between 7 to 70 % carbohydrates per water weight [1]. Other sugars might also be present in small amounts as well as sugar alcohols, such as sorbitol. It is these sugars that are the primary energy source for nectar consumers.
Amino acids and proteins are the next most abundant solute in nectar after the sugars. There are essential and non-essential amino acids, which are the building blocks for proteins and there are some non-protein amino acids that are constituents of enzymes and preservatives. It is thought that the amino acid and protein content of nectar may play a role in the taste preferences of insects [1], presumably related to their nutritional needs.
The water content of nectar may also be an important reward for pollinators, particularly in dry habitats.
Nectar also contains important ions, such as potassium, as well as antioxidants, trace amounts of lipids and some secondary compounds that seem to be associated with resistance to herbivory. 
Macro photography bee
A bee gathering its nectar reward in the Botanic Garden.
Photo credit: Shelby Temple.
Many species have also been shown to have antimicrobial compounds in their nectar, which prevents microbes from growing in the nectar as well as inhibiting florally transmitted diseases [2].
Terpinoids, which are the volatile organic compounds that give flowers their scent, also accumulate in the nectar.
The composition and consistency of nectar is extremely variable as it is tuned to the needs of the nectarivores (it’s a word…really). Flowers frequented by hummingbirds, for example, generally produce nectar in small amounts with high sugar content, while those frequented by more generalist passerine birds produce dilute nectar in large quantities. There has been some evidence that honeybees have a preference for warmer nectar that’s less viscous, regardless of the sugar concentration [3]. Bats also seem to prefer less viscous nectar, though will preferentially select more dilute nectar as the water content is extremely important for their rehydration.

Not all nectar is produced in the flower

Nectar is produced in glands known as nectaries. The glands are commonly found at the base of flowers, where they produce nectar as a reward for pollinators. However, there are also extrafloral nectaries located elsewhere on the plant, often on the leaves or petiole – the stalk that attaches the leaf blade to the stem. These nectaries provide a reward for mutualistic animals, almost exclusively ants, which benefit the plant. The ants help protect certain plant species by getting rid of the eggs of herbivorous insects deposited on the foliage and in return they feast on the nutrient rich nectar secreted by the extrafloral nectaries.
Extrafloral nectaries might be particularly critical at certain times in the plant’s lifecycle. For example, there are often nectaries located on the pedicelthat secrete nectar when the flowers are in bud. This attracts ants, which help protect the vulnerable flower buds from herbivorous insects and improves the reproductive success of the plant [4].
Unlike nectar produced in the flower, nectar produced in the extrafloral nectaries is far less variable as it is attracting mostly ants.

Darwin’s orchid: a classic example of the coevolution of flowering plants and their pollinators

Producing nectar may use up to 37% of a plant’s available energy [5]. This means that producing it comes with some cost to the plant, but these costs are clearly outweighed by the benefits of attracting pollinators that are far more efficient than relying on wind or water.
The evolution of flowering plants and their pollinators is the most frequently used example of coevolution – the physical characteristics of both flower and animal evolving to become more specialised. It was around 120 million years ago that honeybees developed longer tongues than their short-tongued ancestors in order to access the nectar reward flowers had started to produce. Their social structure became more complex and they became fuzzier and developed pollen baskets in order to carry protein-rich pollen, but also facilitating their role as pollinators.
Darwin’s orchid in bloom at the Botanic
Garden last year. Photo credit: Andy Winfield.
The flowers also changed shape in response to the preferences of their pollinators. The most classic of these examples is Darwin’s orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale) with a flower depth of 20 to 35 centimetres. The Madagascar orchid was named after Darwin because he proposed, based on its shape alone, that it had to be pollinated by an insect with a proboscis of lengths unheard of at the time. Forty years later, Morgan’s sphinx moth (Xanthopan morganii), was discovered with an unusually large proboscis…and it was indeed the pollinator of this orchid.
It is also thought that nectar chemistry itself has evolved in response to pollinators. As mentioned earlier, bats prefer nectar with low sugar concentrations and as a result bat pollinated plants from very diverse and distantly related taxonomic groups have evolved nectar with low sugar concentrations.

Deceit and robbing

Not all flowers use nectar – some have non-rewarding flowers. Around 30-40% of species within the orchid family do not produce rewarding nectar in their flowers [6] and instead use different methods to attract pollinators. Orchid flowers may look like another species that provides nectar or they may mimic shelters or brood-sites or even pollinators themselves in order to draw the attentions of individuals looking for a place to shelter or for a potential mate (such as in bumble-bee orchids).
Just as plants have found ways to get pollinated without producing nectar, some animals have found ways to get nectar yet avoid being pollinators. Some flower visitors – known as nectar robbers – will avoid the normal route to the nectar, usually avoiding the floral opening all together and pierce or bite the flower elsewhere to extract the nectar directly without coming into contact with any of the reproductive parts.
For many years it was thought that nectar robbers had a negative or neutral effect on the plants, but over the last couple of decades, research has shown they can also have a positive effect on the plant. Firstly, some nectar robbers do ultimately end up pollinating the plants. Secondly, their presence can modify the behaviours of the pollinators. For example, if flowers have less nectar (because the robbers have extracted some) then pollinators will visit more flowers, increase their foraging range, travel further distances and spend less time at each flower – all of which could improve cross pollination and increase genetic diversity. Maloof et al [7] provide a good review on this topic.  
There has been extensive research done on the characteristics of nectar and its relationship with pollinators. More recent research, however, is starting to unravel the mechanisms by which plants produce nectar – identifying some of the pathways sugars are transported within the plant and concentrated in their nectar [8]. There is still lots to learn.

Sources:

[1] Pacini E, Nicolson SW (2007). Chapter 1: Introduction, In: Nicolson SW, Nepi M, Pacini E (Eds.) Nectaries and Nectar. Springer: The Netherlands. ISBN: 978-1-4020-5936-0. (pages 8-10).
[2] Sasu MA, Wall KL, Stephenson AG (2010). Antimicrobial nectar inhibits a florally transmitted pathogen of a wild Cucurbita pepo (Cucurbitaceae). American Journal of Botany 97 (6): 1025-1030. (link)
[3] Nicolson SW, de Veer L, Köhler A, Pirk CWW. Honeybees prefer warmer nectar and less viscous nectar, regardless of sugar concentration (link).
[4] Bentley BL (1977). The protective function of ants visiting the extrafloral nectaries of Bixa orellana (Bixaceae). J. Ecol. 65 (1): 27.38.
[5] Pyke GH (1991). What does it cost a plant to produce floral nectar? Nature 350: 58-59. doi: 10.1038/350058a0
[6] Johnson SD, Hobbhahn N, Bytebier B (2013). Ancestral deceit and labile evolution of nectar production in the African orchid genus Disa. Biol. Lett. 9 (5): 20130500. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0500.
[8] Lin IW et al.(2014). Nectar secretion requires sucrose phosphate synthases and the sugar transporter SWEET9. Nature 508: 546-549. doi: 10.1038/nature13082

Bee and Pollination Festival Was Buzzing

Posted on by andy.winfield

Standing in the marquee at the Bee and Pollination Festival felt as close to being in a hive as one could imagine as it was absolutely buzzing with activity! As I weaved my way between the stalls I caught little pieces of conversations going on –“…beekeeping is not easy…first thing you need to do is take a course…”, “…which shutter speed should you use if you’re trying to get the wings of a bee in flight…” and “…have you heard of colony collapse disorder…” . My 5-year old was busy making a giant paper bee, while my husband spoke to the folks at the allotment display and I was admittedly taste testing some of the amazing local varieties of honey. There was something for everyone.

The University of Bristol Botanic Garden hosted the 4th annual Bee and Pollination Festival on the 7th and 8th of September, and as usual, people came out by the hundreds to celebrate bees and other pollinators that perform an essential ecosystem service. We do love our bees!
Nawbash helps a young bee enthusiast spot the queen.

Becoming a beekeeper

I happened to be looking at the display frame set up by the Bristol Beekeepers Association when a gentleman sidled up to Sue Jones, one of the beekeepers on hand to chat with the public, to ask about how one gets into beekeeping.
Sue quickly lays it on the line for him by saying “beekeeping is not easy”, but she quickly adds that some courses and hands-on experience are the first steps one needs to take to get into beekeeping. She’s not trying to discourage anyone from beekeeping, she, like anyone who has kept bees, knows that it is not something you enter into lightly.
Morgan (left) and Zippy (right) making a giant paper bee.

Nawbash Mohammed is another beekeeper on hand and so I begin to speak with her about being a beekeeper. The Bristol Beekeepers Association runs beginner beekeeping courses during the winter to cover the theory about beekeeping. The courses run over three Saturdays. Then, over the spring and summer, the Association offers practical education to cover all the hands-on aspects of beekeeping from opening a hive to handling the frames.

Nawbash has been a beekeeper since 1997, first in Iraq and then when she moved to Bristol in 2011. I ask her about beekeeping in Iraq and how it differs from keeping bees here in the UK. “The principles are all the same,” she says, “but it’s just very different weather and the honey has a very different taste”.  Nawbash describes for me the extremely unique taste of a premium honey in Iraq, made from the nectar collected from mountain flowers. I have to admit to her that this serene image of bees moving from flower to flower in mountain meadows is not the image that comes to mind when I think of Iraq – but I suppose it is the evening news that I have to thank for that. She admits there were additional challenges associated with being in a country fraught with war and political strife, but for the most part the challenges were the same facing beekeepers around the world – disease, mite infestation and colony collapse disorder.
Some of the honey on display and for sale at the festival.

Feeling thoroughly enlightened, I head over to buy a jar of Henleaze honey as I live in the neighbouring community – can’t get more local than that! “That’s my honey!” Nawbash laughs as she sees the jar I pick! Local, and I’ve met the beekeeper…brilliant!

The full experience

After speaking with Nawbash, I found my son and husband floating about the delicious cakes on display at the Bramble Farm table. Bramble Farm is a small landshare farm in Bristol. They keep sheep, pigs and turkeys and grow lots of veg, most of which goes to support the families that share in the upkeep in the farm, but any extra is sold at events such as this.
At the foot of the table lies a basket of some of the largest courgettes I’ve ever seen! However, it is some decadent chocolate cake that has caught the attention of my family! A little hint of fresh mint in the chocolate – delicious!
The apple press that kids took turns operating.

I stop briefly to look at the schedule of activities for the day as I don’t want to miss the demonstration hive talk. In doing so, I start to chat to a woman who is one of nearly one hundred volunteers that are there helping make the weekend’s events run smoothly. Jen Ellington is a committee member of Friends of the Garden as well as one of the Welcome Lodge Volunteers. She’s also opening up her garden next month as part of the Friends’ Open Gardens Programme – each year the Friends open their gardens, large or small, to raise funds for the Botanic Garden. Last year, Jen’s Gardyn raised over £400. Not bad considering her garden is only 15’ x 31’! However, don’t judge the garden by its size as it sounds as though there is plenty to see in this space. “We can’t go out anymore,” said Jen, “so we’re going up – I’m claiming my airspace!”  Within two minutes of listening to Jen’s description of her little garden haven, I’m hooked – so stay tuned to hear more as I will definitely be attending the open garden! The tour is Sunday, 6th October from 2-5pm and you don’t have to be a Friend of the Garden to attend. The address is 4 Wroxham Drive, Little Stoke.
People gather around the demonstration hive.
Next we join the crowd outside the tent that is watching some children work a small apple press to make fresh apple juice. My son obviously has to have a go…after all, we need to wash down the chocolate cake!
We quickly make our way over to the display hive where the beekeeper is taking apart the hive to show the crowd the combs and what it’s like to work a hive.  As the smoke from his smoker rises up through the crowd, the beekeeper explains that “everything runs on pheromones in the hive. As soon as I open the hive, alarm pheromones will be released saying there’s an intruder. The smoke masks those pheromones. So you don’t ever let your smoker go out” – sage advice to any budding beekeepers in the audience.

Always something new to see

Ethel standing proud in a temporary position for the festival.

Of course, we can’t leave without touring the rest of the garden and I must say that the warm days of summer have made things all rather lush.  As my son stares into the pond outside, looking at what seems to be hundreds of dragonfly larvae, I admire the grape vines laden with fruit.

I also notice that Ethel, the giant willow moa bird sculpture, is finished and is on display!
There is a potted orchard, which is new – apples, blueberries, pears, figs, olives, plums and other edible delights line one of the pathways – another reminder of why we should celebrate pollinators!
Down near the glasshouses, Writhlington School has an extraordinary orchid display and inside the glasshouses the lotus plants are in bloom.
A pollinator at work in the garden.

I’ve said it before, but there really is always something new to see in the garden with every season. This weekend marked my second Bee and Pollination Festival and the anniversary of this blog. Having written the blog for the Garden for a year now, I also get to have some insight into some of the plans for the garden and new displays that are on the horizon. I have to say that I have been impressed to no end at how quickly things seem to turn from idea to reality in this garden. Of course, the staff and volunteers that are there every day doing the grunt work behind it all, may feel differently, but for someone who is there every few weeks, things seem to move at an incredible pace. It’s been a wonderful year and I look forward to sharing more about the people, plants, events and research that goes on in this beautiful garden.

There’s plenty of room at the bee hotel

Posted on by andy.winfield
Andy gently pushes some moss out of the way to allow me to peer in. “See there,” he says, “they’ve moved some of this moss and built that wall – this is occupied”.  I’m staring into one of the rooms of the hotel trying not to invade the guests’ privacy, but also too curious to look away. The occupant seems to be out getting a meal or tucked away so as not to be seen by peeping eyes.
An occupied suite at the Botanic Garden’s Bee Hotel.
We are standing in the wildlife area of the Botanic Garden, behind a city skyline of wooden planks. We are staring intently into what might at first glance look like a very artistically and precisely stacked woodpile.  However, this is indeed the Garden’s bee hotel – the sign above it even says so – and there are guests!
The Garden had quite a bit of bamboo left over from the construction of the Chinese herb garden, as well as other materials from some coppicing they had done, and what better way to use them than to create habitat to encourage native bees.


There are over 250 species of native bees and about 90% of these are solitary

Bee-opolis – a city skyline of wooden planks also serves as
potential habitat for solitary bees
Though we often think of hives humming with tens of thousands of bees, most bees in the UK actually lead a solitary lifestyle. This means that a female bee will find or make a burrow where she will rear her larvae on her own.
The nest type and habitat requirement of each species is a little different. The British Science Association created a very informative videoin 2009 as part of their ‘Save Our Bees’ campaign, which talks about the habitat and nests for a variety of native bee species including leafcutter bees, masonry bees, tawny mining bees, cuckoo bumble bees  and carpenter bees.


There’s something for everyone at the bee hotel

The Bee Hotel
The bee hotel was constructed with many possible occupants in mind as well as their diverse habitat requirements.
On the ground floor of the hotel there is a section of large diameter plastic piping that has been sealed at both ends. Protruding out of the side of the pipe is a small piece of bamboo. This is ideal bumblebee habitat as the bamboo provides a narrow entrance but then opens up into the larger pipe.
There are 24 species of bumblebee in the UK, but only eight of these are common. Bumblebees build communal combs either underground or in long tussocky grass, with narrow entrances to discourage curious predators. This ground floor suite of the hotel fits the bill nicely.
As you move up from the ground floor you notice that a diversity of materials have been used including bricks and branches as well as bamboo.
Up closer to the penthouse suites it is mainly bamboo sections that have been stacked and the ends stuffed with moss. The one we are looking at has clear evidence that it has been occupied. Some of the moss has been moved aside and a mud wall has been constructed save for a small hole, about a ¼” in diameter, that is clearly the entrance.
The entire hotel is kept dry with a living roof with semperviren succulents and a skillfully woven willow ‘Bee Hotel’ sign to top it off.
Andy is clear that this is the Garden’s first foray into bee hotels, but this evidence that it’s being used within the first year of construction is encouraging. He is hoping that the diversity of habitats created within the hotel will attract lots of different insects, not just bees.


‘Hopefully it will encourage people to do something in their own garden’

There is global concern about the welfare of bee populations as loss of habitat and food sources, disease, and widespread use of toxic chemicals take their toll on these insects. The loss of bees has significant implications for food security as well as healthy ecosystems in general.
The staff at the Botanic Garden hope the Bee Hotel not only attracts insects, but also inspires visitors to the garden to construct habitats at home and help build resilience for our native pollinators.


Bee habitat doesn’t need to be complicated

Bamboo or branches cut into 10 inch lengths or so with 1/8-3/8” holes drilled 3-8 inches deep are ideal habitat for solitary bees. Bundle a group of these lengths together and hang them in a dry place and you’re done – simple. You can even use dried stems of raspberries, brambles and elder or other similarly sized hollow cane-like vegetation bundled together. 
The key, however, is that the material needs to be dry and it needs to stay dry. It is the wet rather than the cold of winter that can threaten these animals, so keeping the habitat dry is essential.

This is also a great project to do with children – from collecting the materials to maybe even some supervised drilling and then finally watching to see who moves in. I’m looking forward to building some habitats with my son…as well as watching the bee hotel at the Garden over the next year or so to see who has come to stay!

Photos of pollinators at work in the garden this week: