How to get busy
and save our bees

Busy helpers

There are around 70 crops in the UK that depend on and benefit from bee pollination. When pollinated by these furry flyers they generally produce bigger and healthier foods. Sadly a third of the UK bees have disappeared in the last ten years due to climate change, urban development, agricultural chemicals, and intense farming. A quarter of European bee species are at risk of extinction!
Honey bees used to do 70% of the UK’s pollination but are now only capable of supplying 34% of our pollination needs.
If wild bees disappeared it is estimated tat it would cost UK farmers £1.8 billion a year to pollinate their crops manually, although the amount of pollination required to achieve the same productivity as our hard-working bees may not even be possible.
We need to do as much as we can to protect wildflower meadows, hedgegrows, and ponds.

Bee difference

There are only seven species of honey bees, which produce large amounts of honey. Other bees can make honey but only in small quantities. Bumble bees are the big, fat, fluffy velvet-looking bees while, surprisingly our main honey producers, the honey bee is the smaller, thinner species that we often mistake for wasps. They pollinate around three-quarters of all the fruit, vegetables and nuts that we eat.

Beekeepers

Part of a beekeeper’s job is to help encourage their bees to make more honey than they need so that we can enjoy the extra honey they produce without taking their important food. A healthy hive can produce a lot more honey than they need when beekeepers provide the extra space to store it. Create a buzz in you garden and encourage bees by planting pollinator friendly plants and setting up some bee homes. Ensure you have a water in your garden such as a birdbath containing a few submerged rocks to enable bees to reach the water.

It can take a thousand flowers to fill a honey bee’s stomach. The nectar is full of vitamins, nutrients and oils. It isn’t eaten by the bees but rather contained in their second stomach known as their ‘honey stomach’. These all-female busy worker bees return to their hive once their honey stomach is full.
Of course, the nectar the bees collect doesn’t look anything like the sticky honey we know and love. The sugary watery nectar starts to get broken down by the bee’s digestive enzymes in its stomach. When they reach the hive they enlist the help of their friends and regurgitate the contents of their honey stomach to another bee whose enzymes take up the work of breaking down and thickening the nectar. This goes on through a chain of bees passing the nectar from stomach to mouth until the nectar becomes closer to the consistency of honey.
The last bee will regurgitate the now much more sticky honey into a cell in the hive, a hexagonal wax storage area to keep the honey. These clever bees then remove the last of any water in the honey by flapping their wings to create airflow around the cell and so drying the liquid until it is the sticky honey we are familiar with.
Cleverly, the cell is then sealed off by a bee with beeswax which keeps it safe until it is needed within the hive. The beeswax is also produced by the bees themselves and is secreted from special glands on the undersides of their abdomens. From those first tiny drops of nectar in the flower to the finished product stored in the beehive, it is untouched by human hands.

Play your part

As you can see bees, the process of them making honey and the benefits of both bees and honey are pretty incredible. Bees are to be loved and encouraged.
Nobody wants a bees nest right outside their home, but solitary bees buzzing around are a welcome addition to a summer garden. You can help our pollinators (both bumble and honey bees and insects) by taking a look at our Friends’ cute nesting tubes and shelters that fit perfectly into your garden and a backdrop of nature. Place them in a sheltered sunny position, preferably catching some early morning sun.

Amazing work

By planting pollinating flowers in your garden you can help our buzzing friends. These flowers will create nectar specifically to attract pollinators like the honeybee. They ensure that pollinators will visit and help to spread their pollen to other flowers while they are busy getting the nectar. When you spot bees hovering over the garden flowers they are actually slurping out drops of nectar with their long tongues.

Did you know that local honey... ?

Consuming a couple of tablespoons or more of local honey has long been touted as a hay-fever and allergy remedy. A natural sweetener, unprocessed honey contains approximately 40% fructose and 30% glucose, along with some water, pollen and trace minerals, including potassium, calcium and magnesium. Refined sugar by comparison is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. This means honey has a lower glycemic value than sugar and its effects on blood sugar levels will be slower.
Honey helps reduce constipation, bloating and gas, thanks to it being a mild laxative. Honey is also rich in probiotics or “friendly” bacteria such as bifido bacteria and lactobacilli, which aid in digestion and promotes the health of the immune system.
Honey is a rich source of flavonoids which have antibacterial, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties. It is also known to minimise scar formation on non-serious wounds, ulcers and burns. Mix some with your tea when you have a cold for a natural boost.