Bees,lack of

[nick...]

Anyone else noticed hardly any bees about this year.last year my ab8/9/15 were full of em but hardly seen any this year.
nick...

 

[Boysground]

Spoke to my bee man yesterday. He had been expecting a poor year but so far production is really good

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[teslacoils]

No masonry bees or ground nesting bees at all here. Very few insects in my num3 yet, apart from aphids and crane flies.

 

[Vader]

Anyone else noticed hardly any bees about this year.last year my ab8/9/15 were full of em but hardly seen any this year.
nick...

Honey bees probably behind with breeding due to weather and lack of food.
Lots of bee keepers saying had to feed the bees as with few rape crops about, lack of early food.

Ban chems to help bees and starve them to death...

 

[DrWazzock]

Honey bees probably behind with breeding due to weather and lack of food.
Lots of bee keepers saying had to feed the bees as with few rape crops about, lack of early food.

Ban chems to help bees and starve them to death...

That’s what I was told by a beekeeper recently. They didn’t notice ill effects of neonics but last year he lost all six hives due to scarcity of early flowering plants …. like OSR, and weather and varroa mites.

 

[ladycrofter]

I have bees and it has been desperate since last autumn. They haven't had a chance. People see a sunny day or two and think all as well but I could count on both hands maybe? the number of good flying days we've had since last October.
I only recently was able to stop putting syrup on some of the hives, they don't even have their own stores built up yet. They're eating it as fast as they make it just to keep themselves alive.

 

[deleted user 837354]

No linseed, no peas/beans, no OSR... err I think I can see a problem here.

 

[steveR]

I have bees and it has been desperate since last autumn. They haven't had a chance. People see a sunny day or two and think all as well but I could count on both hands maybe? the number of good flying days we've had since last October.
I only recently was able to stop putting syrup on some of the hives, they don't even have their own stores built up yet. They're eating it as fast as they make it just to keep themselves alive.

Neighbour said the same. Pleased to see my pollen and nectar areas planted sequentially over the spring/summer to give a run of flowering plants...

 

[steveR]

No masonry bees or ground nesting bees at all here. Very few insects in my num3 yet, apart from aphids and crane flies.

Just so damned wet for them. Had quite a few working early, but probably because they were so hungry.

Barn owls have suffered, small, lightweight broods as the mammals were struggling to survive. I am sure they are not alone, although teh swallows have had a good hatch.

 

[steveR]

No linseed, no peas/beans, no OSR... err I think I can see a problem here.

Linseed not an issue surely? It's wind pollinated?

 

[serf]

Ban chems to help bees and starve them to death

You know it makes sense ....

 

[serf]

Normally budleigha is full of bees in full flower like now but there's none ,
Seen one butterfly other day

 

[Vader]

That’s what I was told by a beekeeper recently. They didn’t notice ill effects of neonics but last year he lost all six hives due to scarcity of early flowering plants …. like OSR, and weather and varroa mites.

Sure was a study that showed uk, Czech and Germany.
All used neonics but germanys bees were still quite healthy.
Uk and Czech had big varroa problem.
Uk imports queen bees from Czech...

 

[deleted user 837354]

Linseed not an issue surely? It's wind pollinated?

I don't think it's an issue (surely many crops are wind pollinated to some degree) but you'd think those pretty flowers would benefit flying insects to some degree?

 

[steveR]

I don't think it's an issue (surely many crops are wind pollinated to some degree) but you'd think those pretty flowers would benefit flying insects to some degree?

I was always told it was wind.....

 

[Treecreeper]

We had three swarms at the end of June, they were fed syrup for a month, only now self sustaining. The main hives had a bit of supplementary feeding but it's taken till now for them to show a degree of surplus, even if the weather stays decent it will still be a below average year. As @ladycrofter said good flying days are few and far between, low temps also mean that the nectar flow is low.

 

[GOODYSMATE]

We have a row of lavender down the edge of are driveway and its got a lot of bees around it

 

[essexpete]

I was always told it was wind.....

Were you talking at cross purposes?

 

[essexpete]

I feel but have no hard fact based evidence, that all insects are down in numbers.

 

[Villein]

Decline in insect populations - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org