Written by Charlotte Cunningham
Farmers could help threatened bee species and improve crop yields with a new wildflower seed mixes according to a study by the University of Sussex, supported by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. Charlotte Cunningham reports. Building on recent studies showing the importance of wild bees, the project – led by PhD student, Rachel Nichols – teamed up with Emorsgate Seeds to identity which wildflowers attracted certain bee species in the plots where the wildflower seed is produced. This provided the bees with a super abundance of flowers and so was a very rigorous test of their preferences. The findings of this study also suggest that the current mixes recommended by Defra might not be as effective as they could be. In fact, the existing nectar flower mix and the flower-rich margin mixes suggested by Defra each contain only one each of the 18 species found to be most attractive in the study. With government policy moving towards a ‘payment by results’ approach, it’s important that the options available to farmers are as effective as possible, said the GWCT. As wild bees are often better pollinators than honeybees, the study focused on how best to attract species likely to transfer…
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