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I'm the Man ......uka

The punk era produced some of my favourite bands such as The Pixies,The Clash, the Ramones, Devo and the Undertones.
As well as the usual punk bands the era produced other groups/singers such as Ian Dury, John Cooper Clarke, Graham Parker and Joe Jackson that provided an alternative to the horrors of West Coast country music [the Eagles & Crosby Stills and Nash] and pompous UK rubbish such as Genesis; Emmerson Lake and Palmer and Pink Floyd,

Joe Jackson was an irritable man not helped by his unfortunate looks and poor dress sense. His finest moment was the album 'I'm the man' which includes his minor hit 'Is she really going out with him', which contains the wonderful opening line of

Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street
From my window I'm staring while my coffee grows cold

and

They say that looks don't count for much
If so, there goes your proof

 The video is here

The title track is one of my favourite tracks of all time as its about one of my favourite subjects, how stupid, gullible and vain we are as a species. The video is here
His specific targets are very much of the era of the song although if the song was re-written for now there would be rich pickings to choose from.
Mobile phones, patio heaters, emojis, Twitter and Facebook, Minions, GoPro, any Apple product, hipsters, selfie sticks, reality television, tattoos could all get a mention.
However I suspect most of the song would be taken up with Manuka.

A report about Manuka produced by FERA has just been published and starts with

With previous evidence reporting frequent mislabelling about Manuka Honey, revealing only one of the seven samples tested by a laboratory was found to have the requisite levels of the active ingredient, shows the challenge is not subsiding anytime soon.

and goes on

we tested five Manuka honeys available to buy in the UK for MGO and the results showed all the honeys we tested were legitimate Manuka, but the levels of MGO were surprisingly varied with some of the levels being barely detected.  As there is no UK definition for Manuka Honey and only a presence of Manuka is necessary to call Manuka Honey authentic under the interim New Zealand guidelines, it’s important that the consumer is aware they might not be buying a pure product

 MGO is methylgloxal which is responsible for Manuka's unique and very specific properties in a highly processed form [not from Waitrose] in hospital procedures. Its other alleged properties are largely unproven.

Why people buy this stuff is beyond me, its expensive and doesn't give any benefit the buyer can quantify or detect. It must be something else.

So for anyone about to pay over £30 for a jar of manuka Honey, to quote someone also from the punk era ' Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?'

Leaf cutter Bees

Things seemed to be quietening down in the bumble bee and solitary bee nests so I haven't paid them much attention but today when I had a look at the solitary bee nest, I find some leaf cutter bees have decided to lay some eggs.

They are the green tubes, one starts after a few Red mason bee cocoons.
The queen was still in one of the cavities.

Leaf cutter bees look very much like honey bees except for the patch of orange fur on their underside.
Like lots of solitary bees they are very effective pollinators and its estimated one leaf cutter can do the pollination work of 20 honey bees.
They were introduced into America and Australia because of the pollinator abilities.

They cut circular bits of leaf [they particuilarly like roses] and line their nest with them, gluing them together with saliva in order to build the 'cells' in which their larvae live. The larvae hatch and develop, pupating in autumn and hibernating over winter.
Each cell has some pollen and nectar [not honey!] for the larvae.

I should never have doubted Homer.
Inevitably trying was the first step towards failure and none of the eggs were developed into queen cells. Why? Don't know.
None of the eggs from the cassette had any royal jelly which I expected so did I take them out too soon? Don't know.
I will have a go through the stuff I've collected about raising queens to try and see what I did wrong.
Will I have another go? Next year

However something happened recently that makes me think I will have a go at something else.
Honey bees have been around for a very long time and originally evolved from wasps. As flowering plants developed, some wasps thought this nectar stuff wasn't too bad and so developed into honey bees.
Being resourceful creatures they evolved and adapted to their environment and spread from Africa throughout every continent except Antarctica.
The British bee was very black in colour and evolved to fit our climate but they were virtually wiped in the 1920's by a respiratory disease imported from Italy called the Isle of Wight disease which, by an amazing coincidence, started in the Isle of Wight.
To replace the native British Black Bee, bees were imported from Europe - bees, not ideally suited to our climate.
The BBB was pretty much better at everything than the European bees - better foraging, more honey production, better at surviving winter etc.
However there are still a few outposts of BBB and its possible to buy BBB queens.

I have been thinking of getting one but it seems to me a problem would be next year when her colony swarms. The colony will produce a new BBB queen that then leaves the hive to mate but she will mate with the local non BBB drones so when she returns she will produce hybrid bees with a mixture of BBB and non BBB genes and so not be pure BBB's.
The old pure BBB queen would leave the hive and its unlikely I would be able to catch the swarm.

Does this matter? I think so. For some reason having native English bees seems worth having a go at.
One way round this would be to be right on top of her swarming instinct and during May and June regularly check the colony and as soon as the first queen cells appear, move them into a nuc box with some brood and honey frames and let them produce a new queen. She then leaves the nuc and mates with non BBB drones so producing hybrid bees but the original pure BBB queen is till in the original hive.
Even if I manage this I would need to replace her after 3 years anyway.

I had wondered if it were possible to set up some sort of 'Jurassic Park' in a remote area where I could set up a few BBB hives. Drones collect in what are called Drone Collection Areas which can be up to 40m above the ground and be up to 200 m in diameter. and queens will fly up to 3 miles to these areas to mate. However the queen needs to go to several DCA's to mate in order to in order to achieve the genetic diversity the colony needs.

I've decided to give it a go and she is due to arrive at any time.

Repairing a cock up

Bees like a self contained environment and when confronted with space in the hive they do one of two things.
If the gap is small they close it up with Propolis or if the gap is large they fill it up with comb.
When I collected the Little Staughton swarm I put a few drawn frames in the nuc box and added the bees. As there was nothing much I needed to do I left it.

However, when I checked it I found I had left too much space between one of the frames and the side of the nuc and the bees had filled it with comb. Despite what I said in an earlier blog, the nuc is now very full and I think I will have to transfer it to a full hive albeit I will probably have to pad it out while they fill it up.

I don't want to leave the 'filler' bit of comb behind so I need to transfer it somehow.
The same thing happened to me a few years ago and I cut the comb out of the nuc and tied it into an empty frame by threading lengths of rafia throufgh it and tying it off. The comb was very soft and it was very messy but it worked.
This time I thought I would do it a little differently by pinning the rafia to an empty frame so I can just slide the comb onto the frame and then tie it in with some more rafia.

This time we're ready for you.

The long time reader of this blog will know last year I lost two hives to wasps, including the sadly missed queen Barbie who was the star turn when I took her to markets in the observation hive.
This year will be different.
Hopefully.

Wasp traps

These are easy to make out of Sprite bottles.
You take a 2ltr bottle and cut the top off which is pushed into the bottle and a loop of string is made to hang it up.

You then put something sweet in the bottom of the bottle such as jam or rotting fruit. Add water and a little washing up liquid to break the surface tension of the water making it easier for the wasps to drown
The wasps find their way into the bottle but cannot get out again as they fly up the sides of the bottle.
I will put several of these up at the perimeter of both apiaries. There is a school of thought that says that although they catch wasps they also attract them and those that don't get caught let the main nest know where the bees are, so I will have them away from the hives.

Hive entrances

It is one of the jobs of young worker bees to protect the hive from possible invaders such as wasps and they stand guard along the entrance to the hive.
If the hive is under attack the size of the entrance can be reduced using a block of wood.
Normally these reducers look like this

If things get very silly some reducers can be rotated so the hive has a much smaller entrance, barely two bees wide.

Some of my hive entrances had this option and they worked well as can bee seen here so I will be adjusting all the blocks so I'm ready when the wasps arrive.

Posh [and expensive] wasp traps.

Once it was too late last year I had a look at these things.

They look similar to the Sprite traps but apparently they are made by some scientist bloke and only catch the scout wasps  or something like that. If you're interested their video is here.
I've ordered one for each apiary.

This is a bit mad but .........

The press endlessly refers to the apocalyptic effects of bees dying and how dependant we are on them for our food.
Normally they go on about the fruits we would lose but I have never seen a mention of a critical staple food  that forms the cornerstone of British society - tea.

Yorkshire based Taylors of Harrogate understands the importance of bees in delivering the flavours found in fruit and herbal teas, so commissioned research to look into our’ awareness of the effect the declining bee population will have on our favourite fruit and vegetables.


They have also produced a slightly bonkers Bee Hotel.

Its here

Bee update and other stuff

For both apiaries this will be a transitional year. There have been new Nuc colonies introduced, hives re queened and swarms introduced.
This will mean there won't be too much honey produced, or to be more precise not too much honey produced that is sold at Farmer's Markets. This isn't a problem as honey production for sale is of very little interest to me. What is important is that the bees are healthy and produce enough honey stores to get them through the winter and this will be my focus for the remainder of the season.
Saying that I do have enough mature colonies that should be able to provide enough honey for the very few markets I still do.

Ravensden

The two swarms seem to be doing well and producing lots of brood. Producing new comb is expensive in honey terms for the bees and they consume 6 ounces of honey to produce one ounce of wax. Therefore they are both being fed regularly.
With both swarms I have managed to do something stupid.
For the Little Staughton swarm I left too much space on one side of the hive and as bees do they have filled this up with a slab of comb. At some point I will try to cut this out and then put it in a proper brood frame.
For the Park Bench swarm I inspected it a few weeks ago and saw the queen. I caught it but as I was about to mark her she flew away.
I spent the next two weeks worrying about whether or not she would return but when I checked there was open brood which means she is back.
Its unlikely they will be transferred to their main hives until next year.

The two new queens were left alone for two weeks to let them settle in and when I checked them there was plenty of brood in both hives. One queen came out and said hello.

The new Nuc is doing very well and expanding rapidly.

One of the hives had gone queenless but there were numerous big queen cells so I decided to leave them to it and produce another queen. As I was looking at the frames a queen emerged from her cell right in front of me. Instinctively I picked her up and put her in the marking cage I always have with me. I marked her with a small dob of paint and put her back. Whether I should have done this as she might be too young, I don't know. I will wait a few weeks to see what happens.

I had ordered a Nuc for my Top Bar Hive but for various reasons this didn't happen so will be left for next year.
The other hives are doing well.

Scald End

Things have not gone well here.
The three hives that would have been re queened next year all went queenless. However with the refund from my Top Bar Hive nuc I got some queens and they have been installed.
The Apple Tree swarm is doing very well but the Train Station swarm less so.
The Phil hives [the ones I got from my friend who became anaphylactic] are now on proper hive stands. Both the frames have been propolised tight and they will be a job for next week. They seem Ok with lots of bee activity.

Bumblebees

Still happily flying around at the end of my garden;

Solitary Bees

Some of the eggs have passed through their larval stage and are now chrysalis's [??].

Starvation warning

One of the features of modern monoculture farming is that when a crop is harvested often this means there is nothing for the bees to forage on.
The Oil Seed Rape ended a month ago and there's little, if anything, for the bees to forage on.
Recently the National Bee Unit issued the following email:-

Beekeepers may wish to monitor their colony food levels closely over the next month as many colonies, particularly those which are strong and had their spring honey crop removed, will be at risk of starving. In some parts of the UK, the weather is still cold and foraging opportunities for large colonies are few and far between.

  I am feeding them with a syrup solution.

Varroa

I have done something about varroa on my website here
In it I said

Australia is thought to be the only country that is Varroa free but as its in New Zealand, so surely its just a matter of time

Well you've guessed it, varroa has been discovered in Queensland.
Admittedly its only a few mites and they are a less destructive strain of the mite we have in Europe but its varroa.
Australia authorities have said they will quarantine the area to prevent the spread of the mite.
Which is exactly what the Italian authorities said they would do to prevent the spead of Small Hive Beetle. They failed.

Glyphosphate

In a victory for Monsanto's undoubted bribery and weapons grade lobbying, glyphophate, the main constituent of Roundup, has been relicenced for another 18 months.

Neonicitinoids

Defra have just turned down the NFU's latest application for an emergency use of neonicitinoid seeds.
Perhaps the NFU should have used Monsanto's lobbyists.

The road to failiure - Step 1

I didn't manage to find the queen at the beginning of the week. The weather was not good and it started to rain. I only managed to get a quick look through the hive but she wasn't around so had to try agin.
My second attempt didn't start well as I went through all the frames and couldn't see her.I had another go and this time she appeared and I caught her using a new queen catcher I had bought.
I normally use a bulldog clip type of catcher

It has slots in that allow the worker bees to escape but keep the queen inside. You leave it for a few minutes for the workers to get out leaving the queen behind.
If you are marking the queen you then transfer her to a marking tube.

You push the plunger up the tube [it doesn't go all the way to the top so you can't squash her] to keep her still and then you use a marker pen through the mesh.
However last time I did this, the queen flew away as she was going into the tube so this time I decided to use a new type of catcher which combines the catcher and marker.

It works like this

It worked better than I expected and she was transferred to the cassette and queen excluder added to lock her in.
She was then left to lay her eggs in the cassette for no more than two days.

Two days later she was released back into the hive and the cassette bought home.
Last time I used this method there weren't too may eggs but this time virtually all of the brown cups had an egg in,

Honey bee eggs measure 1 to 1.5 mm long, about half the size of a single grain of rice.
The cups were then transferred to the rearing frame which was put in a hive in Ravensden for the bees to work on.

There are 20 cups in the frame but I have no idea how many queens I will produce. I will be happy with just a couple,

Sleeping bees

I knew honey bees didn't hibernate but went into a torpid state where the workers slowly moved around the queen keeping her warm and taking it in turns to be on the outside of the cluster.
Because of this and the 'busy bee' ethic bees are supposed to have,  I sort of assumed they didn't sleep either.
I read somewhere that bees rest and a video showing the difference in activity rates during the day and night is here.

However it seems they do sleep after all and this was first suggested by Jurgen Taulz in his 2007 book 'Buzz about the bees' [awful title].
His work has been taken on and a recent article about it is here.

A Ghost in the Making

A rather nice video about a bumble bee here

The first step towards failiure

The first stage in queen rearing is to collect or prepare the larvae that will become the queens.
The traditional way of doing this is to take a frame of open brood from the hive.

You then have to select larvae that are the right age, under 3 days.
You then use something called a grafting tool to extract the larvae from the comb with the little puddle of royal jelly the larvae has around it.

The tool has a spring mechanism which pushes the larvae off the tool into something called a queen cup.
The chances of me doing this sucessfully is in the region of less than the square root of f....a....

So the way I intend doing is is to firstly use what is known as a Nicot cage. This is a plastic cassette thats mounted in a brood frame.
The front and back have removable plastic covers and inside the cassette are a series of holes.

The idea is that the queen is put in the front of the cassette and the lid put on, trapping her inside. She then lays her eggs in the holes in the cassette that mimic the normal comb.
What she doesn't know is on the reverse of the cassette the holes end in brown plastic cups which act as a receptacle for the eggs which are taken away for the next stage. At which point she is released back into the hive.

The front lid has slots in it like the queen excluder allowing the worker bees to come and go but not allow the queen to get out of the cassette.

I have decided to use one of the new queens that came in one of the nucs as she is marked so easily found [hopefully] and also she is young and seems to be a good layer.
But before this can all happen the cassette has to be cleaned by the bees so the queen accepts it and is happy to lay in it. Its put in the hive with the front cover removed for a few days for them to clean.
The cassette was put in the hive today [23rd June] and weather permitting, I will get the queen into it on Sunday or Monday.

The end of a career

I've never met Jill Odom and probably never will.. She is the associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a company in Alabama. She graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism.

I'm afraid to say Jill's career in journalism is now at an end as she has written an article that directly contradicts all the requirements of the American Wildlife Reporting Regulations [Miscellaneous Provisions].
Jill's crime is that she has written article about honey bee swarms that:-
 - is factual rational, and informative,
 - contains complete sentences
 - has a photo relevant to the article.
As if this isn't bad enough the article utterly fails to contain the words 'buzzing', 'terror', 'panic','angry', 'fear'', biblical', 'apocalyptic', or 'supermarket'  in clear contravention of the Regulations.
There is also not a single simple minded bee pun.

Considering the article comes from America, another shocking breach of the Regulations is that Killer Bees are mentioned and the article gives clear and useful information about the differences between them and European bees.
No attempt is made to whip up a bit of hysteria by claiming they are sweeping the country looking for small children, puppies and kittens to kill or any attempt made to needlessly scare the crap out of the reader.
Shame on you Jill.
The article is here.
I wish Jill well in  whatever career path she chooses to take.

For those who prefer a more red of tooth and claw approach there is always the ill informed, scare mongering rubbish produced by the Mail, Mirror or Express, the favourite publications of people who own cat litter trays or bird cages.
However not lets forget the the Daily Star who recently have proved themselves capable of award winning crap untainted by reality or evidence.
On the 23rd May they produced this.  Numerous references to 'killer bees', 'like something out of a horror movie', 'deadly stinging bees', 'mad bees'' ensures full compliance with The Regulations.
Also in a stunning display of stupidity it attempts to ramp up the terror levels even more as it goes on about 'killer hornets' and 'toxic caterpillars'.
Obviously pleased with themselves two days later they managed to find space in their production of sport, 'celebs', soft porn and bigotry to  produce this
More killer bee nonsense and as anyone who read Jill's article would know, an American phenomenom. UK swarming bees are not 'killer' they are 'calmer'

The 23rd May article is a clear front runner for the Bee Awful 2016 award

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

Queens and queen rearing

My attitude towards queen rearing can best be summed up by a couple of Homer Simpson quotes

and

I did attend a course on queen rearing a few years ago which convinced me that grafting [collecting eggs with a tiny spoon] was not for me. I therefore bought a load of kit, tried and failed.

However in those days things were a bit different as I had only a few colonies.
Now I have a lot more and three of the queens at Scald End have been there for a couple of years and conventional wisdom says queens need to be replaced after three years or else they will become 'drone layers' i.e. they only produce drones [male bees].

Also a couple of colonies at Ravensden have become queen less and not having anything suitable to hand and wanting to do something while the hives had enough bees, I bought a couple of queens.
A single queen normally costs about £40 and can be bought over the Internet.
The bees are packed in a small plastic cage with ventilation slots and she comes with about 6 retinue bees who take care of her. There is also a plug of sugar fondant in the cage to keep them going.
Clip here
Paul my postman was intrigued to deliver a pacel with 'With care live bees' on it.
-

I took the cages out of the package and took a couple of photos. Then I heard something I had never heard before - a queen piping. This is a sound a queen makes when she's looking for a fight with another queen and she could probably smell the other queen. Unfortunately by the time I got my camera to record it she stopped.
However a video of a queen piping is here,

The process of introducing the new queen to the hive is quite straightforward [famous last words].
The new queen has a different smell to the old queen and if she was just dropped in she would probably be killed so she has to be introduced gradually.
A frame from either end of the hive is removed to make space for the cage which is put in between two frames in the middle of the hive. It has a loop in the top so its suspended by putting a nail through the loop and putting the nail across a couple of frames.

The cage is left for 4 days and a feeder added to the hive. Hopefully she and her retinue will have chewed their way through the fondant into the hive.
More later.............

This all has persuaded me to have another go at queen rearing.
As with all things related to beekeeping there are a vast array of methods, each with its fervent devotees who claim all the other methods are rubbish.
The method I will use starts with a plastic cassette set into a brood frame. This is put in the hive for the bees to clean it up and make it small nice. This takes a couple of days.

More later............

Bumblebees and Swarms - update

Bumblebees
The Bird Box bumblebees are now hatching and there are loads of bees coming and going from the box.
As for the Ice Cream Tub bees ,when I put them in the spare bird box I thought I ought to put some bedding/nesting material in there. It dawned on me that my posh Bumblebee box would be where I should put them so I retrieved it from the nettles, put the eggs in it and put it next to the Bird Box Bumblebees.
Both appear to be doing well as can be seen from the video here.
The Ice cream Tub bees are much younger and seem to be hatching now.
I'm no expert on bumblebee identification and they could be:-

Garden Bumblebee

Buff tailed Bumblbee

White tailed bumblebee

Little Staughton Swarm.
I've been putting syrup in their feeder from time to time and they are taking it down.
Stupidly when I put the bees in the nuc I left a space at one side of the nuc and they have built comb to fill it up. It will have to be left there for now but I might get a little honey out of it when I transfer the frames to the main hive.

Stevington Manor Swarm
Same for this one. Syrup has been added and taken.

At the beginning of the week I got another call from Stevington Manor. There was another swarm in an apple tree in a house across the road.
I turned up to find a sizeable swarm very high up in a tree, out of reach of my step ladder.
Fortunately The Manor had a much bigger ladder but even then it was very difficult to get to.

I couldn't get loppers near enough to cut the branch so just held the skep out in front of me, shook the branch and hoped for the best.
I slowly descended and put the skep on a blanket on the lawn and watched.
After a little while a clump of bees started to form back up in the tree so it was back up the ladder with the skep, shake the branch, get down again.
This seemed to be sucessful and after a while the number of flying bees reduced and there were numerous bees out side the skep fanning.

Bees communicate by pheromones and when a swarm has found a suitable new home there are bees at the entrance secreting a pheromone that tells the other bees 'this is our new home, come inside its lovely'. They flap their wings to disperse the pheromone and other bees can smell it and know where to go.
The following morning I went back collected it up and took it to Scald End. The next day it was transferred to a nuc with a feeder on top and left to get on with it.

When I put the bees in the nuc I didn't have enough frames to fill it up.
Today I put the extra frame to find the bees had done what bees do - fill it up with a lovely sheet of snow white comb.

Solitary Bees

I thought she had finished her nest making as nothing seemed to be happening for a while.

However when I had a quick look I saw she had finished off the tunnel.

 

I took the cassette out to have a proper look and on the top most tunnel on the other side there was another row of eggs.

They must have been started earlier as there are live larvae.

 

Just when things seem to get a bit mad, they lurched completely out of control.
I was contacted by someone I know who also keeps bees. Unfortunately he has now developed a severe reaction to bee stings. He has been told he shouldn't keep bees any more and did I want them?
I'll spare you the gory details but suffice it to say the collection and transportation of the hives to Scald End was no fun.
My friend had a very hand off approach to the bees.- he hardly ever inspected them, never treated them for varroa nor did any swarm control but they were active and look OK.
One problem is going to that because they haven't been looked at for well over a year, the bees have propolised the hive into a solid block.
There is something on the website about propolis here,
When I had finally set them up I tried to get the roof off one of the hives but it wouldn't move.
Another possible problem is that the comb in the hives, which will have been in there for a very long time, will be in a bad state and will need to be changed.
The process by which this is done is called a Bailey Comb Change but this involves finding the queen which may not be easy.

Who are YouGov?

A couple of years ago I did some bird watching at the RSPB in Sandy and an instructor pointed out the various types of bird we came across.
She described one as a 'LBJ' which apparently is the description used for the numerous small birds that are difficult to tell apart -  a 'Little Brown Job'.

There is quite a lot of coverage of 'bees' in the press and yet I have long thought that people can't tell the difference between the main types of bee. There are about 250 types of bee in the UK only one of which is a honey bee. There are 26 types of bumble bee and I have always thought these are very easy to identify from their size and shape. The other bees are Solitary Bees that are different shapes and colours.
There are a lot of LBJs [Little Bee Jobs].

Recently YouGov carried out a survey on behalf of Friends of The Earth about bees and one of the questions was to identify a honey bee from four photographs.

I have taken the questions to the markets I do and when I say two-thirds of the votes were wrong people are surprised.


Part of the reason for this I think lies with The Great British Press.
Today the Daily Mail, admittedly the journalistic equivalent of a landfill, published this.

An interesting if not exactly earth shattering article about bumblebees pollinating abilities.
You may not be aware that all journalists are required to comply with the Wild Life Reporting [Miscellaneous Requirements] Regulations by including at least one silly pun in any article about bees and the  DM complies with a fantastically original example.
I am awaiting corrective surgery on my sides that have split.

In the article, about bumble bees remember, comes this, a nice colour picture.

That's not as Bumblebee.
That's not a honey bee.
It's a tawny solitary bee.

Unfortunately this sort of thing happens all the time; the Express produced this article about honey bees.

I have no idea what its supposed to be.

The Western Daily Press produced this.

An article about honey production with a picture of a bumblebee.

And its not just the lower end newspapers that get it wrong.
This appeared to be in a scientific journal.

Article about bumblebees with a picture of a honey bee.
Oh dear.