Urban Bees.co.uk

Starvation Risk for our bees

Brian — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 12:45:44 +0000

Message from National Bee Unit

April 2012 – Starvation Risk

With the on-going poor weather, there is a real risk of bee colonies starving. Please check for stores in the colony and if in any doubt feed your bees. You should feed with either a fondant or a thin syrup.

Further information on feeding bees can be found in Best Practice Guideline No. 7, on the Advisory Leaflets page of BeeBase (click here).

Thank You

see https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/public/News/news.cfm#125

Willow pollen feeds the honey bees at Camley Street

Brian — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 08:26:26 +0000

Another great source of early spring pollen is the willow. The bees were able to take advantage of the sunny, warm day and were all over this tree. I managed to get some photos.

http://urbanbees.co.uk/gallery/

Bees working the early pollen of the hazel trees.

Brian — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:15:47 +0000

London 23rd Feb 2012

I knew that the bees were going to be out today since the temperature reached 18 degrees today in London (Feb 23rd) and indeed all the hives were busy with bees flying and bring back pollen.

I had a look around to see what they might be working and no surprise to see the bees on the hazel catkins. They were loving it. It is such an important plant for early pollen.

So I took some snaps which can be seen on the gallery pages of our website. www.urbanbees.co.uk/gallery

Out comes the hammer and nails

Brian — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:25:19 +0000

The crocus are just coming out, the winter honeysuckle has bees on it and the hazel catkins are nearly ready with their pollen so it time to clear some space and make up some brood frames in preparation of the brood comb change and the spring clean.
And that is what I have been doing for the past hour.
I’m getting itchy now to get on with my beekeeping.
No more cold weather now, please.

First bumblebees of the year

Brian — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:41:51 +0000

Saw my first flying bumblebees of 2012 today.

These two were visiting these flowers near Victoria Station in the centre of the urban jungle in London. (map)

Saw her first.

and a moment later she came along too.

Trying to get the name of the plant.

On the theme of flowers….

Brian — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:14:35 +0000

Lovely book for all lovers of bees, bugs and flowers.

Check out

The Bee Garden: How to Create or Adapt a Garden To Attract and Nurture Bees at http://tinyurl.com/6u6sblm

Lovely BBC programme on importance of wildflowers

Brian — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:30:23 +0000

Check this programme out. It a series of 3 programmes on BBC2 Feb 2011.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0152fty/Bees_Butterflies_and_Blooms_Villages_Farms_and_Countryside/

Broadcaster and gardener Sarah Raven is on a mission to halt the rapid decline in the UK’s essential bees, butterflies and pollinating insects.

Hosting a beehive in 2012?

alison — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:50:56 +0000

We know our bee map is widely used. But we’re never quite sure how successful it is matching beekeepers without a suitable hive location with hive hosters, so it was nice to hear from Kate Ulrick at the Quaker Meeting House.
After putting up a marker on the map earlier this year she was contacted a few weeks later by Louis who had a hive full of bees and all the equipment. Kate is the warden at the Quaker Meeting House just off St Martins Lane in London’s west end. She lives on site and wanted to keep bees in the garden there. Louis was delighted to have a location so near to the abundant forage of St James’ park. He’d been using the map for a while to find a site for his bees. “It was a pleasure to discover the map contained a wealth of good locations with friendly and enthusiastic people”, he says.
Members of the Quaker community have been invited to look at the hive which is an usual apemaye hive – a big plastic box designed in Turkey – which some predict is the future of beekeeping.
In the spring, Kate says they may engage a small interested group to help with basic hive maintenance. “I recognised the potential of developing beekeeping into more of a community project,” she says. “There is lots of interests from the community of Quakers. However, the space that the hive is located in at the moment, doesn’t leave much room for crowding round”. Louis says he will be collaborating with his hosts on all aspects of beekeeping including the harvesting and consumption of any future honey.

We look forward to hearing about their progress in 2012. Hopefully their story may encourage other people to use the Urban Bees map to provide a home for a beekeeper and his beehive.

Bumblebees in late November

alison — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:57:12 +0000

A colleague just told me that he had a fright on Saturday night when he hard a noisy buzzing sound coming from his right shoulder. He run into the garden, pulled off his jumper in a panic (he is not a beekeeper) and shook the jumper until a large bumblebee fell to the ground. It was sunny during the day in London, so I assume she’d be lured out of her nest by the warm rays and then ended up in his house later attracted by the central heating. She would obvioulsy die from the cold after being shaken from my colleagues jumper, so this mild weather can’t be good for the bumblebee population. Yet bees have been around for millions of year and this can’t be the only warm November they’ve experienced. So let’s hope they’ll be OK.

River of Flowers

Brian — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:33:03 +0000

We had a fruitful meeting with Kathryn Lwin of River of Flowers.

They are doing some great work for the pollinators.