Tag Archives: bumblebees

Early spring bees

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If you’re new to bee spotting, March is a good month to begin If you’ve been waiting all winter to get back to bee spotting, now’s the month to resume on dry, warm, sunny days.

In March, the queens of two common bumblebee species are emerging from hibernation:

  • The Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) queen is small for a bumblebee (13mm), with yellow and black stripes and a distinctive orangey bottom. By the end of the month her brood may have developed into adult, worker bees and will be out foraging instead of the queen. They are a smaller version of the queen. At just 9mm, they are the smallest bumblebee you will see. They get their name because the colony is the earliest to develop, with males flying by May
  • Common carder bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum) queens start to make nests in March, and her colony can go on well into October. She is easily recognisable from her fluffy, gingery thorax and brown bottom. Queens are around 13mm. The slightly smaller workers look identical.

(Other common bumblebees flying now are the very large, stripy Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), whose colonies have been active throughout the winter in many parts of the UK, and the tri-coloured Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) queen with a gingery thorax, black body and white bottom.)

Queen bumblebees are either looking for a place to nest (most nest underground in old rodent holes, which is why you may see them flying close to the ground, but Common carder bees prefer tussocks of long grass and mossy areas, and Tree bumblebee nest high in tree trunk or bird boxes), or they have just found a good location and laid some their eggs, and are out collecting nectar and pollen to take home to feed their developing colony of workers.

The males of six common species of solitary bees emerge:

  • Hairy-footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes) are often mistaken for bumblebees because of their round, fluffy appearance, but they live alone (not in colonies). The brown, male hairy-footed flower bees emerge a few weeks before the females. They visit Red dead-nettles, Grape hyacinths, Lungwort and other flowers with bell-shaped flowers sucking up the nectar with their long, straw-like tongues (proboscis) to build up their energy for mating when the females appear. If you plant these flowers they will come and are highly entertaining to observe zig zagging and darting around patches of these flowers emitting a loud, high ptiched buzz.
  • Buffish mining bees (Andrena nigroaenea) – are easier to spot than some other similarly dark coloured mining bees, because of their size (about the same as a honeybee (10-11mm)  and most importantly the luscious. mane of brown/gingery hair around their black thorax. The males emerge first and are more brown in colour, the females have more black hairs. They are one of the most common mining bees in southern England and in urban areas on blossoming fruit trees, shrubs and dandelions.
  • Red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) – the males can emerge toward the end of the month if it’s warm to feed on blossoming fruit trees and shrubs. If you have a bee hotel you may see these cavity nesting bees checking out of the mud-plugged tubes when the crab apples are blossoming. They are a little smaller (12mm) than a honey bee (14mm), gingery coloured and have a rounder bottom. The males have long antennae and a pale moustache.
  • Orange-tailed mining bee (Andrena haemorrhoa) – also known as the early mining bee is 7-9.5mm. The males are brown with a dull brown fluffy thorax and tiny orange hairs at the tip of their bottom. You may see them emerging from holes in garden lawns, parks, playing fields – anywhere with light soil in a sunny spot. Like many mining bees, although they are solitary bees that nest alone, they nest next door to each other, so you may see hundreds emerging at the same time. But don’t worry, solitary bees don’t sting! You may see the males on dandelions, blackthorn, willows and gorse. The females are much more striking with their rusty-red pile of hair on their thorax, but you’ll have to wait until next month to see them.
  • Gwynne’s mining bee (Andrena bicolor) is a bit harder to spot, being 6-8mm, but look down and you may see them burrowing through soil on south-facing banks. The males are small (6-7.5m) and black, while the female (pictured above), which may not be out until next month, have a reddish-brown pile on the top of their thorax and hairy pollen brushes on the back legs.
  • Common mini-miner (Andrena minutula) – as its name suggests is a diminutive mining bee and the most common one in lowland Britain. At only 4-5mm, it will be hard to spot, but try observing dandelions in spring and if you see a tiny, black bee with paler, yellowish hair around its face and thorax you could be a mini-miner.

How to tell a male Andrena bicolor apart from an Andrena haemorrhoa?

With difficulty! Andrena bicolor males are darker (black in colour), smaller (6-7.5m) and less hairy. Andrena haemorrhoa males are brown, a little bigger (up to 9.5m), and bit fluffier on the thorax, and of course the tip of their bottom is orange, hence their common name. They forage on the same blossoming trees, flowering shrubs and spring flowers such as wood anemone, dandelions, lesser celandine, and even daffodils, and bluebells later in spring. And they nest in very similar locations. So, good luck (FYI haemorrhoa is pronounced He/more/rower.)

Why are only the male solitary bees around this month?

The males emerge earlier than the females because they need to build up their strength for mating when they girls appear. They will seek out sources of nectar to give them energy, patches of flowers which could make good mating grounds, and will often buzz around nests waiting for the ladies to check-out.

Bee mimic:

Many people confuse the Dark-edged bee-fly (Bombylius major) for a bee (which is why we’ve included it). Not surprising, because it’s a great mimic – round and fluffy like a small bumblebee. It’s very visible in the spring, hovering around green alkanet. The easiest way to tell it apart from a bee is its long, spindly legs, hovering action, and two wings (bees have four wings) which stick out at a 45c angle.

Honeybees?

We’ve not included honeybees in our Bees to See in March guide because they are managed bees, and we are focusing on identifying and helping wild bees. But you will see honey bee (Apis mellifera) workers (10mm) this month for sure because they leave the hive when temperatures reach around 13c. Shaped like a wasp, they have black and amber stripes. Look up and you will see them high up on fruit trees, pussy willows and hazel and alder collecting nectar and pollen to take home to feed their queen and thousands of hungry larvae that will develop into workers and drones.

The way to tell male mining bees apart from honeybees is:

  • size – honeybees are a bit bigger (10mm)
  • location – honeybees tend to forage in trees at this time of year, and mining bees will sometimes be nearer to the ground emerging, or looking for a nest, but they will also forage in blossoming trees
  • appearance – honeybees are more stripped, honey-coloured and are less hairy than the mining bees.
  • It gets easier to tell them apart the more you look.

If you’d like more information on the life cycle of bees and how to help them, click here for bumblebees, here for solitary bees, and here for honey bees.

You can follow Urban Bees on Instagram alison_urbanbees

February flyers

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Tips for IDing February bees:

The arrival of the male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee by the end of the month is quite an event as he heralds the stirrings of spring. Although he’s a solitary bee, he is often mistaken for a bumblebee because of his cute, fluffy appearance. You will already see Buff-tailed Bumblebee queens and smaller workers foraging on hellebore, crocuses and mahonia. And in a few weeks, you may even glimpse a the more ginger-coloured Tree bumblebee queen foraging on early flowering fruit trees.

You may be wondering what the Marmalade hoverfly is doing in a bee ID guide. Well, this common hoverfly is an excellent honeybee mimic. Honeybees leave their hive on mild days to forage on early nectar and pollen and many novice bee spotters could confuse this hoverfly for a honeybee. By putting its photo along the bees you may see this month, I hope it will be easier to tell them apart.

How to ID

Buff-tailed Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris):-workers and queens

These plump, golden-striped bumblebees with a thick winter coat are the ones you’re most likely to see foraging now. If you live in an mild area of the UK where the Buff-tailed bumblebees are now acitve year-round, it is the workers of the winter-active colonies you will most likely see now foraging and collecting blobs of mahonia’s orange pollen in the baskets on their hind legs. (This winter activity was first recognised in the late 1990s when Buff-tailed bumblebee workers where observed in various sites. It’s believed that some summer queens set up nests in October – instead of hibernating until spring- and produced workers in November to take advantage of milder winters and the abundance of food provided by winter-flowering heathers, honeysuckles, and especially mahonia – a prickly shrub, widely planted in car parks and public green spaces, that produces copious amounts of nectar and pollen in winter.) If you live further north where Buff-tailed bumblebee colonies still die in winter, leaving only the queens to hibernate, it is these larger (up to 24mm) queens who you may see venturing out to forage this month. They will probably be flying close to the ground getting vital nectar and pollen from snowdrops, winter aconites and crocuses, and searching for a suitable nesting site, perhaps a used rodent hole, or a crack in a pavement. Although they are called Buff-tailed bumblebees, in reality only the queen has a clearly buff-coloured bottom, the workers and males have whiter bottoms.

Tree Bumblebee (Bombus Hypnorum) – queen

The queens can measure up to 20mm and are early flyers usually in March, but sometimes in late February. She has the same markings as her smaller workers and males (which you’ll see later in the spring/summer) – tawny thoraxes, black abdomens and white tails. These bees are particularly drawn to downward hanging bell-shaped flowers. At this time of the year that’s likely to be early comfrey and winter heathers.She also likes early blossoming fruit trees like Almond and Cjerry ‘Okame’ and willows. As well as foraging, the queen will be on a mission to find a nest. As their name suggests, holes in trees are traditional nesting sites. Alternative locations for nest sites includes the eaves of a building, loft insulation, compost heaps and bird boxes, so look out for her investigating walls, fences or blue tit bird boxes. Tree bumblebees have only been in the UK since 2001. They were first recorded in Wiltshire. They are thought to have come over from mainland Europe and have successfully spread right across the UK. Now they seem to be more abundant the further north you go in the British Isles.

Hairy-Footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes) – male

Male hairy-footed flower bees are the first solitary bee of the year to emerge. They display a distinctive hovering and darting flight, have a long proboscis (tongue) that is often outstretched, and buzz loudly making them easy to spot. You will often see a few of them chasing each other in a patch of lungwort or comfrey flowers from late February to April. But far from being friends, they are arch rivals patrolling a patch of flowers they want all to themselves to woo and mate with females (which appear next month).

Solitary bees nest alone, not in large colonies with a queen, workers and drones like bumblebees and honeybees. Despite their solitary nature, solitary bees often live next door to each other in large aggregations and hang out in big groups looking as if they are playing with their mates.

The 14mm brown-coloured Hairy-footed flower bee males come out a few weeks ahead of the slightly bigger velvety-black females. Their thick coats enable them to withstand the cold, but the males need to build up their energy by drinking lots of nectar from early-flowering tubular-shaped flowers. Their favourites are lungwort (Pulmonaria) , dead-nettles (Lamium album) and early flowering comfrey (Symphytum iberian). So plant these, or find a patch, and you will see the male Hairy-footed flower bees with their long proboscis outstretched ready to reach deep into the base of each flower for a nectar hit.

If you can find their nesting site, which are often in the mortar in between bricks in old walls that need repointing, or old cob walls, or even in crumbling fireplace walls, then you will see and hear the males darting noisily around, and in and out the holes hoping for a female to emerge. As old walls get repointed, or replaced by newer buildings, Hairy-footed flower bees lose their nest sites. You could try to make cob bricks where they may nest instead (see below).

What’s in a name? As for their delightful name, Hairy-footed flower bees do indeed have hind legs that are covered with feathery hairs right down to their tiny feet.

There are some 550 species of Flower Bees worldwide. The Genus Anthophora is made up of 2 Greek words – Anthos means flower and phora means to carry or bear, so flower bearing, which makes sense as they carry pollen and nectar from flowers. The species most common is the UK is plumipes – again 2 Greek works. Pluma is feather or plume, and pes is foot. So feather-footed. Apparently, the males use their feathery legs to caress the female during mating!!

We will meet other Flower bees later in the year, but they are much smaller and zippier, so harder to spot.

There are a few other solitary bee males that emerge this month but they are much scarcer so I’ve not included them in the Bees to See in February ID guide. However, if you’d like to know more, they include  Clark’s Mining Bee (Andrena clarkella) and the Small Sallow Mining Bee (Andrena praecox) and Large Sallow Mining Bee (Andrena apicata). For more information read my blog here.

Honeybees (Apis millefera):

Managed honeybee colonies stay alive at this time of year by keeping warm in their hive and eating the honey they spent all summer making and storing for their winter food. On milder, sunny days or even cold, bright days when the sun has warmed up the hive, some worker bees will leave the colony to forage for winter-flowering shrubs nearby, or just to go to the toilet (they don’t do this in the hive). They are so much slimmer and smoother than bumblebees that there is little chance of confusing the two. But you could mistake them for the hoverfly below that mimics a honeybee.

Marmalade hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) – They are often seen hovering around flowers and will often be mistaken for wasps or bees as they are a similar size to a honeybee worker or a common wasp. But if you look closely they are quite different. They have much larger eyes than bees and their abdomen is dark yellow and has black stripes across it, with thinner stripes, that resemble a moustache, below them. But I find the two easiest ways to tell them apart from a bee, is 1) they have spindly legs and don’t collect pollen on them 2) a hoverfly will stay still on a flower or a leaf for much, much longer than a bee with its wings held out wide (as in the photo above), whereas bees tend to tuck their wings back and they never stay still for that long, otherwise I’d have much fewer blurry photos of them!

What is the point of hoverflies? Adult Marmalade hoverflies are good pollinators before they inadvertedly help to transport pollen between plants when they feed on flower’s nectar. They don’t collect the pollen because their larvae are carniverous. The larvae of this species help to control aphid populations. More details here

How to help bees in February:

  1. Plant a tree now, or sponsor a street tree. Next month it will be too late to plant a tree in the ground as they will no longer be dormant. Some trees are better for bees than others, because they produce more nectar and pollen, or they supply it early in the spring, or in late autumn when little else is flowering. What bees really need are trees that blossom sequentially producing a bee banquet throughout the year. Check our trees for bees guide. If you plant a Himalayan cherry (Prunus rufa) or a Tibetan cherry (Prunus serrula) you’ll not only have great blossom for bees in spring (as long as you plant single flowered varieties, not double-headed ones), but also fantastic rich coppery, peeling bark in the winter.
  2. Underplant your tree with rich-coloured hellebores whose large, bowl-shaped flowers are blooming now and Elephant’s ears (Bergenia) whose tall spikes will be visited by bees from next month.
  3. Lungwort (Pulmonaria), White dead-nettles (Lamium album) and Iberian comfrey (Symphytum ibericum), which can flower as early as March, will attract Hairy-footed flower bees to your garden. Plant in large clumps in sun, or semi-shade.
  4. Buy and plant bulbs ‘in the green’ You can buy bee-friendly bulbs now ‘in the green’, which means you plant them while the bulbs are in growth, rather than dormant (as they were in the autumn). Snowdrops, winter aconites and crocuses will feed bees now and grape hyacinths next month. English bluebells and small, yellow wild tulips (Tulipa sylvestris) will flower in April along with wild garlic and fritillaries.
  5. Plant early spring-flowering shrubs, such as Winter Daphne  (Daphne odora) or Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ or Heathers (Erica carnea), which are perfect for a rockery or small flower bed with acidic, ericaceous soil. Winter flowering specimens, include white ‘Winter Snow’ (Erica carnea f. alba ), or ‘Winter rubin’ (Erica carnea ‘Winter Rubin’) for a splattering of pink. Although Rosemary usually flowers from April, with milder winters I’ve seen it flowering as early as January right through until summer. It’s also one of the most drought-tolerant plants I’ve come across and highly attractive to many different species of bee – mason, bumble, mining, and honey bees – so I’d recommend it to any bee-friendly gardener. See more shrubs here.
  6. As it gets nearer to spring there is the temptation to tidy up the garden so it will look neat when the crocuses and daffodils appear, but leave your garden unkept for as long as possible so as not to disturb bumblebee queens who could still be hibernating in piles of old leaves, long grasses or under a shed.
  7. It’s not too late to undertake bee hotel winter maintenance. Follow our simple step by step guide to care for these solitary bees over winter. Watch out for other insects hibernating in any empty tubes. I found queen wasps and spiders!
  8. You could try to build bricks of cob for the Hairy-Footed Flower Bee to nest in. Cob is an ancient material used for building walls and houses. It uses a mixture of clay, sand, cricket pitch loam, straw and water. There is a great video here by Devon-based naturalist, John Walter, on how to make cob bricks. They seem to need dry, warm weather to dry, or I suppose you could bring them inside to make them at this time of year. I’m going in search of cricket pitch loam! But the mistake I made last year was not protecting the cob bricks enough from the rain, so no Hairy-Footed Flower Bee nested in them. I addressed this the following year, but still not takers. Perhaps there are enough holes in brick walls around here. There are certainly lots of Hairy-footed flower bees.
  9. Submit sightings to iRecord of any bees you see this month.
  10. Submit Hairy-footed flower bee sightings to BWARS so it can update its distribution atlas.

Rescue a lifeless looking bee:

Offer a lethargic or exhausted looking bumblebee an emergency energy drink of sugary water. At this time of year they can get cold and tired very quickly after leaving the nest if they don’t quickly find nectar from a flower. A mixture of two tablespoons of white sugar to one tablespoon of water should revive them, but it may take them a while to find enough energy to suck up the liquid from the spoon or saucer you provide. Be patient.

An alternative is to pick her up and take her to a flowering bush, such as Mahonia, full of nectar-rich flowers if there is one nearby. But remember, bumblebees can sting if they feel threatened so pick her up on a leaf, or in a container. 

Or invest in a Bee Revival kit which comes with a tiny refillable bottle attached to key ring containing an ambrosia® bee food syrup to feed a bee in an emergency.

Never feed a bee honey. Bacterial spores of a disease that affects bee larvae can be found in honey and this brood disease is highly contagious.

You can try the same remedy for a lifeless honeybee, but they may be more inclined to sting. Again DON’T FEED THEM HONEY.

I’ve never seen a listless Hairy-footed flower bee, but if you do I’m sure they’d also appreciate a water, sugar energy drink. These bees don’t sting.

New Year bees

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Bee spotting is a rare pursuit this month as only two bee species fly at this time of year when it’s cold, dark and there’s little food around. The two species are Buff-tailed bumblebees and honeybees, and in some areas it will only be the latter. On the plus side, it’s harder to get the ID wrong!

  • Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) – these fluffy, plump golden-striped bumblebees are the ones you’re most likely to see foraging between now and February, especially if you live in a city in the south of England. This winter activity was first recognised in the late 1990s when Buff-tailed bumblebee workers where observed in various locations. It’s believed that some summer queens set up nests in October (instead of hibernating until spring) and produced workers in November to take advantage of milder winters and the abundance of food provided by winter-flowering heathers, honeysuckles and especially widely-planted Mahonia, a tough shrub whose bright yellow flowers cheer up many an amenity shrubbery, car park, and city garden and park at this time of year and produce copious amounts of nectar and pollen.
  • Queen – Although called Buff-tailed bumblebees, in reality only the queen has a clearly buff coloured bottom. Measuring up to a whopping 24mm in length, she is one of our largest bumblebees and hard to miss.
  • Workers have whiter bottoms. It is the workers (measuring around 13-18mm) you will most likely see foraging and collecting blobs of Mahonia’s orange pollen in the pollen baskets on their hind legs.

Submit sightings – If you see a bumblebee during the winter north of Birmingham, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust would like you to submit your sighting at iRecord here. More info about winter-active bumblebees here.

How to ID honey bees:

Western honey bees (Apis millefera) – the managed honeybee colony stays alive at this time of year by keeping warm in their hive and eating their honey which they spend all summer making and storing for their winter food. But on milder, sunny days or even cold, bright days when the sun has warmed up the hive, some worker bees will leave the colony to forage for winter-flowering shrubs nearby, or just to go to the toilet (they don’t do this in the hive). They are so much slimmer and smoother than bumblebees, measuring around 14mm in length, that there is no chance of confusing the two.

How to help bees in January:

  1. Plant a tree between now and February (when the ground’s not frozen) to feed bees in the future, or sponsor a street tree. Some trees are better for bees than others, because they produce more nectar and pollen, or they supply it early in the spring, or in late autumn when little else is flowering. What bees really need are trees that blossom sequentially producing a bee banquet throughout the year. Check our Urban Bees trees for bees guide. If you plant a Himalayan cherry (Prunus rufa) or a Tibetan cherry (Prunus serrula) you’ll not only have great blossom for bees in spring (as long as you plant single flowered varieties, not double-headed ones), but also fantastic rich coppery, peeling bark in the winter. A Vilmorini’s Rowan tree (Sorbus vilmorinii) is a small tree (4m high in 20 years) that is smothered in white bee-friendly flowers in early summer, red/purple leaves in autumn, and dusky pink berries in winter that are a favourite with Waxwing birds on the odd years when they arrive in large flocks from Scandinavia. Here’s a guide for how to plant your tree.
  2. Underplant your tree with Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) whose large, bowl-shaped flowers are borne in loose clusters in late winter and spring, and Elephant’s ears (Bergenia), Lungwort (Pulmonaria) to attract early flying bees in spring. More flower suggestions here.
  3. It’s still not too late to plant some bulbs in pots. Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ can still be a bee magnet in May/June if planted this month. Grape hyacinths (Muscari) should still flower in March and some tulips will also do well planted this late (although only wild tulips (Tulipa sylvestris seem to attract bees). I will plant some of these ‘in the green’ next month, which means planting them while the bulbs are in growth, rather than dormant. It’s a good way to plant bulbs in February/March if you didn’t get round to it in the autumn.
  4. Plant winter or early spring-flowering shrubs, such as Winter Daphne  (Daphne odora) or Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ or Heathers (Erica carnea), which are perfect for a rockery or small flower bed with acidic, ericaceous soil. Winter flowering specimens, include white ‘Winter Snow’ (Erica carnea f. alba ), or ‘Winter rubin’ (Erica carnea ‘Winter Rubin’) for a splattering of pink. Other shrub suggestions are here.
  5. Leave your garden unkept so as not to disturb bumblebee queens who may be hibernating in piles of old leaves, long grasses or under a shed.
  6. It’s not too late to undertake bee hotel winter maintenance. Follow our simple step by step guide to care for these solitary bees over winter. Watch out for other insects hibernating in any empty tubes. I found queen wasps and spiders!
  7. Install a bird box that’s suitable for small birds like blue tits, with a 25mm diameter entrance hole, as it may prove to be the perfect nesting sites for Tree bumblebees (Bombus hypernorum) when the chicks have fledged in late spring. The bees will vacant by autumn, leaving the box empty for birds to use next year.
  8. Order seeds from seed catalogues to be ready to sow in spring. Chiltern Seeds have a good selection of bee-friendly flower seeds to chose from, and growing advice, but check which ones are likely to flower in the first season (annuals), and those that will flower in the second season (perennials). I’m not patient enough to grow seeds, so I prefer to buy plug plants in the spring and grow them on in pots.

Rescue a lifeless looking bee:

Offer a lethargic or exhausted looking Buff-tailed bumblebee an emergency energy drink of sugary water. At this time of year they can get cold and tired very quickly after leaving the nest if they don’t quickly find nectar from a flower. A mixture of two tablespoons of white sugar to one tablespoon of water should revive them, but it may take them a while to find enough energy to suck up the liquid from the spoon or saucer you provide. If you carry a Bee Revive kit on a keyring, you can present a distressed bee with the vial of ambrosia at all times. Be patient. An alternative is to pick her up and take her to a flowering bush, such as Mahonia, full of nectar-rich flowers if there is one nearby. But remember, bumblebees can sting if they feel threatened so pick her up on a leaf, or in a container. Never feed a bee honey. Bacterial spores of a disease that affects bee larvae can be found in honey and this brood disease is highly contagious.

You can try the same remedy for a lifeless honeybee, but they may be more inclined to sting. Again DON’T FEED THEM HONEY.

For information on IDing and helping bees at other times of the year see my Bees to See in November blog here  Bees to See in October blog here, Bees to See in September blog here, Bees to See in August blog here,  Bees to See in July blog here, Bees to See in June blog here,  Bees to See in May blog here and Bees to See in April blog here, Bees to See in March blog here.This entry was posted in All blogs and tagged bees to see in January, bumblebees on  by alison. Edit

Christmas gifts for bee lovers 2026

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I thought I’d make a list of the top 10 gifts for bee lovers. They range from £5 for a second hand book to close on £200 for the binoculars (maybe this is more of a very special birthday gift, rather than for Christmas). But more of the items in the list are between £12 – £30.

  1. SUSTAINANCE Bee rescue kit – a perfeict stocking filler. I never leave the house without mine and have used it a couple of times to revive a cold bumblebee on a winter’s or early spring day.
  2. BOOK Keeping the Bees: Why all Bees are at Risk and What We Can Do To Save Them, by Lawrence Packer. I know I keep banging on about this book but it’s one of the best I’ve read on wild bees, so do try to get a second hand copy whereever you can as it’s out of print in the UK.
  3. NESTS RSPB Bird box for blue tits that could provide a home for Tree bumblebees after the chicks have fledged.
  4. BEE HOTELS – The Urban Bees flat-pack bee hotel kit is easy to assemble, can be customised (i.e. painted) and comes with all the information you need about where to locate it, and how to clean it, to provide mason bees and leafcutter bees with a safe place to check into and lay their eggs in the spring and summer.
  5. REFERENCE BOOK A Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland by Steven Falk – the definitive guide for any bee lover to have for reference.
  6. MACRO BINOCULARS – PENTAX Binoculars Papilio Series – these are not cheap, but they allow you really observe close up any bee that stays still for long enough, without having to try to catch it in a net and pop it into a glass tube, which I’ve never got the hang of.
  7. BEE T-SHIRT – I’m always on the lookout for bee t-shirts for the summer. Surprisingly, RSPCA seems to have the most interesting bumblebee t-shirt and in nice colours too. Others worth looking at are Sussex Wildlife Trust , the Wildlife Trusts, whose hoodies and long-sleeve tops look good, and of course, Bumblebee Conservation Trust. I’ve not had much luck finding any solitary bee t-shirts. Hopefully, by the summer….
  8. GARDENING FOR BEE BOOK My favourite are Beds & Borders The Mix and Match Guide to Beautiful Planting and Gardening for Butterflies, Bees and other beneficial insects . They can only be bought second-hand, but are well worth having to help create a beautiful bee-friendly garden.
  9. CHILDREN’S BEE BOOK – Moira and the Magnificent Bee Beds is my favourite because it’s written and illustrated in a hugely entertaining way by the lovely Nan Eshelby, and it’s about a solitary Red Mason Bee.

10.BEE Calendar – I’m afraid I can’t find any bee calendars that aren’t 100% focused on honeybees!!! So I’d suggest that if you’ve got an old copy of the Urban Bees calendar, attach a plain 2026 calender under Penny Metal’s gorgeous bee photos to take you through the bee year.

11. GIFT BEE BOOK – I do think the publishers did a good job of making our The Good Bee book into a lovey gift, whether hardback or paperback. You can get a signed copy if you buy it direct from us. Email alison@urbanbees.co.uk

December bees – only two species to spot

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Buff-tailed bumblebee worker Honeybee with pollen on her back legs

Tips for IDing December bumblebees:

It’s not that you won’t see bees this month, but only two species fly in the winter. And only on mild, dry days, or when it’s bright and sunny (even sometimes when there is snow on the ground!)

Given there are only two winter fliers, bee identification is a lot less interesting than in spring and summer, but it is much easier. You are either observing a wild, Buff-tailed bumblebee or a managed honeybee, and in some parts of the UK it will only be the latter as the Buff-tailed bumblebees queens are hibernating, and not producing any workers.

  • Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) – until fairly recently these fluffy, golden-striped bumblebees hibernated like all other 23 bumblebee species in the UK. But in the late 1990s, they where observed foraging in various sites over winter. It’s believed that some summer queens set up nests in October (instead of hibernating until spring) and produce workers in November to take advantage of milder winters and the abundance of food provided by winter-flowering heathers, honeysuckles and especially widely-planted Mahonia. This tough shrub has bright yellow flowers that cheer up many an amenity shrubbery, car park, and city garden and park at this time of year, and produce copious amounts of nectar and pollen. You’re most likely see the workers foraging on it between now and February, especially if you live in a city in the south of England. They will collect blobs of its orange pollen in the baskets on their hind legs to take back to the nest to feed the brood.

How to ID honey bees:

Western honey bees (Apis millefera) – the managed honeybee colony stays alive at this time of year by keeping warm in their hive and eating the honey which they spend all summer making and storing to eat in the winter. On milder, sunny days or even cold, bright days when the sun has warmed up the hive, some worker bees will leave the colony to forage for winter-flowering shrubs near by, or just to go to the toilet (they don’t do this in the hive). That’s when you may see them. They are so much slimmer and smoother than bumblebees that there is no chance of confusing the two.

How to help bees in December:

  1. Plant a tree in your garden between now and February to feed bees in the future, or sponsor a street tree, or join a local tree planting group to plant trees in parks and community orchards. Some trees are better for bees than others, because they produce more nectar and pollen, or they supply it early in the spring, or in late autumn when little else is flowering. What bees really need are trees that blossom sequentially producing a bee banquet throughout the year. Check the Urban Bees’ Trees for Bees guide. If you plant a Himalayan cherry (Prunus rufa) or a Tibetan cherry (Prunus serrula) you’ll not only have great blossom for bees in spring (as long as you plant single flowered varieties, not double-headed ones), but also fantastic rich coppery, peeling bark in the winter.
  2. Plant a holly tree/bush – this will not only give you bright red berries to brighten up the garden at this time of year and feed birds, it will also produce small white flowers for bees in early summer. Note: Only female trees form fruit and they need to be planted near to a male for the bees to transfer the pollen from the male to the female to fertilise them. However the male holly could be in a neighbour’s garden. For a sure bet for berries, try self-fertile ‘J C van Tol’ which also attracts bees to its flowers.
  3. Underplant your tree with Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) whose large, bowl-shaped flowers are borne in loose clusters in late winter and spring, and Elephant’s ears (Bergenia), Lungwort (Pulmonaria) to attract early flying bees next spring.
  4. If the ground’s not yet frozen, get a few more spring bulbs into the ground. Ones that provide an early source of nectar and pollen in February/March are particularly useful such as Crocus ‘Ruby Giant’ and Iris histrioides ‘George’.
  5. Leave your garden unkept so as not to disturb queens of bumblebee species that are hibernating at this time of year, such as Common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum) and Early bumblebees (Bombus pratorum) in piles of old leaves, long grasses or under a shed.
  6. It’s not too late to undertake bee hotel winter maintenance. Follow our simple step by step guide to care for these solitary bees over winter. Watch out for other insects hibernating in any empty tubes. I found queen wasps and spiders!
  7. Offer a lethargic or exhausted Buff-tailed bumblebee an emergency energy drink of sugary water. At this time of year they can get cold and exhausted very quickly after leaving the nest if they don’t quickly find nectar from a flower. A mixture of two tablespoons of white sugar to one tablespoon of water should revive them, but it may take them a while to find enough energy to suck up the liquid from the spoon or saucer you provide. Be patient. One way to ensure you are always prepared to revive a bee is by carrying a Bee Revival Kit with you at all times. It’s a vial filled with an ambrosia syrup that attaches to a key ring.
  8. An alternative is to pick a bee up and take her to a flowering bush, such as Mahonia, full of nectar-rich flowers if there is one nearby. But remember, bumblebees can sting if they feel threatened so pick her up on a leaf, or in a container. 
  9. Never feed a bee honey, not even to a honeybee. It sounds counterintuitive, but the bacterial spores of a disease that affects bee larvae can be found in honey and this brood disease is highly contagious.

Bird boxes for bees too!

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We’ve been installing RSPB bird boxes for birds and bees.

Did you know that bird boxes like these ones pictured above for Blue Tits and Great Tits can also provide a nest for Tree bumblebees later in the spring after the chicks have fledged. Tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) like to nest high up, unlike other bumblebee species which nest below ground in old rodent holes, or just above ground in long grass.

Photo credit: reddishpink media

The Tree bumblebee queen creates a colony during the late spring/early summer. These colonies can be quite noisy but are pretty harmless if you leave them alone. The queen and her colony vacate the bird box in late summer so birds can use it again.

Although birds don’t start nesting until February, they may be looking for a suitable location now. So it’s the perfect time to put up a box. These boxes need to be 2-4 m off the ground and facing north or east.

I love birds and bees, so this is a win,win!!!

It’s just one of the way to help bees this month. More tips for identifying and helping bees in winter here.

Click here to watch a video about Tree bumblebees called Ginger Arrows by reddishpink media

Autumn planting for bees

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Here’s a list of plants and bulbs that Urban Bees has planted on part of a King’s College London university campus this autumn to feed bees in spring. We wanted to create a spring garden for bees because spring is a vital time of year for bumblebees to collect enough nectar to sustain themselves and enough pollen to build up their colonies, and for spring-flying solitary bees to successfuly breed and nest.

There are already many shrubs planted, so we wanted to create spring colour and ground cover that feeds bees.

Name of plant                            

  • Crocus tommasinianus  (Flowers from Feb-March) 
  • Ipheion ‘Wisley Blue’ (Feb-March) 
  • Scilla siberica  (March – April)
  • Bergenia Harzkristall (March – April)
  • Erysimum ‘Tricolour’ (March – July)
  • Muscari ( April – May)    
  • Narcissus ‘Pheasant’s Eye  (April – May)
  • Vinca Minor ‘Atropurpura’  (April – Oct) 
  • Myosotis ‘Myomark’  (April– May)      
  • Primula vulgaris (April – May)    
  • Symphytum ‘Hidcote Blue’  (April – May)  
  • Chionodoxa ‘Violet Beauty’  (April – May)
  • Geranium Riversleaianum  (May – Oct)        

Bulbs planted: Clockwise from top: Chionodoxa ‘Violet Beaut’ Crocus tommasinianus, Muscari armeniacum, Narcissus ‘Pheasant’s Eye’, Ipheion ‘Wisley Blue’.

Perennials planted: Clockwise from top: Bergenia Harzkristall, Erysimum ‘Tricolour’, Geranium Riversleaianum ‘Russell Pritchard’; Primula vulgaris, Symphytum ‘Hidcote Blue’; Vica minor ‘Atropurpura’

Late autumn bees

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Bumblebee colonies have for the most part finished, with a few new queens still stocking up on nectar before they hunker down for their winter diapause. The exception are the Buff-tailed bumblebees, which in many parts of the country can now be seen flying throughout the winter. In contrast, we will have to wait until next spring for a new generation of adult solitary bees to emerge. This year’s solitary bees have ended their life cycle save for a few remaining Ivy bees. Managed honeybees will forage on mild days. With so few bee species to choose from, it should at least be easier to identify the ones you do see!

Tips for IDing November bumblebees:

  • Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) – these large, fluffy, golden-striped bumblebees are active throughout the winter now in many parts of the UK, especially in cities even as far as Edinburgh and Dundee. The reason that late summer queens have a brood during winter now in many areas, rather than entering a winter diapause (hibernation-like state), is twofold: it is warm enough for the bees to fly in winter, and as importantly there is plenty for them to eat. Winter-flowering shrubs such a Mahonia and Viburnum tinus in our parks, gardens and municipal landscaping provides winter nectar and pollen. As a result, you’ll see queens, workers and males flying throughout the year. The queens are easily recognisable from their huge size (up to 24mm) and distinctive buff coloured bottom. You often hear their loud buzz before you see them. The workers are smaller (16mm) and have a white tail. Both of these castes are female. The 14mm males look similar to the workers. How you can tell them apart is from the brightly-coloured blobs of pollen, which only the females collect on their hind legs to take back to the nest. In more rural areas of northern England and Scotland, where the Buff-tailed bumblebees aren’t yet active over winter, you may still see a queen Buff-tailed bumblebee at this time of year stocking up on nectar and looking for a dry, secure place to spend her winter diapause, from which she will emerge in early spring.
  • Common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum) – if you see a 15mm fluffy brown bee on flowering salvias or Fuchsia at this time of year, chances are they will be the new queens having a final nectar feast before bedding down somewhere snug for the winter months, such as a pile of old leaves, long grass, or under the garden shed.
  • Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) – they have a gingery thorax like a Common carder bees, but the wihite bottom tells them apart.If you’re very lucky at this time of year you may see a queen out foraging for nectar before she hunkers down for the winter. These bees have spread across the British isles since they arrived from the continent in Wiltshire in 2001. Nowadays they seem more common in cooler parts of the UK. I’ve not seen one in my London garden for a decade now. If you put up a bird box for Blue tits in your garden, the tree bumblebees may make a nest in it after the chicks have fledged next spring. More information here

How to ID November solitary bees:

  • Ivy bees (Colletes hederae) –there’s a very slim chance you may see an Ivy bee early this month if ivy is still flowering where you live. But hurry, their short life cycle is nearly over. Once the adult female bees have laid all their eggs, and provisioned each one with pollen from the ivy flowers, their six to eight week life cycle is complete. To spot an Ivy bee, look for an insect with a fluffy ginger pile on top of its thorax (though it may be a duller brown by now) feeding on the last of the tiny, white ivy flowers. It’s the fluffy thorax that sets the 13mm Ivy bee apart from honey bees and hoverflies (See our Is it a bee or a hoverfly? guide.)

How to ID honey bees:

Western honey bees (Apis millefera) – we’ve included these managed bees this month because you are likely to see them foraging for nectar on late-flowering blooms, such as Geranium ‘Rozanne’ , Tickseed, Fuschia and Salvia – often nectar robbing (making a hole in the base of a deep flower to get the nectar because their short proboscis (tongue) can’t reach inside the flower. This means the flower doesn’t get pollinated). The honeybees take the nectar back to their hive to turn into the last stores of honey, which is their winter food. They may also be foraging on the last ivy flowers. They are around 10mm long with a slim, tapered gold and brown stripy body. They can be easily confused with other stripy insects, such as Ivy bees and the Marmalade hoverfly.

Bee mimic

Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) – is one of our most common hoverflies. It gets its common name from its thick orange markings which make it look like a stinging insect (which it isn’t) in the hope that this will deter potential predetors. The way to tell it apart from a bee is its big eyes, spindly legs which do not have pollen baskets, and it only has two wings (not four like a bee). It is also less hairy. It’s active throughout much of the winter when most bees aren’t flying . Hoverflies are among our most important pollinators. Like wasps, they also eat aphids so play an important role in pest control. More details here.

How to help bees in November:

  1. Cosmos, Penstemon, Fuchsia, salvias, dahlias, tickseed and Geranium ‘Rozanne’ are all still flowering for late-flying bees, along with the shrub Fatsia japonica, so try to have some in your garden or in pots or planters.
  2. Since most bee species don’t fly in the colder months, now’s the time to think ahead to next spring when a new generation of bees start emerging. Make you garden, roof terrace, patio or other outside space a smorgasbord of bee-friendly spring bulbs. If you only do one thing, plant those crocus bulbs you’ve been meaning to before the ground gets too hard. Plant them under trees, in lawns and hanging baskets, and pots, as well as flower beds. They will give the early flying bumblebee queens food to fuel their flight. Here are the best spring bulbs for bees.
  3. For bee-friendly November window boxes, Cosmos and Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus), are still blooming. I’ve just brought some magnificent magenta-coloured Cyclamen to brighten up my window box for autumn and feed passing bees and I have added crocus bulbs for a colourful display in early spring that will feed the bees.
  4. The Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) feeds bees in November and it’s nectar and pollen contains medicinal properties for bumblebees, so try to grow one in your garden or a even a large pot. If you’d like a spring or summer flowering tree instead, now is the perfect month to decide which tree you could add to your garden to provide bee food next year. If you order it now, you can plant a tree, while trees are dormant during winter. Also, speak to your council tree officer about how they could be planting more bee-friendly trees in local streets and parks. Trees can provide an abundant source of food at times of year when bees may be going hungry like early spring and late summer. For advice on which tree to plant see our Trees for Bees guide. Some bee-friendly trees grow very well in pots, including small fruit trees such as crab apples. My favourite to feed the Red mason bees is Malus sylvestris ‘Evereste’.
  5. If you live in a milder part of the UK, it’s worth planting winter-flowers shrubs, such as Mahonia, Verburnum tinus and Sarcococca, and perennials, such a Hellebores, to feed Buff-tailed bumblebees who fly all year round. More information on flowers here and shrubs here.
  6. Have you ever thought of growing a wildlife-friendly hedge? Well this month is the time to get planning. Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Field Maple, Beech, Hornbeam, Purging buckthorn and Dog rose are some of plants that this RHS video suggests. It all really depends on what size garden you have, how prickly you want your hedge and how much you want it to flower for pollinators. We have a small Cotoneaster hedge in our small, urban front garden which mitigates pollution, has white flowers that feed bees in the summer, and berries for the blackbirds in winter. Even privet hedges are good for pollinators if they are allowed to flower. Bare-root hedges can be planted from late autumn into winter.
  7. Divide bee-friendly perennials that have become overcrowded. Find another place for them in the garden or give them away to friends and neighbours to make their gardens more bee-friendly.
  8. Seeds to grow under glass this month including wild cornflower, cowslip, poppies and Pink Hawk’s Beard (Crepis rubra) – a new hardy annual I’ve just come across which looks a bit like a pink dandelion . Yellow rattle can be grown outdoors and is useful if you are trying to convert part of your lawn into a wild flower meadow as it supresses the grasses and will allow the wild flowers to grow.
  9. It’s tempting to give your garden a thorough tidy at this time of year after the autumn leaves have fallen. But it’s best to leave your garden a bit messy: piles of leaves and bits of old, rotting wood as queen bumblebees and other insects may find them perfect winter habitat. And there could be solitary bee cocoons in hollow plant stems, so leave them too.
  10. Clean out your bee hotels and bee boxes for solitary bees and store the bee cocoons in a dry, cool place over winter. Read here for more information on bee hotel winter management.
  11. If you see a motionless bumblebee at this time of year, either try and move here to a flower when she can suck up some nectar to give her energy, or you could give her a sugar/water drink, but NEVER give her honey. It has bacteria that is bad for bumblebees.

There will be plenty more jobs we can do over the winter months to help bees thrive next spring. So, look out for future posts.

For information on IDing and helping bees earlier in the year see my  Bees to See in October blog here, Bees to See in September blog here, Bees to See in August blog here,  Bees to See in July blog here, Bees to See in June blog here,  Bees to See in May blog here and Bees to See in April blog here, Bees to See in March blog here.

Toronto bee trip

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From L-R Agapostemon virescens; Giant Patiagonian bumblebee (Bombus dhalbomii) pinned; Eastern Carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica)

We managed to weave bees into our family trip to Toronto. We observed metallic green and large, shiny black bees in our relative’s backyard, and visited university bee labs where we saw and learned a lot more.

First stop was a coffee with professor Nigel Raine at Guelph University (just outside Toronto). I know Nigel from when he was researching bumblebee behaviour at Royal Holloway in London 15 years ago. He does a lot more than that now, but some recent research coming out of his lab has discovered (by accident) bumblebee queens’ resilience to flooding. Read it here.

A few days later we were at University of Toronto Scarborough, the campus to the east of the city, to meet Scott MacIvor (above) an assistant professor who specialises in urban ecology. Working with with a range of disciplines including designers, engineers and city planners his lab investigates patterns in biodiversity (especially bees), biological invasion and ecological processes in cities to better connect people to nature, support urban conservation priorities and sustain ecosystem service delivery. There are lots of overlapping interests in the work we do at Urban Bees to try to improve cities for bees.

He has created a bee hotel for cavity-nesting bees using paper straws with different diameter holes mounted on a clay mould and encased in a protective plastic cover. He is concerned about the mail order business in mason bee cocoons which he fears will spread disease and parasites.

His research has found that pollinator diversity and abundance decreases on a green roof the taller a building. However surveys by Pollinating London Together seem to show otherwise in the City of London where green roofs planted with diverse, sequential blooming flowers have been found to outperform ground level gardens which are often shaded by the tall buildings surrounding them and therefore not so attractive to foraging pollinators, especially bees.

Scott studied under Laurence Packer, one of the leading professors of melittology (study of bees) in the world. I’ve read some of the Laurence’s books and had taken Bees of the World with me to be signed. We arranged to meet him in his world famous Packer Lab at York University in Toronto where he has one of the biggest bee collections.

He showed us the bee he discovered in the arid desert in northern Chile in 2012. (Laurence is pointing to the location on the map above). It is the only bee of its kind ever found. It’s called Xenofidelia colorada (pictured above right) and is a member of the Fideliinae family, a subfamily of Megachilidae, which includes leafcutter bees.

He he also showed us a male orchid bee, Euglossa intersecta, (above left) with an exceptionally long proboscis allowing it to access nectar deep in the corollas of certain flowers including some deep-throated orchids. They also collect scent from the flower using special brushes on their front legs. They store the scent in their hind legs. This ‘perfume’ is used to attract a female.

Most exciting for me, I got to see a Giant Patagonian bumblebee (Bombus dahlbombii), know as the flying mouse because of the size of the queen – up to 4cm – and her fluffy, brown coat. She is the biggest bumblebee in the world and I wrote and article a few years ago about her future is threatened by the trade in European bumblebees to pollinate polytunnel crops in Chile and Argentina.

We also saw one of the smallest bees in the world, Pedita minima (2 photos above), – a solitary bee from south west USA desert which measures just less than 2mm – which we mention in A Good Bee.

It was a real treat to hang out with Laurence in his lab for a couple of hours hearing his stories and looking at some of his huge collection of bees. He also gave us a couple of books including Keeping the Bees , all about his adventures tracking down wild bees around the world.

We also observed the Common Eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) throughout Toronto, where most of the front gardens (which are actually owned by the council) were full of flowers, especially Golden rod and Michaelmas daisies at this time of year. And #NoMowMay had been adopted. Even in parks, the planting was incredibly similar to the UK, with their native Rudbeckia and Golden Rod (Soligado canadensis) proving late forage, along with Sedum. Golden Rod and Sumac trees (Rhus typhina), which I’d only seen in ornamental planting, grow wild here along railway lines – like Buddleia in the UK – and the ravines that cross the city.

The green roofs we visited seemed less advance than the UK. The 3rd floor of City Hall, know as the Podium, (left) has been planted with  trays of mainly sedum, which were grown off-site and then installed on the rooftop. When we visited in September, asters were flowering but not much else. Canada geese were feeding on some seeds. I couldn’t see what they were. Much more impressive was the 2,000 sq ft Carrot Common garden, (right) on top of a health food shop, showcasing urban agriculture with a huge allotment, a large area that seemed to be full of pollinator-friendly flowers, and areas for people to gather and learn, with planting on top of the benches too.

I was blown away by the city’s ravine system which gives it a feeling of being a city built within a huge forest. Within one of those ravines was the Evergreen Brickworks built on the site of the former Don Valley Brick Works and quarry, with the land around it being managed for wildlife with ponds and grazing by goats.

And the new 40 hectre Biidaasige park – created by renaturalising the Don river to create a floodplain and parks for wildlife and people as part of the city’s flood recovery, to improve water quality and redirect the sewage system. I love the translation of the name of the park “sunlight shining towards us”. It seemed very appropriate when we took the photo above of the sun starting to set in the west. We were lucky enough to get a cycle tour of this new area of the city (reminiscent of the Olympic Park on the Lea Valley in east London) by associate director of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Steve Heuchert (whose sister is a good friend on ours in London). Here’s an interesting article in the Guardian about the huge project a few years ago.

And finally, I have to mention the Blue Jays and the Monarch butterflies. The former is a noisy bird, like our Magpies, but more elusive (hence the not very good photo), and the name of its baseball team. The latter is the butterfly that famously migrates nearly 3,000 miles from the northern United States and southern Canada (where they breed) all the way down to central Mexico (where they overwinter). And we saw a tiny bit of this in action, when we observed Monarch’s on the beach at Lake Erie and on the ornamental plants on the Toronto islands. It was quite a magical experience to see a group (collective noun is kaleidoscope) of butterflies in the wild – Monarchs and Red Admirals. I’ve only experienced it before in an enclosed butterfly house.

October 2025 bees and mimics

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The female ivy bees are out. If you’ve not seen one yet, find a flowering ivy bush in the autumnal sunshine. This is where you’re likely to see them feeding on the tiny, white, pin cushion-like flowers for nectar and pollen, alongside slightly bigger honeybees (14mm) that they can easily be confused with. Just to make it harder to ID them, they will be joined by heaps of stripy hoverflies. The ID tips below are designed to help you tell apart an ivy bee from a honeybee. And our Is it a bee or a hoverfly? guide should help distinguish both from their hoverfly mimics – three are featured in the chart above.

How to ID ivy bees:

Ivy bees (Colletes hederae) – males are (8-9mm) – a bit smaller than a honeybee – and female ivy bees are 11-13mm – a bit larger. But the best way to tell them apart is that the ivy bees have a gingery pile on their thorax and much more segmented shiny bands on their abdomen. Honeybees are social bees living in large colonies so you will likely see more honeybees on ivy if there are hives nearby. Ivy bees are solitary (although they can nest next door to each other in large aggregations) , so you may only see a few.  It can take a while before you can distinguish them, but it’s worth being patient.

Ten reasons why ivy mining bees are so special:

  1. They are the last solitary bee to emerge in the year.
  2. They were only described as a separate species in 1993 in Germany. According to bee expert, Ted Benton, the lateness of this discovery may in part be explained by their similarity to two other late-flying close relatives: Heather bees (Colletes succinctus) and Sea Aster bees (Colletes halophilus).
  3. They were first discovered in England just over 20 years ago, in an ivy bush in Dorset in 2001.
  4. Since they were first spotted on these shores they have spread across the UK and were recorded in Scotland in 2021. You can contribute to a mapping project to show how widespread they now are.
  5. There is a real thrill when you see one for the first time, because it means you have learned to distinguish its features (gingery pile on its thorax and segmented shiny bands on its abdomen) from the honeybee.
  6. They only fly for around six weeks, when the ivy is flowering, so they seem more special than bees that fly all summer.
  7. They nest in huge aggregations of thousands of bees, making burrows in loose soil and sandy banks. It’s an amazing sight watching them emerge in late August/early September. I’ve never seen it, but I hope to create a sand bank somewhere that may become a nesting site. This video gives a flavour.
  8. Their symbiotic relationship with ivy – emerging to feed on its nectar and pollen and pollinating it at the same time – really demonstrates the connection between bees and flowering plants. This relationship has evolved over 100 million years.
  9. Watching them at work helps to connect us with nature on our doorstep. We don’t need to visit the ‘countryside’, or far flung places, to see nature in action.
  10. They are also called plasterer bees, because like all bees with the Latin name Colletes, they line the nests they create in their burrows with a cellophane-like waterproof and fungus-resistant substance that they secret. Isn’t that amazing!

How to ID other October solitary bees:

Common furrow bee (Lasioglossum calceatum) – if you see a small (8-10mm) black, shiny insect with a long body on a flower late in the summer or in autumn, chances are it will be this bee. The yellow legs in the photo above, should help, and there are some band markings on the body.

Tips for IDing October bumblebees:

  • Common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum) – the workers will often sport a faded ginger/brown thorax that looks more straw-coloured at this time of year. They will often be seen foraging on Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, Michaelmas daisies and Salvia ‘hot lips’ in my garden, alongside new, more vibrant looking queens and males stocking up on nectar before the winter. The queens are the largest (15mm) and the workers the smallest (11-13mm). Despite its English name, which derives from its behaviour of teasing out (carder is the old fashioned word for teasing out) bits of moss to cover its nest, it is a social bumblebee, hence its scientific Latin name Bombus.
  • Tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) – I’ve really missed seeing these white-bottomed bees again this year in London. Other people too have noticed their absence. Further north you’ll likely to see them still flying. They will be vacating any bird boxes the colony has occupied over the summer. The old queen will die, leaving new queens and males to mate, then the new queens will stock up on nectar – on ivy flowers – before finding a cosy spot to spend the winter.
  • Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) – these bumblebees with dirty golden stripes are so successful that if you live in the south of the UK you are likely to see this species flying all year. This month, the workers (13-18mm) and huge new queens (20-24mm) may be supping on ivy nectar alongside other bee species. In the south, the queen will be looking for a nest to produce a brood that lives throughout the winter. Further north, they are more likely stocking up on nectar before their dormant period and will appear early next spring to find a nest.

How to help bees in October:

  1. There are still a few things flowering in the garden this month: Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, Michaelmas daisies, Chrysanthemums, Flag lilies, and annual Cosmos grown from seed for short tongued or medium tongued bees; Penstemon, Fuchsia, Salvia ‘hot lips’ and other salvias for long-tongues bees. The shrubby blue Caryopteris x clandonensis (Bluebeard) and red Perscicaria are both visited by bees, and of course, Geranium Rozanne is still flowering. But flowering ivy is by far the most valuable nectar and pollen source at this time of year, so if you have any mature, flowering ivy don’t prune it until after it’s flowered.
  2. For bee-friendly October window boxes, try Cosmos, Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus), and Cyclamen.
  3. Think about which tree you could add to your garden to provide bee food, or speak to your council tree officer about planting more bee-friendly trees in streets and parks. It’s best to plant trees during the winter when they are dormant.
  4. This month is all about planting spring bulbs to feed bees next year. Plant as many crocus bulbs as you can in window boxes, pots, hanging baskets, flower beds and lawns, as they will provide much-need early pollen and nectar for bumblebee queens when they start flying next spring. I’m also going to plant more  Muscari Armeniacum (Grape hyacinth) bulbs again this autumn to feed Hairy footed-flower bees in April and May. I’m also going to try blue Scilla Siberica and Chionodoxa too, which flower earlier in March and April, Unfortunately, most daffodils and tulips don’t feed pollinators. The exceptions, I’ve heard are Narcissus ‘Poeticus‘ (Pheasant’s eye) and wild tulips (Tulipa sylvestris) which both flower from April-May.
  5. October is a good time to divide perennials that have become overcrowded. Find another place for them in the garden or give them away to friends and neighbours to make their gardens more bee-friendly.
  6. If planting conditions are still good this month (not too cold and wet), plant wallflowers. There are also some seeds that can be grown under glass this month including wild cornflower and cowslip. Yellow rattle can be grown outdoors and is useful if you are trying to convert part of your lawn into a wild flower meadow as it suppresses grasses to allow wild flowers to grow.
  7. Leave parts of the garden untidy as queen bumblebees may have found a nook or cranny to spend the winter and don’t wish to be disturbed. And solitary bees may have laid eggs in plant stems.
  8. Clean out your bee hotels and store the bee cocoons in a dry, cool place over winter. Read here for more information.

July bees

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Bee spotting gets a bit trickier this month, with lots of diminutive solitary bees flying including our tichiest UK bee, the Small scissor bee  measuring around 4.5mm and the not much larger Common-yellow face bee.  Both these tiny black bees, don’t conform to most people’s image of a bee. Luckily, larger Patchwork leafcutter bees and chunky Wool carder bees are fluffier and much easier to spot. And if you’re in the south of England, look out for the very nippy, 8mm Four-banded flower bee. If you have a bee hotel installed and see a bee with a long, pointed black-and-white tail hanging out around it, it’s likely to be a Large sharp-tail bee – the cuckoo of both leafcutters and flower bees at this time of year.

Get out early to see bumblebees foraging before if heats up.

Tips for IDing July bumblebees:

  • The Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum) is one of the most ubiquitous bees in my garden. With her all-in-one fluffy brown coat, she’s also one of the cutest and easiest to identify foraging on a huge variety of common garden flowers with her medium-length proboscis (tongue). She had a bad time last year with the wet spring. This summer she will likely be foraging early when it’s not so hot.

You will also continue to see workers of some of our commonest bumblebee flying this month including Buff-tailed bumblebees and their cuckoo the Vestal cuckoo bee; Tree bumblebees, Garden bumblebees and Red-tailed bumblebees . Here’s a guide the six most common bumblebee cuckoos. 

How to ID July solitary bees:

  • Large sharp-tail bee (Coelioxys conoidea) is a very distinctive bee with its very pointed wasp-like abdomen and black and white colouring. The best way to spot them is around bee hotels as they are cuckoo bees of leafcutter bees who may be nesting there. They use the pointed abdomen to make a slit in the partition of the host’s cell and place their egg inside. Their larvae have long curved jaws to kill the host’s egg or its larvae. Then they gobble up all the pollen in the host’s nest and develop into adult bees to emerge next summer. Don’t try and kill them to protect the host. This is nature and the appearance of a cuckoo bee is a sign of a healthy host population. There are seven species of sharp-tail bee in the UK. Many are rare. They can also take over summer Flower bee nests. TOP TIP FOR CUCKOO BEES: They never collect pollen.
  • The Four-banded flower bee (Anthophora quadrimaculata) is much smaller than the earlier flying Hairy-footed flower bee. They display the same darting movement and high pitched buzz, but being just 7-8mm are much more difficult to spot as they zip around. The males have big, green eyes – like the similar-sized Green-eyed flower bee (Anthophora bimaculata) – and they both noisily patrol patches of flowers and are polylectic – feeding on many garden flowers including catmints and lavender, and wild flowers like Black Horehound and dead-nettles. Both species seem to be confined to the South of England.
  • Patchwork leafcutter bee (Megachile centuncularis) is one of our most common leafcutter bees. They get their name, like many solitary bees, from how they construct their nests. The leafcutters cut pieces of leaf from plants, including roses, lilac, crab apple and amelanchier to line their nests. A bit smaller and squarer-shaped than a honeybee, leafcutters are brownish grey and the easiest way to identify them is that they collect pollen on the underside of their tummy in orange-coloured pollen brushes. As they have a habit of lifting up their abdomen in the air while feeding on flowers, this orange underside is clearly visible. They will nest in bee hotels alongside red mason bees, if the tube diameter is wide enough, plugging the entrance of the tubes with leaf. Look out for a female flying with a piece of leaf as big as herself clasped between her legs. Like this fantastic footage captured by Devon-based field naturalist, John Walter.
  • The Wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) is easy to see with its yellow spots along the side of its chunky body. If you have a patch of Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina), you may have seen the females visiting already to collect the soft downy material from the underside of the leaves to line their nests. They roll the hairs into a ball as big as themselves to carry home to their nest in a ready-made cavity (maybe your bee hotel). Here she makes a hole in the middle of the ball, where she places the pollen and lays her egg on top. Unusually for bees, the males are larger. They aggressively defend their patch of purple flowers by attacking intruders in mid-air, armed with spikes under their abdomen. I’ve also seen females using their long tongues to feed on foxgloves in my garden and Black horehound along the canal.
  • NOTE: Carder means to ‘tease out fibres’. Despite having a similar English name to the social bumblebee called a Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum), a Wool Carder Bee is not a bumblebee, it is a solitary bee nesting alone.
  • Common yellow-face bee (Hylaeus communis) is one of a dozen small, (5mm) bees which are predominately black, but this species has yellow spots (the females), or triangles like a yellow mask (the males) on their face. The common variety is the one you are most likely to see in your garden because it’s not fussy about where it nests – in a variety of small cavities including manmade bee hotels if the dimensions of the tube are small enough – and it feeds on many widespread flowers. Unusually for a bee, it carries pollen back to its nest in a special stomach, called a crop, rather than on its body. If you have an observation bee box, with removal panels – so you can see what is happening in the cells the bees are creating – you will see this bee creating a waterproof cellophane-like ‘plastic bag’ around each egg and filling the bag with nectar and pollen.
  • Small scissor bee (Chelostoma campanularum) is the smallest bee in Britain. Measuring around 4.5mm, they can easily be mistaken for a tiny, black fly or ant, or a black furrow bee. The clue to which bee you are looking at is in their Latin name – campanula is the Latin for bellflowers or harebells. They frequent these flowers, and males can be found sheltering in the middle during dull weather and/or at night. Another cavity nester, they use tiny pre-existing holes in dead wood including fence posts and plug the holes with small particles like sand grains and pebbles.  Like many solitary bees, they often nest next door to each other. ID tip: Another bee you may find sleeping in your bellflowers is the slightly bigger, browner and fluffier, Gold-tailed Melitta bee (Melitta haemorrhoidalis).

Bee mimics: There are some interesting flying insects this month trying to look like bees to deter predators, and confusing some of us bee spotters. But look out for the giveaway signs – big eyes, spindly legs and the lack of pollen on their back legs, or under their abdomen.

  • Narcissus fly (Merodon equestris) – these fluffy hoverflies could easily be mistaken for a Common carder bee, expect for the big eyes, spindly legs and lack of pollen. It gets it name because it lays its eggs on daffodil bulbs. The larvae feed on the bulb during winter and in spring pupate in to the soil emerging in the spring. And they are still around in July.
  • Bee wolf (Philanthus triangulum) – this is a large, solitary wasp that nests in sandy soil (they often live in sand mounds where mining bees nest) and it preys on honeybees, paralysing them with a sting and carrying them back to their burrow. Up to six paralysed honey bees are placed in each brood chamber, then a single egg is laid on one of the bees and the chamber is sealed with sand. After hatching, the larva feeds on the cache of honey bees before spinning a cocoon to hibernate through winter, ready to emerge in spring.

How to help bees in July:

  1. Plant different flowers for different bees.  Lots of bee-friendly flowers are blooming this month including salvias, knapweeds (Centaurea nigra)  and lavenders. However some lavenders are better than others for attracting bees. Lavadula x intermedia ‘Gros Bleu’ performed best in trials at Sussex University, whereas Lavendula angustifolia is less attractive. Lavenders are good for short-tongued bees, as are herbs including Marjoram (Origanum), Anise hyssop, thyme and borage. For long-tongued bees plant Bergamot, (bee balm), Viper’s bugloss, Lamb’s Ear, salvias and shrubs like buddleia, also loved by butterflies, hence it’s common name, the butterfly bush. Many of these plants grow well in pots and planters on a sheltered patio or roof terrace in well-drained soil and they are fairly drought-tolerant. This month, I’ve already seen tiny Yellow-faced bees (Hylaeus) foraging on Fennell and Hebes, and lots of bee species on flowering thyme.
  2. If you only have a window box, Scabious japonica, dwarf harebells (campanula carpatica), dwarf lavenders, Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus) and creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum) will look good now and feed the bees if you keep watering regularly. You could also add some trailing nasturtium and Bird’s-foot trefoil.
  3. Water your plants every morning or early morning during a heatwave, otherwise the plants may conserve their nectar and won’t provide an energy drink for bees and other pollinators.
  4. Continue to let part of the the lawn grow long (after No Mow May) for dandelions and clovers.
  5. Ditch the weed killers and pesticides. That includes spraying your roses – remember the leafcutter bees collect pieces of leaf to make their nests.
  6. It’s your last chance to put up bee hotels for leafcutter bees. We have created flat-pack bee hotels that can be easily assembled and come with instructions about where to put them and how to attract bees to nest in them by planting their favourite flowers.
  7. Drill holes in blocks of wood – 10mm, 8mm, 6mm and 4mm diameters and up to 30 cm deep – and screw them to a sturdy support. Drill holes in existing structures such as fence posts, or dead trees. See if small scissor bees or yellow-faced bees take up residence.
  8. Create a sand bank against a south facing wall for mining bees that like to burrow into sand. The sand has to hold together, so try mixing builders sand with some clay soil or loam.
  9. Provide a source of water for thirsty honeybees. This can be a shallow bowl or saucer with stones or pebbles in that the bees can stand on while they are drinking. Bees can’t swim!
  10. Buy a Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland if you are serious about IDing lots more bees.
  11. Start growing seeds, such as forget-me-nots, that will flower next year.

Bees to See in May

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This month, hopefully you will see at least one new bumblebee species, a new mason bee, four types of mining bee, the now familiar Hairy-footed flower bee, and two ‘cuckoo’ bees – the Mourning bee and the Vestal cuckoo bee. (All photos credit: Penny Metal)

You will continue to see some of the bumblebees you first spotted in March and April, but instead of queens you will now probably be seeing the smaller worker bees foraging on flowering trees and plants.  

How to ID May bumblebees:

  • Tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) with their ginger thorax, black body and white tail could be the new occupants of your blue tit box if the chicks have fledged. I’ve not seen them in London for a few years now, so it appears you’re more likely to see them in cooler parts of the country. Be prepared for noisy buzzing outside their new home as gangs of males compete to mate with virgin queens. (As you can see from the photo, the male on top is much smaller than the queen.) Tree bumblebee colonies vacant a bird box at the end of the summer, so it will be empty for the blue tit family next spring. I still find it hard to tell Common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum) and Tree bumblebees apart when they are flying, despite the latter having a darker body and a white tail.

Top ID tip to tell a Common carder bee from a Tree bumblebee – both sport a bright ginger pile at this time of year (later in the year, the former fades and the latter goes a bit bald), so the best way to tell them apart now is to focus on getting a look at their bottom. The Tree bumblebee has a tiny white bottom and a darker body (abdomen). The Common carder bee is brown all over. Good luck!

Bumblebee cuckoo bee

  •  Vestal cuckoo bee (Bombus vestalis) – also known as Southern cuckoo bee because she used to be more common in the south of England – looks very similar to a Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). That’s because she resembles the bee whose nest she takes over. Like the cuckoo bird (hence the name), she lays her eggs in the nest already made by her host. The cuckoo bee will actually kill the host queen and her eggs and dupe the host’s worker bees into raising the cuckoo bee’s young. Cuckoo bees are either male or fertile females. They do not have queens or worker bees..
  • There are six cuckoo bumblebees in the UK. Because Buff-tailed bumblebees are so common, so too is the Vestal cuckoo bee. Their presence means the host population is healthy.

Top tip for telling a Vestal cuckoo bee from a Buff-tailed bumblebee – The easiest way to tell these two large bumblebees apart is that the cuckoo has a longer white tail and above the tail is a pale yellow band. It’s a paler yellow than the dirty gold on the bee’s thorax and paler than the Buff-tailed bumblebee’s golden bands. The Vestal cuckoo female is a similar size to a Buff-tailed bumblebee queen but much bigger than Buff-tailed workers. Their wings may seem a bit darker and the other tell-tale is that they never carry pollen (as the host workers will feed its young). This is true for all cuckoo bumblebees.

How to help bumblebees in May:

  1. Leave a patch of the garden wild for nesting sites and don’t disturb a nesting site if you find one for example in a compost bin or under a garden shed (it will only last until the end of the summer). Leave some permanent long grass in which Common carder bees may nest.
  2. It’s not too late to put up a blue tit box for the tree bumblebee to nest in. Again, they will leave at the end of the summer and birds can use it next spring.
  3. Buy and plant alliums, catmint and cotoneaster from garden centres to provide food this month for short-tongued bumblebees. Foxgloves, honeysuckles and thistles for the long tongued bumblebees.
  4. It’s not too late to grow from seed annuals that provide late summer bee forage such as sunflowers, cosmos and Anise hyssop.
  5. Don’t mow the lawn (let clovers and dandelions flower). See the Plantlife No Mow May campaign.
  6. Ditch the weed killers and pesticides.
  7. Scatter wildflower seeds or seed balls in pots or on bare earth. The annuals will flower later in the summer and perennials next year.

How to ID May solitary bees:

  • Grey-patched mining bee (Andrena nitida) is one of the most common mining bees in southern Britain, extending up to Lancashire and Yorkshire. She has a brighter red, fluffy pile on her thorax than the short-fringed mining bee, and grey patches on her black abdomen. These medium-sized bees (10-12mm) can be found foraging on spring blossoming shrubs and trees and dandelions and in scattered nests in flat or sloping turf and lawns.

Top tip for finding a Grey-patched mining bee – find it’s more striking waspish-looking Nomad bee, (another name for a cuckoo), Flavous nomad bee (Nomada flava).  You can see them on the ground searching out a Grey-patched mining bees’ nest to take over, and then you may spot the host bee herself.

  • The short-fringed mining bee (Andrena dorsata) is widespread too in southern England. Sporting a reddish-brown fluffy pile on her thorax, a smooth black body with thin stripes, and a very hairy dorsal fringe on the top of her back leg, the female should hopefully be easier to identify on dandelions and daisies than some of the other small, brown mining bees also around at this time of year.
  • Hairy-footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes) have been flying for a couple of months now so you are probably becoming accustomed to seeing them darting noisily around patches of comfrey and wallflowers with their tongues outstretched. Many of the black females will have mated and are now busy collecting pollen on their hairy hind legs for their young.
  • Ashy mining bees (Andrena cineraria) A distinctive black and grey stripped bee (around 11-14mm), which nests in bare ground, footpaths and tracks. Although solitary, they nest next door to each other in dense aggregations, so hundreds can emerge at the same time. But don’t worry, solitary bees don’t sting and are short-lived (around 2 months)!
  • The Mourning bee (Melecta albifrons) is another black and grey bee. Her coat is a fluffy grey/black colour, edged with lateral white spots. Despite her cute appearance, these are the Hairy-footed flower bees’ cuckoo. The female lays her eggs in the already made nest and when her larvae hatch they steal the pollen collected by the Hairy-footed flower bee.  A quarter of the 20,000 plus bee species on the planet are cuckoos.

Top tip for telling a Mourning bee from an Ashy mining bee – the former is rounder and fluffier, like its host bee, and also has lateral whitish spots down its body. The Ashy mining bee has a longer, smoother black body and is often found near to the ground nesting in large aggregations.

  • Common mini-miner (Andrena minutula). If you see a tiny mining bee (4-5mm) at this time of year, chances are it will be this mini-miner bee because as its name suggests it’s the most common of the 10 species of mini-miners in the UK. They have a hairy fringe along the thorax and markings on their head if you can get that close. They are most visible on dandelion type flowers and sallow (willows). They nest in loose soil in large groups.
  • Blue mason bee (Osmia caerulescens) – bit smaller than the more common Red mason bees, the males, which are flying now, have a fluffy brown pile of hair over a dark metallic-coloured body. The females look blueish-black with a box-shaped head. They will nest in manmade bee hotels, but construct the cells and plug the tubes with chewed pieces of leaf. You may see them on a variety of flowers in an urban garden. The females come out a week or so after the males and they are around until July.

How to help solitary bees in May:

  1. Plant wallflowers and comfrey for long-tongued Hairy-footed flower bees. Flowering fruit trees, willows, spurges, alkanet and forget-me-nots and geraniums for Red mason bees, and mining bees.
  2. For more plants, shrubs and trees that are good for different types of bees, see our Plants for Bees and Trees for Bees guides and blog about Shrubs for Bees.
  3. Leave old mortar untouched as Hairy-footed flower bees and Red mason bees may be nesting here.
  4. It’s not too late to make cob bricks with holes in that Hairy-footed flower bees may nest in. See how to make them with clay soil, builders’ sand, straw and water in this wonderful video by ecologist John Walters.
  5. It’s not too late to install bee hotels in a warm location at least a metre off the ground, where Red mason bees can check-in and lay their eggs. We like to use these flat-pack bee hotels we have made, filled with either cardboard tubes or bamboo tubes that are 150mm long and around 5mm in diameter.
  6. Leave a patch of bare earth for mining bees to burrow.
  7. Leave a patch of bare, wet earth for Red mason bees to collect mud to make partition walls in the tubes where they are nesting and to plug the end of the tubes.
  8. Don’t mow the lawn to let dandelions and clovers grow. Small, brown mining bees are easiest to see on bright yellow dandelions. I now let dandelions grow in my herbaceous perennial flower borders to spot these bees.
  9. Ditch the weed killers and pesticides.

Early spring bees

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If you’re new to bee spotting, now is the month when you can really begin. If you’ve been waiting all winter to get back to bee spotting, now’s the time to resume on dry, sunny days.

In March you could see three species of bumblebee:

  • The Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) queen is smaller (14mm) and prettier than the Buff-tailed bumblebee (which you may have seen flying over winter). The Early bumblebee queen has a fluffy yellow collar and orangey bottom.
  • The Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum) The queen bumblebees are collecting (cardering) bits of moss to line their nest which they make above ground in undisturbed areas at the bottom of gardens. They also need nectar to fuel their flight after a long period of hibernation. Their long tongue, means you are likely to see them foraging on dead-nettles at this time of year.

(You will also likely see big Buff-tailed bumblebees this month as they are our most common bee with their golden stripes and whitish tails)

Six solitary bee species:

  • Hairy-footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes) are often mistaken for bumblebees because of their round, fluffy appearance, but they live alone (not in colonies). The brown, male Hairy-footed flower bees is starting to emerge in some warmer parts of the country and bigger, black females will soon follow. But most of us will have to wait a bit longer to see both of them. They visit Pulmonaria (lungwort) and other flowers with bell-shaped flowers. The males suck up the nectar with their long, straw-like tongues (proboscis) to build up their energy for mating when the females appear. A male will often jealously guard a patch of flowers where he hopes to get lucky, and chase off other potential suitors. More than one male can often be seen in pursuit of a female.
  • Buffish mining bee (Adrena nigroaenea) is one of our most common garden mining bees widespread across England. Around the size of a honeybee but a bit stockier, this 10-11mm-long bee has a dense fluffy brown pile on the top of its thorax. It can be tricky to identify from other brown bees. It nests in footpaths, flowerbeds and lawns. Although solitary, these bees nest next door to each other in large groups. Like all solitary bees, the males appear a couple of weeks before the females.
  • Male Red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) can emerge towards the end of the month to feed on blossoming fruit trees and shrubs. If you have a bee hotel you may see these cavity nesting bees checking out of the mud-plugged tubes. They eat their way out. The male eggs are laid at the front of the tubes making it easier for them to emerge earlier than the females. They are a little smaller (6 – 8mm) than a honey bee (9-10mm), more gingery and have a rounder bottom.
  • Male Orange-tailed mining bees (Andrena haemorrhoa) are a little smaller (8-11mm) and less robust than Buffish mining bees. The smaller males have buff on their face and a brown pile on the thorax and at the tip of their tail. Their name derives from the larger females (which may not be out until April) which have an orange-tipped tail. They took up residence one summer in our Bee Observation Box, which I will put up next month.
  • Gwynne’s mining bee (Andrena bicolor) is a bit harder to spot, being 7-11mm, but look down and you may see them burrowing through soil on south-facing banks. Although solitary, they nest next door to each other underground in aggregations, so hundreds could emerge at the same time. But don’t worry, solitary bees don’t sting! The female has a reddish-brown pile on the top of her thorax and hairy pollen brushes on her back legs. The males are much blacker and shinier. They seem to forage on most spring flowers and as such are seen throughout England and Wales.
  • Common mini-miner (Andrena minutula). If you see a tiny mining bee (4-5mm) at this time of year, chances are it will be this male mini-miner bee because as its name suggests it’s the most common of the 10 species of mini-miners in the UK. They have a hair fringe along the thorax and marking on their head if you can get that close. They are most visible on dandelion type flowers and sallow (willows). They nest in loose soil in large groups.

Bee mimic of the month:

Many people confuse the Dark-edged bee-fly (Bombylius major) for a bee (which is why we’ve included it). Not surprising there is confusion, because it’s a great mimic – round and fluffy like a small bumblebee (14mm long). It’s an example of Batesian mimicry which involves a harmless species mimicking a harmful one to avoid predation. This Bombylius is very visible in the spring, hovering around green alkanet and wallflowers. The easiest way to tell it apart from a bee is its long, spindly legs, its large eyes and it has two wings (bees have four wings) which stick out at a 45c angle when it rests, whereas bees usually stick their wings behind them.

The honey bee (Apis mellifera) workers (14mm) leave the hive when its 13c. Shaped like a wasp, they have black and amber stripes. Look up and you will see them high up on fruit trees, pussy willows and hazel and alder collecting nectar and pollen to take home to feed their queen and thousands of hungry larvae that will develop into workers and drones. (We’ve not included them in our Bees to See in March guide above as we wish to raise awareness about solitary bees and bumblebees).

How to help bees this month:

Gardening for bumblebees:

  1. Leave a patch of the garden wild for nesting sites and don’t disturb a nesting site if you find one in a compost bin, under a shed, or even in a watering can (it will only last until the end of the summer).
  2. Put up a box for blue tits. After the chicks have fledged, the box may be inhabited by Tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum). The colony will vacant at the end of summer, so the blue tits can use it again next spring.
  3. Plant primroses, Forget- me-nots, Rosemary and heathers to provide food this month for short-tongued bumblebees.
  4. Longer-tongued bumblebees like Common carder bees prefer dead-nettles and wallflowers.
  5. Leave ‘weeds’ like dandelions and alkanet to grow. They provide much-needed pollen and nectar in early spring. And you’ll see lots of different bees coming to feed on a clump of alkanet.
  6. Sow seeds inside now to create more flowers later in the summer. Sweet peas, sunflowers, cosmos and Anise hyssop are some of the easiest to grow in pots. Try growing on a heated mat until the seeds germinate. I’m also going to try Chives, Viper’s bugloss and cornflowers outside next month.
  7. Instead of seeds, you can buy bee-friendly plug plants that are quicker to establish. My favourites are stocked by Rosybee.
  8. Don’t mow the lawn to let clovers flower.
  9. Ditch the weed killers, like Round-up, and any pesticides and bug sprays you may be using on your roses, or any other plants.

Gardening for solitary bees:

  1. Plant lungwort, wallflowers, dead-nettles, early-flowering comfrey and flowering currants (Ribes) for long-tongued Hairy footed flower bees. Red mason bees and mining bees, with shorter tongues prefer flowering fruit trees, willows, spurges, alkanet and forget-me-nots.
  2. Leave old mortar untouched as Hairy-footed flower bees may be nesting here.
  3. Make cob bricks with holes in that Hairy-footed flower bees could nest in instead.
  4. When the weather is dry and warming up a bit, I install bee-hotels in a warm location at least a metre off the ground, where Red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) can check-in and lay their eggs. We’ve designed our own wooden bee hotels which we stuff with cardboard tubes.
  5. Leave a patch of bare earth for mining bees to burrow and nest, and where Red mason bees can collect soil to plug their nests.
  6. If you see bees coming up through your lawn, just leave them. They are a harmless mining bees emerging in spring to pollinate your garden flora.
  7. Don’t mow the lawn to let the mining bees emerge and to nest, and to let dandelions flower.
  8. Ditch the weed killers, like Round-up, and any pesticides and bug sprays you may be using on your roses, or any other plants. Leafcutter bees depend on the leaves of rose bushes to construct their nests.

Barbican bees

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  • Rosemary,
  • Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina) ,
  • Bird’s foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) ,
  • Thyme
  • low-growing yellow sedum,
  • Knapweed (Centaurea nigra),
  • Viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare)
  • Lavender ‘Gross’
  • Red clover (Trifolium pratense

Finally this summer (2024), the 5 planters on the 5th floor terrace of an office opposite the Barbican finally sprung into life thanks to an irrigation system. Before it was fitted (it took a year to get it agreed and an outside tap fitted etc), the planters always looked rather sad and nothing grew well in the two very shallow ones. But the plants listed above are all now thriving and feeding passing bees in succession from early spring to late summer.

I even managed to get some photos of Common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum) on the lavender x ‘Grosso’ and Red clover in August.

This is the sorry sight in March before the watering system was installed. It is a drip system and receives 5 minutes of water every 12 hours (on top of any rain that falls). Even though we’ve had a wet spring/summer, there have been long periods without rain when the planters can dry out very quickly, so the plants conserve their nectar leaving less for hungry pollinators to consume.

Although it’s not clear from this photo, we do have Red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) nesting in the two bee hotels attached to the planters by a metal pole. In spring, the Rosemary will feed them.

September bees 2024

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As it’s been such a poor season for bees in my garden and rooftops, I’m just pleased to see Common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum) finally out in force. One of our most common bumblebee species, it has been noticeably absent for most of the summer, so it’s gratifying to see these small brown fluffy bees foraging on late-flowering lavender, salvia and toadflax. What’s even more encouraging is spotting large bumblebee queens and males (which in some species look different to workers and queens). The males are looking for new queens to mate with, and the new queens, once mated, are stocking up on nectar to build up their fat reserves when they hunker down over winter. A colony that’s produced lots of queens and males is a success story.

As for solitary bees, many of the more charismatic species have completed their adult stage, but if you’re anywhere near sandy banks, look out for Pantaloon bees which are still nesting. Elsewhere, small, black solitary bees are still foraging, including Common furrow bees – easier to spot than the more diminutive Green furrow bee – and Large-headed resin bees. And there have already been reports of male Ivy bees emerging. More about that below…

Tips for IDing September bumblebees:

  • Red-tailed bumblebees (Bombus lapidarius) – increasingly rare in London, but easily recognisable when you do get a glimpse. The males, (12-14mm) which are flying now are one of our prettiest bees with their yellow facial hair and red bottoms. The queens are much more dramatic, dressed in black with a fiery red butt. In the south, queens can produce a second colony of up to 300 bees, so it’s this second generation there are now flying. The queen is one of our biggest bumblebees: measuring 20-22mm. Workers are a smaller version of the queen (14-16mm). They have been spotted them on chives and alliums. I’ve heard they like yellow flowers, and last year I did see one on the yellow vetch, Bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), on the 11th floor of an office block in central London!
  • Tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) – if you’ve been bee spotting all summer, you may be quite adept at identifying tree bumblebees by now with their ginger thorax, black abdomen and white tails. Perhaps you’ve even had them nesting in a bird box in your garden. However, I’ve not seen one all year, again! They seem to have disappeared from London but are doing well further north. Is it too hot for it down here now? They usually have two generations each summer so if you see any flying this month they will likely be new queens, workers and males from the second 150-strong colony. The only difference in appearance between the queen, males and workers (known as the three castes) is their size. Queens are a larger 14-20mm, males 11-13mm and workers 13-15mm.
  • Common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum) live up to their common name at this time of year by being frequent garden visitors. Queens are now producing new queens, which are a sizeably bigger than the 11- 13mm workers. Both castes will be foraging, alongside males too. The castes all have the same ginger pile on their thorax, but the queens and males’ will be more striking as the workers’ colouring fades with age to a light brown. They are the smallest bumblebees flying in September.
  • Other bumblebees you’re likely to see this month are Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris).  This month huge mated queens (18mm) are flying, as well as workers and males. In the south these queens are stocking up on nectar and looking for a suitable nesting site to raise a new colony during the mild winter. Further north, the queens are stocking up on nectar and looking for a suitable place to overwinter.

How to ID September solitary bees:

  • Pantaloon bee (Dasypoda hirtipes) – I always associate this sand-loving mining bee (13mm in length) with beaches because of the way the female uses her large, rather comical oversized pollen brushes on her hind legs, known as ;pantaloons’ to dig a hole for nesting in coastal dunes. But she is just as happy on sandy brownfield sites in mainly southern England and Wales. Her nest can be distinguished from other burrowing bees by the large fan of sandy spoil she leaves to one of side of the hole. You can see how she makes her nest in this great video. The males don’t sport the ‘pantaloons’ but still have long fair hairs on their hind legs.
  • Ivy bee (Colletes hederae) – one of the highlights of autumn is being able to spot an ivy mining bee. To the untrained eye, they can look deceptively like a honeybee, especially as they are both found en masse buzzing around nectar-rich ivy flowers. However, look closely and you’ll see the ivy bee has more hair on its thorax and its body has much more defined and shiny segmented bands in buff and brown alternate colours. The males, which are out a couple of weeks before the females, sports a brown quiff and are a little smaller (8-9mm) than honeybees (10mm). Despite their name,  Ivy bees can gather nectar (and the females pollen) from a variety of late flowers before the ivy flowers, but the easiest way to spot them is to inspect the tiny white ivy flowers. Ivy bees belongs to the Colletes family, which mine into the ground to make their nests – often next door to each other in very large numbers – and they line their nest with a cellophane-like waterproof and fungus-resistant substance, which is why Colletes are also called plasterer bees. If you have a south-facing slope with light soil you may see hundreds, even thousands, of these bees emerging from their individual nests. It is easy to forget that they are solitary bees, ass you can see on this great video from the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. 

Fascinating fact – the Ivy bee was only described as a separate species in 1993 and wasn’t discovered in the UK until 2001 in Dorset. Unlike the other newcomer, the Tree bumblebee, Ivy bees aren’t thought to have spread to the north of England. But if you see one beyond the Midlands, please report your sighting to BWARS (Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society).

  • Common furrow bee (Lasioglossum calceatum) – these small solitary bees (8-10mm) with an elongated black shiny body have been flying since early spring. So there is no excuse for not recognising them in daisies and geranium flowers. The ones you will be seeing now are males and females that were born in July and can fly until October. They makes nests in the ground.
  • Green furrow bee (Lasioglossum morio) – an even smaller (4-5mm), black solitary bee, this one has a green metallic hue. But you can only really see this if you have a net to catch the bee and put it into a glass tube and then study it with an eye glass. I’m still not confident catching bees in a net, but I’ve been fortunate enough to go out a few times with an ecologist who is. And I got to see some of these bees close up in a tube and could clearly see the green. They are widespread and we’ve found them a number of times eight floors up on London rooftops foraging on hebes and a wildflower called Hoary willowherb (Epilobium parviflorum).

Fascinating fact: Both of these burrowing, furrow bees can display primitively eusocial behaviour, which means the early flying females in warm climates are actually queen bees that in early summer produce workers. These worker bees will collect nectar and pollen for the new females and males that are born later in the summer.

  • Large-headed resin bees (Heriades truncorum) – another small (8mm), black, robust bee often seen at this time of year in the south of England on yellow composite flowers like sunflowers. The easiest way to distinguish it from other small, black bees is that it carries pollen on the underside of its abdomen (like a leafcutter). And it make its nest in a pre-existing cavity in wood. After she has laid her eggs in the cavity, she plugs it with tiny bits of grit and stone that she collects and then glues it all together with resin collected from nearby trees. You can help this bee by drilling holes into wooden logs and attaching them to a wall. See how to make a nest for this bee. 

Fascinating fact: She is found in Europe and the east coast of the United States and is thought to have possibly been introduced in the UK by Victorians in imported wood )

Another solitary bee you may still see this month is the tiny Common yellow-faced bee (Hylaeus communis) – these small (5-7mm) predominately black bees with tiny yellow eye spots (female) or a triangle (male) on their face has been a familiar sight in gardens since mid summer (if you’ve been able to spot such a diminutive bee). They plaster their nests, but unlike other bees collect pollen in a special stomach, called a crop, and regurgitate it to make a semi-liquid mixed with pollen to feed the larvae.

 Fascinating fact: They have been observed blowing bubbles of nectar to evaporate the water. This is known as water homeostasis and it concentrates and thickens the nectar/pollen mixture making it tacky like honey. The bee’s eggs and larvae ‘stick’ to its surface, unlike many other solitary bee larvae which ‘sit’ on top of the more solid pollen mixture. Here is a video of the bubble blowing. (Thanks to Nurturing Nature and Api:Cultural for the info and footage).

How to help bees in September

  1. Plant flowers that bloom this month to provide important late sources of nectar and pollen. Sedum, Michaelmas daisy, dahlia, fuchsia, Devil’s bit scabious, Coreopsis (Tickseed) Perovskia Blue Spire, commonly known as Russian sage, and wild marjoram (Origanum) are all good, and don’t forget Common sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), the solitary bees favourite, according to Rosybee nursery’s fantastically helpful research . A particular fav in our garden was Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ a slug-proof sunflower, and of course, the Geranium Rozanne is still going strong! For the long-tongued bumblebees, black horehound, salvias, and buddleia are still flowering.
  2. The best late forage for short-tongued honeybees and Ivy bees without a doubt is ivy. But ivy only flowers when it is mature and that can take 11 years! So if you have any sprawling ivy that needs a trim, please don’t cut it back until after it’s flowered this month.
  3. If you only have a window box, Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus), trailing nasturtium and Bird’s-foot trefoil are still flowering. Add sedum and annuals such as cosmos and snap dragons. If you grow herbs in pots and window boxes, let the mint and oregano keep flowering.
  4. Gather seeds Store them in labelled paper bags in a cool, dry place for sowing or scattering next spring. Or, just scatter them around your garden now while the soil is still warm. Lightly rake the soil, scatter the seeds, cover them with fine soil and firm down.
  5. Leave parts of the garden undisturbed, as ground nesting bumblebee queens may be looking for a snug place to overwinter – and don’t chop down old, dead stems that solitary bees may have laid eggs in.
  6. Boost your wildflower meadow . If you haven’t already done your summer cut, do it now, scarify the cut meadow to expose bare soil where seeds can grown, then add yellow rattle seeds to suppress grasses taking over next year. Finally, add perennial plug plants of wild flowers that will grow well in the soil to feed bees in the future.
  7. Ditch the weed killers and pesticides. 
  8. Take semi-ripe cuttings if you are patient and want to propagate heathers, ivy, Mahonia, Escallonia, flowering-currents, verbena, penstemon and salvias. The cuttings should be ready to pot on next spring.
  9. Create a bank of sand mixed with some clay soil against a south facing wall, or a free-standing mound, for mining bees which like to burrow into sand. It needs to be about 400mm deep. Create steps in the sand as some bees like to nest vertically and others horizontally. The clay will help the bank to keeps its shape after the bees have tunnelled into it. If you’re lucky you may get ivy mining bees nesting in it this autumn next door to each other in large neighbourhoods.
  10. Drill holes in blocks of wood – 10mm, 8mm, 6mm and 4mm diameters and up to 30 cm deep (although some bees only need a depth of a few centimetres to nest in) – and screw them to a sturdy support. Drill holes in existing structures such as fence posts, or dead trees. Large-headed resin bees, scissor bees and yellow-faced bees may take up residence, but probably not until next year.
  11. Keep a look out for yellow-legged Asian hornets which could have a severe impact on our wild bee populations. 47 credible sightings had been made by 30/8/24 in Kent and Sussex. Report any sightings using the Asian Hornet Watch App.

October bees

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There are still more than a handful of bee species flying this month, including the ivy bee. If you’ve still not seen one, get out on a warm, dry day and stand patiently by a buzzing ivy bush in the autumnal sunshine. This is where you’re likely to see them feeding on the tiny, white, pin cushion-like flowers for nectar and pollen, alongside slightly bigger honeybees (14mm) that they can easily be confused with. Just to make it harder, they will be joined by heaps of stripy hoverflies. The photos above and the ID tips below are designed to help you tell a ivy bee and honeybee apart. And our Is it a bee or a hoverfly? guide should help distinguish both from their hoverfly mimics.

Also observe bees on later flowering blooms, such as Salvias, Michaelmas daisies, Fuchsia, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, Cosmos and Penstemon. Some will be the longer-tongued Common carder bees whose ginger tufts will have probably faded to straw. Small workers and larger queens will be flying, along with Tree bumblebee queens, and ubiquitous Buff-tailed bumblebees. And tiny furrow bees may still be seen.

My best advice to you this month is the same as I give every October; make the most of any mild, bright autumnal days to get out and spot many of the last bees of 2023.

Tips for IDing October bumblebees:

  • Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) – these bumblebees with dirty golden stripes are so successful that if you live in the south of the UK you are likely to see this species flying all year. This month, the huge queens (18mm) may be supping on ivy nectar alongside the other bees. In the south, they will be looking for a nest to produce a brood that lives throughout the winter. Further north, they are more likely stocking up on nectar before their dormant period and will appear early next spring to find a nest.
  • Tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) – I’ve really missed seeing these white-bottomed bees in London this summer. I’ve not spotted one, and other people too have noticed their absence. But further north you’ll likely to see them still flying well into October. They will be vacating any bird boxes the colony has occupied over the summer. The old queen will die, leaving new queens and males to mate, then the new queens will stock up on nectar – also on ivy flowers – before finding a cosy spot to spend the winter.
  • Common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum) – the workers will often sport a faded ginger/brown thorax that looks more straw-coloured at this time of year. They will often be seen foraging on Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, Michaelmas daisies and Salvia ‘hot lips’ in my garden, alongside new, more vibrant looking queens and males stocking up on nectar before the winter. The queens are the largest (15mm) and the workers the smallest (11mm). Despite its English name, which derives from its behaviour of teasing out (carder is the old fashioned word for teasing out) bits of moss to cover its nest, it is a social bumblebee, hence its scientific Latin name Bombus.

How to ID October solitary bees:

Ivy bee (Colletes hederae) – If there is one thing you should do before the end of the bee spotting season, it’s to try and see an ivy bee. Why? Here are ten reasons why ivy mining bees are so special:

  1. They are the last solitary bee to emerge in the year.
  2. They were only described as a separate species in 1993 in Germany. According to bee expert, Ted Benton, the lateness of this discovery may in part be explained by their similarity to two other late-flying close relatives: Heather bees (Colletes succinctus) and Sea Aster bees (Colletes halophilus).
  3. They were first discovered in England just 20 years ago, in an ivy bush in Dorset in 2001.
  4. There is a real thrill when you see one for the first time, because it means you have learned to distinguish its features (gingery pile on its thorax and segmented shiny bands on its abdomen) from the honeybee which is a bit bigger.
  5. They only fly for around six weeks, when the ivy is flowering, so they seem more special than bees that fly all summer.
  6. If you see one north of Shropshire, Staffordshire, Norfolk or south Wales you can contribute to a mapping project to show their spread across Britain.
  7. They nest in huge aggregations of thousands of bees, making burrows in loose soil and sandy banks. It’s an amazing sight watching them emerge in late August/early September. I’ve never seen it, but I hope to create a sand bank somewhere that may become a nesting site. This video gives a flavour.
  8. Their symbiotic relationship with ivy – emerging to feed on its nectar and pollen and pollinating it at the same time – really demonstrates the connection between bees and flowering plants. This relationship has evolved over 60 million years.
  9. Watching them at work helps to connect us with nature on our doorstep. We don’t need to visit the ‘countryside’, or to far flung places, to see nature in action.
  10. They are also called plasterer bees, because like all bees with the Latin name Colletes, they line the nests they create in their burrows with a cellophane-like waterproof and fungus-resistant substance that they secret. Isn’t that amazing!

Common furrow bee (Lasioglossum calceatum) – these small black elongated shiny bees have been flying all summer. I have to admit I’m still not confident about IDing them as they are so small and easy to miss. But I am getting better. My rule of thumb is that if it’s a small black, shiny insect with a long body on a flower late in the summer or in autumn, chances are it will be this bee. I know the yellow legs in the photo above, should help, and there are some band markings on the body, but I find these hard to see when it’s only 5.5mm.

How to help bees in October:

  1. There are still a few things flowering in the garden this month: Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, Michaelmas daisies and annual Cosmos grown from seed for short tongued or medium tongued bees; Penstemon, Fuchsia, Salvia ‘hot lips’ and other salvias for long-tongues bees. The shrubby blue Caryopteris x clandonensis (Bluebeard) and red Perscicaria are both visited by bees, and of course, Geranium Rozanne is still flowering. But flowering ivy is by far the most valuable nectar and pollen source at this time of year, so if you have any mature, flowering ivy don’t prune it until after it’s flowered.
  2. For bee-friendly October window boxes, try Cosmos, Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus), and Cyclamen.
  3. Think about which tree you could add to your garden to provide bee food, or speak to your council tree officer about planting more bee-friendly trees in streets and parks. It’s best to plant trees during the winter when they are dormant.
  4. This month is all about planting spring bulbs to feed bees next year. Plant as many crocus bulbs as you can in window boxes, pots, hanging baskets, flower beds and lawns, as they will provide much-need early pollen and nectar for bumblebee queens when they start flying next spring. I’m also going to plant lots of Muscari Armeniacum (Grape hyacinth) bulbs this autumn. They flower in April and May and I hear that the Hairy footed-flower bees likes them, so we shall see.
  5. October is a good time to divide perennials that have become overcrowded. Find another place for them in the garden or give them away to friends and neighbours to make their gardens more bee-friendly.
  6. If planting conditions are still good this month (not too cold and wet), it’s not too late to plant wallflowers. There are also some seeds that can be grown under glass this month including wild cornflower and cowslip. Yellow rattle can be grown outdoors and is useful if you are trying to convert part of your lawn into a wild flower meadow as it supresses the grasses and will allow the wild flowers to grow.
  7. Leave parts of the garden untidy as queen bumblebees may have found a nook or cranny to spend the winter and don’t wish to be disturbed.
  8. Clean out your bee hotels and store the bee cocoons in a dry, cool place over winter. Read here for more information.

There will be plenty more jobs we can do over the winter months to help bees thrive next spring. So, look out for future posts each month.

For information on IDing and helping bees earlier in the year see my  Bees to See in September blog here, Bees to See in August blog here,  Bees to See in July blog here, Bees to See in June blog here,  Bees to See in May blog here and Bees to See in April blog here, Bees to See in March blog here.

Autumn bees

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You’d probably expect to see less bees flying as summer gives way to autumn, and it’s true that the leafcutters, wool carder bee and many mining bees have gone. But if you have late flowering blooms you may see plenty of bumblebee queens stocking up on nectar before searching for a cosy winter hideaway, and smaller common carder bee workers (many faded from the sun) are still out in force.

The star of the month has to be the ivy bee. Find a patch of flowering ivy (yes, mature ivy is smothered in tiny white flowers later this month) and observe. You’ll see lots o insects, including hover flies, wasps and honeybees, but if you’re patient you’re hopefully see Ivy bees too. This short-lived solitary bee emerges just before the ivy flowers and disappears shortly after. It was first recorded in the UK, just over 20 years ago.

We’ve included honeybees in our guide this month, despite the fact they are managed bees. There are two reasons:

1. You’ll see lots on flowers in your garden because it’s their last chance to collect nectar and turn it into their winter stores of honey.

2. It’s easy to confuse ivy bees and honeybees when they are both on the ivy flowers. So carefully examine the photos above and ID notes below to tell them apart.

Tips for IDing September bumblebees:

  • Tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) – if you’ve been bee spotting all summer, you may be quite adept at identifying tree bumblebees by now with their ginger thorax, black abdomen and white tails. Perhaps you’ve even had them nesting in a bird box in your garden. However, I’ve not seen one all year! They seem to have disappeared from London but are doing well further north. Is it too hot for it down here now? They usually have two generations each summer so if you see any flying this month they will be new queens, workers and males from the second 150-strong colony. The only difference in appearance between the queen, males and workers (known as the three castes) is their size. Queens are a larger 15mm, males 13mm and workers 11mm.
  • Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) our most common bumblebee, has two generations in the summer and even a third which flies during the winter in the south of England. However at this time of year, I find them much less ubiquitous than common carder bees. This may be because only the huge mated queens (18mm) are flying, stocking up on nectar and looking for a suitable nesting site to raise a new colony in the south, or further north, the queens are stocking up on nectar and looking for a suitable place to overwinter.
  • Red-tailed bumblebees (Bombus lapidarius) – increasingly rare in London, but easily recognisable when you do get a glimpse. The males, (12mm) which are flying now are one of our prettiest bees with their yellow facial hair and red bottoms. The queens are much more dramatic, dressed in black with a fiery red butt. In the south, queens can produce a second colony of up to 300 bees, so it’s this second generation there are now flying. The queen is one of our biggest bumblebees: measuring 17mm. Workers are a smaller version of the queen(12mm). The only plant I’ve seen them on this year is the yellow flowers of Bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) on the 11th floor of an office block in central London!

Other bumblebees you’re likely to see this month are Common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum) seem even more common at this time of year. Queens that began producing worker bees in April are now producing new queens and males so they are flying too . The castes all have the same ginger pile on their thorax, but their fluffy bodies can vary in colour from light to dark brown as they fade with age. They are the smallest bumblebees flying in September.

How to ID September solitary bees:

  • Large-headed resin bees (Heriades truncorum) – a small (5mm), black robust bee often seen at this time of year in the south of England on yellow composite flowers like sunflowers. The easiest way to distinguish it from other small, black bees is that it carries pollen on the underside of its abdomen (like a leafcutter). And it make its nest in a pre-existing cavity in wood. After she has laid her eggs in the cavity, she plugs it with tiny bits of grit and stone that she collects and then glues it all together with resin collected from nearby trees. You can help this bee by drilling holes into wooden logs and attaching them to a wall. See how to make a nest for this bee. Fascinating fact: She is found in Europe and the east coast of the United States and is thought to have possibly been introduced in the UK by Victorians in imported wood )
  • Ivy bee (Colletes hederae) – one of the highlights of autumn is being able to spot an ivy mining bee. To the untrained eye, they can look deceptively like a honeybee, especially as they are both found on mass buzzing around nectar-rich ivy flowers in the south of England and Wales. However, look closely and you’ll see the ivy bee sports a quiff of orange hair on its thorax and its body has much more defined and shiny segmented bands in buff and brown alternate colours. Ivy bees are also a little smaller (10mm) than honeybees (14mm). Ivy bees are the last solitary bee to emerge in the UK. The males first, in late August, or early September, and females a couple of weeks later. They can gather nectar (and the females pollen) from a variety of late flowers before the ivy flowers, but the easiest way to see them is to inspect the tiny white ivy flowers. Ivy bees belongs to the Colletes family, which mine into the ground to make their nests – often next door to each other in very large numbers – and they line their nest with a cellophane-like waterproof and fungus-resistant substance, which is why Colletes are also called plasterer bees. If you have a south-facing slope with light soil you may see hundreds, even thousands, of these bees emerging from their individual nests. It is easy to forget that they are solitary bees. As you can see on this great video from the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. Fascinating fact – the Ivy bee was only described as a separate species in 1993 and wasn’t discovered in the UK until 2001 in Dorset. Unlike the other newcomer, the Tree bumblebee, Ivy bees aren’t thought to have spread to the north of England. But if you see one beyond the Midlands, please report your sighting to BWARS (Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society).
  • Pantaloon bee (Dasypoda hirtipes) – I always associate this sand-loving mining bee (9-11mm in length) with beaches because of the way she uses her large, rather comical oversized pollen brushes on her hind legs, known as ;pantaloons’ to dig a hole for nesting in coastal dunes. But she is just as happy on sandy brownfield sites in mainly southern England and Wales. Her nest can be distinguished from other burrowing bees by the large fan of sandy spoil she leaves to one of side of the hole. You can see how making her nest in this great video.
  • Common furrow bee (Lasioglossum calceatum) – these small solitary bees (9mm) with an elongated black shiny body have been flying since early spring. So there is no excuse for not recognising them in daisies and geranium flowers. The ones you will be seeing now are males and females that were born in July and can fly until October. They makes nests in the ground.
  • Green furrow bee (Lasioglossum morio) – another small (5mm), black solitary bee, but this one has a green metallic hue. But you can only really see this if you have a net to catch the bee and put it into a glass tube and then study it with an eye glass. I’m not confident catching bees in a net, but I was fortunate enough to go out a few times this summer with an ecologist who was. And I got to see some of these bees close up in a tube and could clearly see the green. They are widespread and we found them eight floors up on London rooftops foraging on hebes and a wildflower called Hoary willowherb (Epilobium parviflorum).
  • Fascinating fact: Both of these burrowing, furrow bees can display primitively eusocial behaviour, which means the early flying females in warm climates are actually queen bees that in early summer produce workers. These worker bees will collect nectar and pollen for the new females and males that are born later in the summer.

Another solitary bee you may still see this month is the tiny Common yellow-faced bee (Hylaeus communis) – these small (5mm) predominately black bees with tiny yellow spots or a triangle on their face has been a familiar sight in gardens since mid summer (if you’ve been able to spot such a diminutive bee). They plaster their nests, but unlike other bees collect pollen in a special stomach, called a crop, and regurgitate it to make a semi-liquid mixed with pollen to feed the larvae. Fascinating fact: They have been observed blowing bubbles of nectar to evaporate the water. This is known as water homeostasis and it concentrates and thickens the nectar/pollen mixture making it tacky like honey. The bees eggs and larvae ‘stick’ to its surface, unlike many other solitary bee larvae which ‘sit’ on top of the more solid pollen mixture. Here is a video of the bubble blowing. (Thanks to Nurturing Nature and Api:Cultural for the info and footage).

How to help bees in September

  1. Plant flowers that bloom this month to provide important late sources of nectar and pollen. Sedum, Michaelmas daisy, dahlia, fuchsia, Devil’s bit scabious, Coreopsis (Tickseed) Perovskia Blue Spire, commonly known as Russian sage, and wild marjoram (Origanum) are all good, and don’t forget Common sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), the solitary bees favourite, according to Rosybee nursery’s fantastically helpful research . A particular fav in our garden is Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ a slug-proof sunflower, and of course, the Geranium Rozanne is still going strong! For the long-tongued bumblebees, black horehound, salvias, buddleia and hemp agrimony are still flowering.
  2. The best late forage for short-tongued honeybees and Ivy bees without a doubt is ivy. But ivy only flowers when it is mature and that can take 11 years! So if you have any sprawling ivy that needs a trim, please don’t cut it back until after it’s flowered this month.
  3. If you only have a window box, Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus), trailing nasturtium and bird’s-foot trefoil are still flowering. Add sedum and annuals such as cosmos and snap dragons. If you grow herbs in pots and window boxes, let the mint and oregano keep flowering.
  4. Gather seeds Store them in labelled paper bags in a cool, dry place for sowing or scattering next spring. Or, just scatter them around your garden now while the soil is still warm. Lightly rake the soil, scatter the seeds, cover them with fine soil and firm down.
  5. Leave parts of the garden undisturbed, as ground nesting bumblebee queens may be looking for a snug place to overwinter and don’t chop down old, dead stems that solitary bees may have laid eggs in.
  6. Boost your wildflower meadow . If you haven’t already done your summer cut, do it now, scarify the cut meadow to expose bare soil where seeds can grown, then add yellow rattle seeds to suppress grasses taking over next year. Finally, add perennial plug plants of wild flowers that will grow well in the soil and feed bees.
  7. Ditch the weed killers and pesticides. 
  8. Take semi-ripe cuttings if you are patient and want to propagate heathers, ivy, Mahonia, Escallonia, flowering-currents, verbena, penstemon and salvias. The cuttings should be ready to pot on next spring.
  9. Create a bank of sand mixed with some clay soil against a south facing wall, or a free-standing mound, for mining bees which like to burrow into sand. It needs to be about 400mm deep. Create steps in the sand as some bees like to nest vertically and others horizontally. The clay will help the bank to keeps its shape after the bees have tunnelled into it. If you’re lucky you may get ivy mining bees nesting in it this autumn next door to each other in large neighbourhoods.
  10. Drill holes in blocks of wood – 10mm, 8mm, 6mm and 4mm diameters and up to 30 cm deep (although some bees only need a depth of a few centimetres to nest in) – and screw them to a sturdy support. Drill holes in existing structures such as fence posts, or dead trees. Large-headed resin bees, scissor bees and yellow-faced bees may take up residence, but probably not until next year.
  11. Keep a look out for Asian hornets which are now in the south of the UK and could have a severe impact on our wild bee populations. Report any sightings using the Asian Hornet Watch App.

For information on IDing and helping bees earlier in the year see my Bees to See in August blog here,  Bees to See in July blog here, Bees to See in June blog here,  Bees to See in May blog here and Bees to See in April blog here, Bees to See in March blog here.

How to ID and help bees this August

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The late summer flying bees vary hugely in size, colour and shape, from the round, fluffy bumblebees to the medium-sized, striped plasterer bee, parasitic blood bee with a red abdomen, the mining bee with yellow legs and the pantaloon bee with massive pollen brushes on its hind legs .  And the tiny black Yellow-face bees and Small scissor bees are still around. You may also notice that some of the bumblebees just got a lot larger again, like the size they were in the spring. That’s because a new generations of queen bumblebees are flying. Many will have mated with males (yellow, fluffy faces) from nearby nests and are looking for somewhere safe to hunker down for the next few months until spring when they will emerge to create their own colony.

Tips for IDing August bumblebees:

  •  Early bumblebees (Bombus pratorum) – so called because the colony produces new queen bees as early as May when other bumblebees colonies are still busy producing workers. This month a second generation of queens (13mm) could be flying along with smaller (10mm) workers and males, which have a much yellower head. Don’t confuse these small males with the larger males of red-tailed bumblebees. The latter has a much bigger red bottom and is bigger in size too.
  • Common carder bees (Bombus pascurorum) have been frequent visitors to the garden all summer, but you may notice that many have lost their bright ginger tufts of hairs on their thorax. It has faded to a dull brown, bleached by the sun, or just a sign that these worker bees are coming to the end of their life cycle. The newer queens and males may still sport the brighter, gingery hairs. As their English name suggests, they are widespread, and they tease out (‘carder’) pieces of moss and grass for nesting material. Unlike many bumblebee species, they nest on the ground, rather than below it, often under hedges, or garden sheds, or in tall open grassland.

You may also see red-tailed bumblebees, tree bumblebees and garden bumblebee this month. All the castes could be out – the large queens, and smaller workers and the yellow-face males. And a new generation of cuckoo bumblebees may also be flying, such as the Field cuckoo bee (Bombus campestris), which lays its eggs in carder bees’ nests. Here’s a full guide to cuckoos. ID tip: They have darker wings than nest-making bumblebees and no pollen baskets because their host’s worker bees collect the pollen to feed the cuckoo bees’ females and males.

How to ID August solitary bees:

  • Pantaloon bee (Dasypoda hirtipes) is a medium sized fluffy bee easily identified by its oversized orange pollen brushes, or ‘pantaloons’ and its nesting behaviour. It excavates a burrow in sandy banks, coastal footpaths, and even on brownfield sites and leaves a large fan of sandy spoil to one side of the hole. Most likely to be seen in heathland and coastal sand dunes of south east England, Dorset, Norfolk and Wales. It’s one of my favourite holiday pastimes, trying to spot the spoil and then waiting to see the bee in action.
  • Yellow-legged mining bee (Andrena flavipes) – are bivoltine, which means they have two generations a year. The first appears in spring and flies from March to June, and a second one from June to September, so you are seeing the second generation now. They are common in southern England and could be mistaken for honeybees, but are a bit smaller and a bit hairier and have orange (rather than yellow!) pollen brushes on their back legs, not pollen bags. They nest in large aggregations in south-facing slopes and short turf including mown lawns.
  • Davies’ plasterer bee (Colletes daviesanus) is half the size of a honeybee with a furry thorax and a shiny abdomen with grey-white stripes. There are 500 known species of plasterers – also called Colletes bees –  worldwide, but only nine in Britain. This is the main one you’ll see in your garden on any daisy-like flower and nesting in weathered sandstone walls, soft mortar or in south-facing slopes of bare soil in large aggregations with other bees of the same species.  They are called plasterer bees because they plaster the cells of the nests with a cellophane-like resin substance they produce which is both waterproof and fungus-resistant.
  • Four-banded flower bee (Anthophora quadrimaculata) – these small zippy banded bees with big eyes (the males are green-eyed) are fading to grey now. Look out for them darting rapidly between flowers on catmints, lavenders, Black horehound and dead-nettles, emitting a high-pitched buzz. You have most chance of spotting this bee in Greater London and the Thames Gateway than anywhere else in the UK.
  • Common yellow-face bees (Hylaeus communis) are one of many small, (5mm) predominately black bees which frequents gardens from mid to late summer. This one has tiny yellow spots (female) or a triangle (male) on its face, and yellow on its legs. It nests in a variety of small cavities including hollow stems and manmade bee hotels and summer units if the dimensions are small enough. It too lines the cells of its nest with waterproof, anti-fungal resin applied with its tongue, which explains why yellow-face bees are classified in the same family as Colletes.  You won’t see pollen on their hind legs or under their tummy, because, unusually for a bee, they carry pollen back to the nest in a special stomach, called a crop and regurgitate it to make a semi-liquid mixed with nectar to feed their brood (larvae).
  • Small scissor bees (Chelostoma campanularum) were easy to spot in June and July despite their diminutive size, because the 4.5mm-long males shelter in the middle of bellflowers (campanula in Latin) during dull weather and/or at night. Now the bellflowers have gone, look in hardy geraniums instead. Another cavity nester, they use pre-existing holes in dead wood including fence posts and plug the holes with small particles like sand grains and pebbles, like Resin bees.  
  • Blood bees (Sphecodes) can often be found where furrow bees are nesting as they invade their nests and those of mining bees.   There are several hundred species of these parasitic bees globally and around 17 in the British Isles. They range in size from 4mm to 8mm, but can be identified from other black, hairless bees by their red abdomen which looks as if it is full of blood. Telling one blood bee species from another can be very challenging, despite possessing some of the best descriptive common names such as swollen-thighed, bare-saddled and dull-headed. If you see one on heathland or coastal dunes, chances are it could be the Sandpit blood bee (Sphecodes pellucidus) . They are actually cleptoparasites, which means the female enters a host’s nest, opens up a cell and destroys the egg, or larvae, and replaces it with her own egg before resealing it. Females are usually found around the nests of the host, while males often hang out on a variety of daisy-like flowers and umbellifers. Tip: Don’t kill these bees to save the furrow and mining bees. Nature works in mysterious ways and we must respect that.

You may also still see leafcutter bees and small, black furrow bees foraging in parks and gardens throughout the UK at this time of year.

How to help bees in August:

  1. Plant different flowers for different bees. Hollyhocks, sunflowers, globe thistles and cardoons are all magnets at this time of year for short-tongued bees, along with open-faced dahlias. For the long-tongued bumblebees, black horehound, salvias and buddleia are still flowering, and hemp agrimony is good if you have damp growing conditions. Geranium rozanne and Calamint are still going strong, and Common sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) is starting to produce coppery blooms which are a top attraction for solitary bees according to Rosybee nursery’s fantastically helpful research . Marjoram (Origanum), Anise hyssop, thyme and Bergamot, are all later-flowering herbs that do well in pots in a sunny position.
  2. If you only have a window box, Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus), creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum), trailing nasturtium and bird’s-foot trefoil are still flowering. Add sedum for late flowers and annuals such as cosmos and snap dragons.
  3. If you let your lawn grow into a wildflower meadow this year, now is a good time to do what’s called the ‘haycut’. Cut to 4cm with a mower, or better still use a scythe or shears. Leave the cuttings for a few days to let seeds drop to the surface of the soil, then rake the cuttings up to reduce soil fertility and encourage more wildflowers next year.
  4. Gather seeds from plants such as poppies, love-in-a-mist, bellflowers and foxgloves. Store them in labelled paper bags in a cool, dry place for sowing or scattering next spring. Or, just scatter them around your garden now and hope for the best.
  5. Leave parts of the garden undisturbed, as ground nesting bumblebee queens may be looking for a snug place to spend the winter.
  6. Ditch the weed killers and pesticides. 
  7.  You can put up bee hotels now, but you probably won’t get any visitors until next spring. You can make a bee hotel. We recommend buying ones that you can clean out in the winter and store the bee cocoons safely in a cold, dry, dark place. We have successfully installed these bee hotels under the south-facing eaves of our garden shed. If you want to see what is happening inside a bee hotel, you could invest in an observation box with a Perspex viewing window.
  8. It’s still not too late to drill holes in blocks of wood – 10mm, 8mm, 6mm and 4mm diameters and up to 30 cm deep (although some bees only need a depth of a few centimetres to nest in) – and screw them to a sturdy support. Drill holes in existing structures such as fence posts, or dead trees. Small scissor bees, yellow-face bees or resin bees may take up residence.
  9. Create a bank of sand mixed with some clay soil against a south facing wall for mining bees which like to burrow into sand. Create steps in the sand as some bees like to nest vertically and others horizontally. The clay will help the bank to keeps its shape after the bees have tunnelled into it. You may find Ivy bees (Colletes hederae) nesting in it next month.
  10. Provide a source of water for thirsty honeybees. This can be a shallow bowl or saucer with stones or pebbles in that the bees can stand on while they are drinking. Bees can’t swim!

For information on IDing and helping bees earlier in the year see my Bees to See in July blog here, Bees to See in June blog here,  Bees to See in May blog here and Bees to See in April blog here, Bees to See in March blog here.

July bees to spot

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Tiny black solitary bees – less than half the size of a 14mm honey bee – are out in force this month. The only way I can spot them is to closely observe their favourite flowers. Find out what they are below. The very Small scissor bee (our tichiest UK bee), measures just 4.5mm, the diminutive Common-yellow face bee is not much larger, and Furrow bees are also small but with an longer body.  Luckily, larger Patchwork leafcutter bees and chunky Wool carder bees are much easier to spot. And if you’re in the south of England, look out for the very nippy, 8mm Four-banded flower bee. I’m always excited about seeing male bumblebees this month. They look even cuter than the workers and the queens with their fluffy yellow faces!

Tips for IDing July bumblebees:

  • Male Red-tailed bumblebees (Bombus lapidaries) and White-tailed bumblebees (Bombus lucorum) should be flying around now because it is the time of year when the bumblebee colony is getting ready for mating. If you remember in early spring the queens emerged, foraged and looked for a nest. The first eggs they laid were worker females who were able to take over foraging duties from the queen when they became adult bees allowing their mum to focus on laying more eggs to strengthen the colony. By mid summer, she switches to laying some eggs that are male, and they are now emerging as adult males and foraging for nectar to give them energy to mate when new virgin bumblebee queens appear. The males’ sole job is to mate. They can spread the genes of their colony with many virgin queens from a different colony, but the queens only mate once. The male Red-tailed bumblebee is actually multi-coloured with fluffy yellow hairs on his face, two yellow bands on his black body and a red tail to boot making him surely one of our most attractive bees. The White-tailed bumblebee males, and the very similar Buff-tailed bumblebee males, also have endearingly bright yellow hairs on their face. The other clue that a bumblebee is male is that it doesn’t collect pollen. Males are smaller than the queens.

You will also continue to see workers of some of our commonest bumblebee flying this month: Buff-tailed and white-tailed bumblebees, Common carder bees,  Red-tailed bumblebees, Tree bumblebees and Garden bumblebees. And the odd cuckoo bumblebee, like the Vestal cuckoo bee will be around this month. Here’s a full guide to cuckoos. ID tip: They have longer, more pointy tails than nest-making bumblebees and no pollen baskets because they get the host bumblebee workers to feed their young.

How to ID July solitary bees:

  • Patchwork leafcutter bee (Megachile centuncularis) is one of our most common leafcutter bees. They get their name, like many solitary bees, from how they construct their nests. The leafcutters cut pieces of leaf from plants, including roses and lilac, to line their nests. A bit smaller than a honeybee, leafcutters are brownish grey and the easiest way to identify them is that they collect pollen on the underside of their tummy in orange-coloured pollen brushes. As they have a habit of lifting up their abdomen in the air while feeding on flowers, this orange underside is clearly visible. They will nest in bee hotels alongside red mason bees, plugging the entrance of the tubes with leaf. Look out for a female flying with a piece of leaf as big as herself clasped between her legs. Like this fantastic footage captured by Devon-based field naturalist, John Walter.
  • The Four-banded flower bee (Anthophora quadrimaculata) is much smaller than the earlier flying Hairy-footed flower bee. They display the same darting movement and high pitched buzz, but being just 9mm are more difficult to spot as they zip around. The males have big, green eyes – like the smaller Green-eyed flower bee (Anthophora bimaculata) – and they both noisily patrol patches of flowers and are polylectic – feeding on many garden flowers including catmints and lavender, and wild flowers like Black Horehound and dead-nettles. Both species seem to be confined to the South of England.
  • The Wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) is easy to see with its yellow spots along the side of its chunky body. if you have a patch of Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina), you may have seen the females visiting already to collect the soft downy material from the underside of the leaves to line their nests. They roll the hairs into a ball as big as themselves to carry home to their nest in a ready-made cavity (maybe your bee hotel). Here she makes a hole in the middle of the ball, where she places the pollen and lays her egg on top. Unusually for bees, the males are larger. They aggressively defend their patch of purple flowers by attacking intruders in mid-air, armed with spikes under their abdomen. I’ve also seen females using their long tongues to feed on foxgloves in my garden and Black horehound along the canal.
  • NOTE: Carder means to ‘tease out fibres’. Despite having a similar English name to the social bumblebee called a Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum), a Wool Carder Bee is not a bumblebee, it is a solitary bee nesting alone.
  • Common furrow bee (Lasioglossum calceatum) – there are more than 1,700 furrow bees worldwide making them the largest bee genus, despite the fact they don’t conform to most people’s image of a bee – black, with a smooth elongated body, often with a metallic green or blue sheen. Measuring around 7mm, the common variety are widespread in gardens across Britain and males may roost overnight in thistles, knapweeds and ragworts at this time of year. They burrow into light soil to make their nests in large aggregations.
  • Small scissor bee (Chelostoma campanularum) is the smallest bee in Britain. Measuring just 4.5mm, they can easily be mistaken for a tiny, black fly or ant by the lay person, or a black furrow bee by an entomologist. The clue to which bee you are looking at is in their Latin name – campanula is the Latin for bellflowers or harebells. They frequent these flowers, and males can be found sheltering in the middle during dull weather and/or at night. Another cavity nester, they use pre-existing holes in dead wood including fence posts and plug the holes with small particles like sand grains and pebbles.  Like many solitary bees, they often nest next door to each other. ID tip: Another bee you may find sleeping in your bellflowers is the slightly bigger, browner and fluffier, Gold-tailed Melitta bee (Melitta haemorrhoidalis).
  • Common yellow-faced bee (Hylaeus communis) is one of a dozen small, (5mm) bees which are predominately black, but this species has yellow spots (the females), or triangles like a yellow mask (the males) on their face. The common variety is the one you are most likely to see in your garden because it’s not fussy about where it nests – in a variety of small cavities including manmade bee hotels if the dimensions of the tube are small enough – and it feeds on many widespread flowers. Unusually for a bee, it carries pollen back to its nest in a special stomach, called a crop, rather than on its body. If you have an observation bee box, with removal panels – so you can see what is happening in the cells the bees are creating – you will see this bee creating a waterproof cellophane-like ‘plastic bag’ around each egg and filling the bag with nectar and pollen.

How to help bees in July:

  1. Plant different flowers for different bees.  Lots of bee-friendly flowers are blooming this month including salvias, knapweeds (Centaurea nigra)  and lavenders. However some lavenders are better than others for attracting bees. Lavadula x intermedia ‘Gros Bleu’ performed best in trials at Sussex University, whereas Lavendula angustifolia is less attractive. Lavenders are good for short-tongued bees, as are herbs including Marjoram (Origanum), Anise hyssop, thyme and borage. For long-tongued bees plant Bergamot, (bee balm), Viper’s bugloss, Lamb’s Ear, salvias and shrubs like buddleia, also loved by butterflies, hence it’s common name, the butterfly bush. Many of these plants grow well in pots and planters on a sheltered patio or roof terrace in well-drained soil and they are fairly drought-tolerant. This month, I’ve already seen tiny Yellow-faced bees (Hylaeus) foraging on Fennell and Hebes, and lots of bee species on flowering thyme.
  2. If you only have a window box, scabious japonica, dwarf harebells (campanula carpatica), dwarf lavenders, Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus) and creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum) will look good now and feed the bees if you keep watering regularly. You could also add some trailing nasturtium and bird’s-foot trefoil.
  3. Continue to let part of the the lawn grow long (after No Mow May) for dandelions and clovers.
  4. Ditch the weed killers and pesticides. That includes spraying your roses – remember the leafcutter bees collect pieces of leaf to make their nests.
  5. It’s your last chance to put up bee hotels for Blue mason bees and Leafcutter bees. You can make a bee hotel. We recommend buying ones that you can clean out in the winter and store the bee cocoons safely in a cold, dry, dark place. We have successfully installed these bee hotels under the south-facing eaves of our garden shed. If you want to see what is happening inside a bee hotel, I would recommend investing in an observation box with a Perspex viewing window. Unfortunately, George Pilkington, who made this award-winning one for Nurturing Nature with a summer unit that allows smaller bees to nest, has now retired, so we are looking to test out some new ones before we can recommend a new supplier.
  6. Drill holes in blocks of wood – 10mm, 8mm, 6mm and 4mm diameters and up to 30 cm deep – and screw them to a sturdy support. Drill holes in existing structures such as fence posts, or dead trees. See if small scissor bees or yellow-faced bees take up residence.
  7. Create a sand bank against a south facing wall for mining bees that like to burrow into sand.
  8. Provide a source of water for thirsty honeybees. This can be a shallow bowl or saucer with stones or pebbles in that the bees can stand on while they are drinking. Bees can’t swim!
  9. Buy a Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland if you are serious about IDing lots more bees.
  10. Start growing seeds, such as forget-me-nots, that will flower next spring.

For information on IDing and helping bees earlier in the year see my Bees to See in June blog here,  Bees to See in May blog here and Bees to See in April blog here, Bees to See in March blog here.

Bees to see in June 2023

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This month you’ll hopefully see the three bumblebees and a cuckoo bumblebee, (There will also be plenty of buff-tailed and white-tailed bumblebee workers foraging, and smaller, brown common carder bees, but we haven’t included them in the June guide as we wanted to introduce you to some new faces). While the charming hairy-footed flower bees and red mason bees are no longer flying, there are five new solitary bees to try to identify instead: a new mason bee, a new flower bee, and we’ll see for the first time this year, leafcutter bees, furrow bees and one of my favourites, the wool carder bee.

Tips for IDing June bumblebees:

  • Garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) – sit by a patch of flowering foxgloves or honeysuckle and you will hopefully see this long-tongue bumblebee. Unfortunately they are becoming less widespread than many other large bumblebees with white tails. The way to tell the garden bumblebee apart from buff-tailed and white-tailed bumblebees is by looking at the two golden bands at the front and back of the thorax which I think makes the bee look as if it’s wearing a black skull cap. It has a third band on the abdomen.
  • Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) – if you see a small bumblebee (10 -13mm) with a faint red bottom and yellow stripes, it’s an early bumblebee. The male (pictured above) is particularly striking with his bright-yellow fluffy facial hairs and a stripe on his body too. This month, new queens may be emerging, along with workers and the males. Look out for them on cotoneasters, brambles, Raspberry and garden crane’s-bill (hardy geraniums). They can also nectar rob from longer, tubular flowers. They have small colonies of up to 100 bees and generally nest underground in old rodent burrows like many bumblebee species, but they can also inhabit bird boxes (like tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnourm) and nests, roof spaces and holes in trees, although I have yet to hear reports of this.
  • Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) –unmissable with jet black bodies and fiery red tails of the queen and her workers, but records show that they too are becoming less widespread. I have read that they favour yellow flowers, and I did see them on a sedum’s tiny yellow flowers and the yellow part of the pink-petaled seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus). I’d also suggest looking up at Laburnum trees drooping under the weight of yellow, pea-like flowers.
  • Vestal cuckoo bee (Bombus vestalis) – also called the Southern cuckoo bee because it is in this part of England where you are most likely to see the huge females (18mm) seeking to invade the underground nest of buff-tailed bumblebees and lay their eggs. At this time of year only small buff-tailed workers are foraging. So if you see a huge bee that looks like a big buff-tailed bumblebee, it’s more likely to be its cuckoo. Other ID tips: she has a longer white tail with yellow hairs at the base, and there are NO pollen baskets on her hind legs. (She is a female and not a queen because she doesn’t have worker bees. Her eggs hatch into females and males that are fed by the buff-tailed bumblebees worker bees who become her slaves after she takes over their mother’s nest.) Look closely and you’ll see she has only one single golden band on her thorax and another band on top of her white tail. NOTE: There are 6 Cuckoo bumblebee species in the UK. This is the most common one because its host is the most common bumblebee.

How to ID June solitary bees:

  • The Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum) has to be one of my favourite solitary bees, because they are so easy to spot with their yellow spots along the side of their chunky bodies. And if you plant Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina), you are guaranteed to see them collecting the soft downy material from the underside of the leaves to line and plug their nests. Carder means to ‘tease out fibres’, and the female rolls the hairs into a ball as big as herself to carry home to her nest which is in a ready-made hole in dead wood, cavities in wall and man-made objects. I’ve yet to see one. You may also see the larger male bees aggressively defending their patch of purple flowers for mating by attacking intruders mid air. They are armed with spikes under their abdomen that can kill their foes. As well as Lamb’s ear, they can often be seen feeding or mating around Black horehound, Purple toadflax and vetches. NOTE: Despite having a similar English name to the Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum), they are very different. The latter is a social bumblebee.
  • Patchwork leafcutters (Megachile cenuncularis) are one of the most common leafcutter bees found in gardens. They get their name, like many solitary bees, from how they construct their nests. They cut pieces of leaf from many plants including rose and lilac bushes, honeysuckles, willowherbs, Amelanchier trees, birches and Horse Chestnut to make their nests, leaving the leaves looking as if they has been attacked by a hole punch. This leafcutter bee is much smaller (7-8.5mm) than a honeybee and a brownish grey colour. But the easier way to tell it apart from a honeybee is that they have an orange pollen brush on the whole underside of their tummy, which they have a habit of lifting up in the air while feeding on flowers. Favourites include thistles, knapweeds, burdock, Common Fleabane, Bird’s-foot trefoil and St John’s-worts and brambles.  They nest in bee hotels if red mason bees have left any tubes unoccupied. They plug the entrance with leaf later in the summer when they have laid all their eggs in a tube. If you’re very lucky, you may see a female flying with a piece of leaf as big as herself clasped between her legs. They can also nest in dead wood, cavities in walls and even occasionally in soil.
  • Blue mason bees (Osmia caerulescens) are a bit smaller (6 – 8mm) than a red mason bee (and have the same round bottom and hairs on their tummy to collect pollen. The females are black with a blue sheen. The males, which appear a little earlier, have a gingery pile on their thorax. They can also check into bee hotels, but are less frequent guests than red mason bees. Their tubes will be plugged green, with chewed up leaf. You’re most likely to see these bees on catmint, crane’s bill (hardy geraniums), knapweeds and flowering herbs.
  • Green-eyed flower bee (Anthophora bimaculata) – these gorgeous fluffy bees with their stunning big green eyes are less than half the size (6-7mm) of the more common Hairy footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes). Their diminutive size, along with their rapid darting movement between flowers, makes them much more difficult to spot and they are largely confined to southern England, especially coastal areas and heathland where they nest in large, noisy aggregations in sandy cliff tops and the edge of costal pathways. They feed on Vipers bugloss, Black horehound, brambles, Thyme and mints including garden catmints. Listen out for the high-pitched buzz as they feed, often in groups. I’m really hoping to spot them on a trip to the Dorset coast later this month. They fly until September, so one to watch out for if you’re holidaying on the South cost this summer.  
  • Furrow bee (Lasioglossum smeathmanellum ) – there are close on 40 different species of furrow bees recorded in the UK. They are not what you expect a bee to look like – black, with a smooth elongated body, often with a metallic green or blue sheen. Measuring less than 5mm (for comparison a honeybee is around 14mm), spotting this type of furrow bee is going to be a challenge even though they are common over most of southern England and Wales. They nest in old walls and bare slopes in large aggregations and visit open-faced flowers like dandelions and daisies. At first glance you may dismiss them for some kind of fly, but flies have spindly legs and larger eyes and tend to rest with their wings open, while bees tuck theirs back.

How to help bees in June:

  1. Planting different flowers for different bees is particularly important this month when there can often be what’s called a June gap In the UK – a lull in nectar and pollen supplies as the horse chestnut trees finish flowering and trees, such as the limes, have yet to begin while spring flowers fade before summer ones burst into bloom. Try catmint (Nepeta) and cotoneaster for short-tongued bees, and foxgloves, honeysuckle, comfrey and thistles for longer-tongued bees. Research by bee-friendly plant supplier, Rosybee found that in June the yellow flowers of  Dyer’s chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria) were the best for all types of solitary bees, followed by purple Geranium rozanne ( a favourite in my small garden because it flowers until October). Viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare) was best for bumblebees, as it produces nectar all day long, followed by catmint (Nepta racemosa – another long flowerer) and a white lavender (Lavandula x intermedia ‘Edelweiss’). Don’t forget Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina) for the wool carder bees.
  2. If you only have a window box, try growing scabious japonica, dwarf harebells (Campanula carpatica), dwarf lavenders, Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus), seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus), and creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum) which flower from June onwards. Water regularly.
  3. Don’t pull up weeds like Alkanet, which feed many types of bees, and continue not to mow part of the lawn (after No Mow May) to let dandelions and clovers grow.
  4. It’s not too late to install blue tit boxes for Tree bumblebees and possibly Early bumblebees to nest in. They will vacate at the end of the summer, so you may get blue tits nesting next spring.
  5. Put up bee hotels for blue mason bees and leafcutter bees. You can make a bee hotel. We recommend buying ones that you can clean out in the winter and store the bee cocoons safely in a cold, dry, dark place. We have successfully installed these bee hotels under the south-facing eaves of our garden shed. If you want to see what is happening inside a bee hotel, you could invest in an observation box with a Perspex viewing window such as this award-winning one from Nurturing Nature. Even better at this time of year is a summer unit with a variety of different sized nest blocks for many different species of solitary bee.
  6. Create your own nests for cavity-nesting solitary bees, by drilling holes in blocks of wood – 10mm, 8mm, 6mm and 4mm diameters and up to 30 cm deep – and screw them to a sturdy support. Drill holes in existing structures such as fence posts, or dead trees. See which bees take up residence over the summer.
  7. Continue to leave bare earth for mining bees to burrow into.
  8. Provide a source of water for thirsty honeybees. This can be a shallow bowl or saucer with stones or pebbles in that the bees can stand on while they are drinking. Bees can’t swim!
  9. Ditch the weed killers and pesticides – that includes all bugsprays for your roses!
  10. Buy a Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland if you are serious about IDing lots more bees.

Where have the solitary spring bees gone? One of my favourite bees, the Hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes) has disappeared, along with Red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) and early mining bees.  This is because solitary bees only live for a few weeks. And the spring flying solitary bees that came out in April or before have now reproduced and provisioned their nests with pollen, so their life cycle has come to an end.  In their short life cycle they mate and then the female makes, or finds and adapts a nest in which to lay her eggs. She forages for pollen to leave in the nest for the hungry larvae which will hatch from her eggs, after she has died. When she had laid all her eggs and provisioned them with pollen, she will plug up the entrance to the nest, and exhausted from all her activities she will die on the wing. In her short life, she pollinates many flowers, shrubs and trees whose fruits, seeds and nuts are food for birds and other species. After eating all the pollen, the bee larvae spin a cocoon, pupate and transform into adult bees through metamorphosis. They overwinter in the cocoon and will emerge next spring to start the life cycle again.