{"id":3089,"date":"2021-02-28T12:50:12","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T11:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=3089"},"modified":"2021-02-28T12:50:12","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T11:50:12","slug":"february-a-month-of-two-halves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=3089","title":{"rendered":"February; a month of two halves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"494\" height=\"879\" src=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hiveinsnowportrait.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"3091\" data-link=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?attachment_id=3091\" class=\"wp-image-3091\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hiveinsnowportrait.jpg 494w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hiveinsnowportrait-169x300.jpg 169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"494\" height=\"879\" src=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/yellowcrocusportrait.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"3092\" data-link=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?attachment_id=3092\" class=\"wp-image-3092\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/yellowcrocusportrait.jpg 494w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/yellowcrocusportrait-169x300.jpg 169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"494\" height=\"879\" src=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/buff-tailedonmirabelleplum.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"3093\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/buff-tailedonmirabelleplum.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?attachment_id=3093\" class=\"wp-image-3093\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/buff-tailedonmirabelleplum.jpg 494w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/buff-tailedonmirabelleplum-169x300.jpg 169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Snow at the start of the month melted to reveal crocuses beneath, and glorious warm, sunny days at the end saw early-flowering fruit trees erupt in blossom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Honeybees were locked down in their snow-topped hives early on. One big family, eating honey to stay alive and shivering close together to keep their home a toasty 35 C. Bumblebee queens were for the most part staying in small holes beneath ground keeping warm, or yet to wake-up from their winter inertia. Once the crocuses and snowdrops appeared and the temperature rose, buff-tailed bumblebee <em>(Bombus terrestris)<\/em> queens were spotted supping on nectar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the unseasonably warm end to month, some cherry and plum trees blossomed early leading to sightings of bees usually not yet out.  The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ecoentogeek\/status\/1364644577823641607\">tree-bumblebee<\/a>,<em> (Bombus hypnorum)<\/em> the brown, male <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/misspennymetal\/status\/1364224479149236235\">hairy-footed flower bee<\/a>, <em>(Anthophora plumipes)<\/em> the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ed_P_Wildlife\/status\/1364932114366537734\">early bumblebee<\/a><em> (Bombus pratorum)<\/em> and even the male red mason bee <em>(Osmia bicornus)<\/em> were all spotted as they emerged to take advantage of the early banquet of nectar and pollen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Snow at the start of the month melted to reveal crocuses beneath, and glorious warm, sunny days at the end saw early-flowering fruit trees erupt in blossom. Honeybees were locked down in their snow-topped hives early on. One big family, eating honey to stay alive and shivering close together to keep their home a toasty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>February; a month of two halves - Urban Bees Website<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=3089\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"February; a month of two halves - Urban Bees Website\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Snow at the start of the month melted to reveal crocuses beneath, and glorious warm, sunny days at the end saw early-flowering fruit trees erupt in blossom. 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