[Maeve Drogheda]

I have a massive amount of bees buzzing around my garden this year. The senetti is full of them, as is one of my shrubs, Stravenisia davidii pallette, I think it is called, (excuse spelling). When you go over to that side of the garden there is a constant hum and drone of the bees at work, this shrub has lovely flowers this year which has attracted them.

Has anyone else noticed an increase in the bee population in their Gardens this year.

[Sive]

I have loads of bees too....but I'm pretty sure they're all bumble bees which I adore, as they are so lovely to look at and I'm never afraid of being stung by them either. And what could be nicer than working in the garden with the perpetual drone of bees buzzing around you ? Sheer bliss !
By the way, I have bumble bees of every size and with a variety of markings.

[doctor greenthumb]

lots of bees in my garden too they first came with the tulips but as the sweet pea flowered more came now the aquilegia is in full bloom along with growing foxgloves i see around ten bees at any one time buzzing around my garden is only10x10 meters.

[Her Outdoors]

Loads in aquelgea too and the sage is in flower and attracts loads of them. I just love them.

[Maeve Drogheda]

Firstly Dr Greenthumb, you have sweet pea flowering!!! I have lots of sweet pea growing strong but not sunny enough for flowers. - What is your secret.

The bees are every shape and colour and I love having them around. I had a man in yesterday to give me a price on cutting some tall hedging at the back of my garden wall. He wanted to cut back my stravensisia where the bees live. "that shrub is very untidy and I'll cut it back and get rid of them bees", Well as you can imagine, he didn't last long in my garden.

The bees are welcome, "your man" isn't!!!!!!!!

[Sive]

Well done ! The world needs a whole lot more Maeves and far, far fewer "your man" s ! It would be a far better place then.

[simonj]

Lucky you - Cant wait for my sage to flower to feed the "Singing masons, building roofs of gold" (Shakespeare)
Love bees - Bees rock, and wax to lyrical about them to fill up the post - so here's a note about bees I wrote a while back
http://connemaracroft.blogspot.ie/2010/05/note-on-bees.html

[Maeve Drogheda]

simonj, love the poetry. I love the bees and they seem to know it to as they never bother me and allow me to take photos of them really close up.

Hubbie has taken day off work to sort out hedges and trees, so that the bees are safe. I was reading about a natural way to collect honey with an old log and was wondering has anyone collected honey without it being from a conventional hive.

You leave a seasoned log with a hollow in a corner and the bees gravitate towards it and make a honey comb. Sounded interesting.

[Maeve Drogheda]

I overheard a conversation, (local garden center, expert giving a talk) regarding bees and the reason all the fruit is slow to produce is because there are not enough bees to polinate the flowers.

But that is not the case in my garden, and I have seen the bees buzzing in and out of the greenhouse, I thought that it was just the cold and when we get some sun and heat that all will come good.

What do you guys think?

[Keith g]

Hi Folks, well despite the wet summer, the sheer amount of bees in my front and backgardens area pleasure to see, I have loads of Cosmos, Lavender and Woodbine plants frowing, the scent is magnificent.

I think that they have recovered well from early summer, lets hope it stays decent up to the end of september.

I do think that the fruit is definitely slower to come about this year as it has been just too wet.

Keith.

[Cherrysparkle]

I saw my first bumble bee in the garden today, struggling in the wind! Does anyone know what I could do to make my garden more bee friendly? I've planted all the recommended plants etc, so was more thinking about habitats for them to nest in. There was a great article in one of the English papers about building bee hotels for the solitary red mason to lay its eggs in, but some google sleuthing seems to suggest that it's only native to England and Wales, so I'll put my building plans on hold .

[kindredspirit]

I was struggling in the wind today.

However, I saw three different Bumble Bees making their way in under the fallen bamboo leaves around the garden. They must like the warmth or easy accessibility of those leaves.

Lots of Bumble Bees around my Heather today but no buzzing sounds from any of them. I like Bumble Bees; much nicer than those honey bees with constant PMS!