Can anyone give any suggestions to help explain about why, earlier this week, my grass was covered in bees? They were not the thin ones but chubby bees that looked like 'bumble bees' although seemed to be slightly smaller. The weather was mild and dry, but every step I took I had to play a game of hopscotch. They seemed to be creeping into the grass but in parts there were the tiny petals of the early blossom.
I also have quite a supply of clover in the grass, which, when it starts to flower (later in the year) I leave uncut apart from a pathway through the middle. It made me wonder if they may be looking for the clover a little too early.
Haven't seen any for the last three days. How strange!

sounds like they've just come out of dormancy

many species of bees have underground hives

ive seen 4 different species of bees in the last week or so

Thanks Jabber. Would that possibly mean they may have hives within the garden?
Don't know much about bees and it's confusing when trying to identify them.

We have bumble bees visiting our bedroom window most mornings since about a week ago. They also did this last year and the year before. The difference has been this last week, we can't leave a window open as at least 4 or 5 will be inside and will sit on the curtains. They are the biggest bees I have ever seen, and so LOUD!!

We did find a hole in the brickwork of the house, about as big as a drainpipe and they were often seen flying in and out last year, but I can't locate them this year. There is a large tree in blossom outside and they are completely covering it.

bee careful

I read a thing ages ago about bees and there are solitary bees which make their own singular nests, up til then I'd always thought they were always in swarms. Just coming out of dormancy is probably the best bet, hope there are no sudden cold snaps to see them off. Apparently there is something amongst the bees, some sort of mite, varoa mites I think, which is causing havoc and if it gets a real big grip we are in trouble because the bees pollinate just about everything. Little things we think of but they turn out to have huge consequences when things go wrong.

Had a search on internet which tells us that there are over 200 species of Bumblebees.
It would appear, these that are out early are the Queens and gathering pollen for to feed their young in the nests when they hatch. They then stay in the nests and wait for the other bees to do the work.
I think I have got that correct. If not I'm sure someone will tell me.
Thanks for your replies. Bees are very interesting little creatures. Must watch them more this summer and as you say Bandy, if they disappear more, who knows what will happen. I do believe that nature eventually adjusts accordingly tho' and regenerates at some point in some amazing way.

My friend is a beekeeper.On sunny days his bees have been out of the hive quite a few times these last few weeks. Bees will feed on clover, so good that you leave some of it uncut.Heather honey is very good, so beekeepers sometimes leave hives near heather moors.

There is a world-wide bee problem and so a lack of honey.
If bees do not leave hives and pollinate we will be in trouble.

New Zealand Manuka Honey has many health benefits and heals wounds.It's about £9 a jar available at some local supermarkets.
Local honey containing local pollen can help reduce the symptoms of hay fever.
Most honeys contain a naturally occurring active agent, which is thought to support good health but is easily destroyed when exposed to heat and light. Manuka honey contains an extra, naturally occurring active ingredient, which makes it distinct from other honeys. This additional component is stable and doesn't lose its potency when exposed to heat, light or dilution. Its special quality is known as UMF and the higher the UMF, the more potent the honey and its powers (aficionados reckon that you need a UMF of 10 or higher for the honey to be properly effective). It has antiviral and antibacterial actions, which is a good excuse for scoffing the stuff neat at the first sign of a cold or sore throat.

Most people who buy Manuka honey simply put it on their toast or in their tea, but where it really comes into its own is in treating wounds. In New Zealand, it has long been used in this way and studied extensively. Now, the NHS is doing the same.

According to doctors, Manuka honey's high sugar content creates a waterless environment in which the bacteria that are infecting a wound are unable to survive. Also, thanks to the presence of an enzyme called glucose oxidase, it is acidic, which apparently adds to its unique antibacterial properties.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/wellbeing/5979247/The-benefits-of-Manuka-honey.html

Very interesting Paaxvo, and thanks.

It's surprising, that many old fashioned remedies for ailments, contained honey. Another thing is the sugar and soap poultice, used for cuts and septic wounds.Obviously the honey would work so much better.
The motto here must be ' save the bees and always have a jar of honey'
An Australian told us to have a tablesoon of honey everyday, to keep us in good health. That would be the proper honey, not massed produced Gales stuff. Lets help the bees.

http://www.helpsavebees.co.uk/to_do_list.html

Bees !!!

I would of ran

So scared of bees and wasps

Sarah, bees don't sting unless they are threatened, because they only have one sting, which disembowels them, Don't flap if they come near because they will slowly fly off again.
Now wasps are very different....don't like them much, nasty little blighters when they get fed up.

Never knew that about bees hun thanks for that

Got stung last year by a wasp on my bottom of foot!

Did I cry lol

Anyone interested in Bees & Bee Keeping, there are events all the year round at Thornton Hough & a number of other local locations.

http://www.cheshire-bka.co.uk/Branch/Wirral.php

Best honey i ever tasted was from Sudan,Africa. I only had a teaspoon and learnt the true meaning of a sugar rush!
Anybody seen Bee Movie? Cracking film, we love it.

No, but I have seen 'The Sting'...

Paul Newman & Robert Redford. Classic!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070735/

The eternal Geekus just can't behave. Thanks for the website, I will have a look at that later and get actioned.
The Bee movie is really good but have onlyseen it once.

There are loads of flowering plants shown on that website. Many could go in tubs or window boxes. Ideal project for the kiddies.

I note with interest that it is only the females that sting!

Same with mosquitoes, only the females bite. Nuff said....

Bumble bees are great things. The last thing they want to do is to sting you, as it will be THE last thing they ever do - as Granny rightly said! They only have one shot in their armoury and they don't want to waste it!

If a bumble bee alights on you, enjoy the superb beauty of it. Don't panic, it means you no harm. I have even gently stroked one when it was on my bare arm. No problem. They are wonderful creatures.

Wasps however (IMHO) are pure evil. The only good wasp is a very flat one!! (Waits for tirade of abuse from the Wirral Wasp Huggers Association!)

Sorry, this computer keeps crashing.Driving me mental.

Yes, I read that about the female bees the other night. They are very interesting....I keep saying that don't I?...but they are.
It must always be the female mosquitoes that find their way into our bedrooms, in that case.
I've got a foxes den in my garden too. It's been there a few years now. Last year I spotted 2 cubs coming out to play just before dusk. They, in return spotted me and shot back into the den.Quite often the vixen is out during the day. I wonder if it's the same parent or if they move on and leave it to the next generation. They don't half make a racket when they are looking for their mate around January.
Anyway, back to the bees. Wouldn't it be nice if Wirral could be the best bee place in the uk?

http://www.waspinator.co.uk/Wasp%20info.html

This is copied from the Cheshire BKA site which Geekus posted. Makes the answer to original question all clear.
..............
Bumble bees are not aggressive and if left alone will gladly keep flying to and fro from their nest. They do a lot of good work pollinating.

Once established they cannot be moved and we recommend that the nest be left as it will die out in the Autumn as bumble bees work on an annual cycle. A queen that has over wintered by hibernating finds a suitable nest site in late February/early March. The queen rears the first offspring, which are workers, whose duty is to forage and care for the colony. The queen continues to lay eggs and the colony develops during the year with the bees doing a lot of good pollinating fruit crops etc. New queens are produced in late July/August, these mate with the males or drones and find somewhere to hibernate over the winter and those that survive the winter start the nests the following year. The original nest dies out at the end of the season.

My son just came to visit and has been working in Wirral today. He said there were loads of bees either dead or dying, all over the place.

Has anyone else seen this ?

No

There were loads of them at the festival gardens on Sunday.

Oh well, his brain must have been buzzing.

Good thing if they were plentiful Rude. Only found out a couple of weeks ago, that they live for about 3 weeks, the worker bee collects 1/10 of a teaspoon of honey in it's life. For one pound of honey, as a hive they cover over 55,000 miles.

Another of God's wonderful little creatures

Wow....just Wow We're waiting for Friends of the Earth to contact us re. free wild flower seeds that Bees like. They took our Donation (via text) quick enough....lol

I planted a lot of bee friendly plants amongst my fruit bushes last year.They have come back this year and there are loads of bees in the garden.Nothing like sitting in the garden on a summer evening listening to the bees buzzing about.

Really feels good don't you think, helping such little creatures to survive.

Let's know what seeds you get Rude.

Devilwoman, what plants have you got? They seem to love the blue and yellow plants in my garden. ALso the wisteria and the deutzia which are both white, one of which is heavily perfumed. Foxgloves are another, but they seem to go for the blue more.

This was on Business Insider Australia 2013.

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BRIEFING
A Devastating Look At Our World If Honeybees Disappeared
DINA SPECTOR JUN 22 2013, 10:38 PM BOOKMARK 45
Dead almond trees
A world without honeybees would also mean a world without fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
Nearly one-third of the world’s crops are dependent on honeybees for pollination, but over the last decade the black-and-yellow insects have been dying at unprecedented rates both in the United States and abroad.

Pesticides, disease, parasites, poor weather, and the stress of being trucked from orchard-to-orchard to pollinate different crops all play a role in the decline of managed honeybee populations. A lack of bees threatens farmers who depend on these nectar- and pollen-eating animals for their pollination services.

We have few planned defenses against a honeybee disaster. The Farm Bill, passed on June 10, 2013, allocates less than $2 million a year in emergency assistance to honeybees.

“The bottom line is, if something is not done to improve honeybee health, then most of the interesting food we eat is going to be unavailable,” warns Carlen Jupe, secretary and treasurer for the California State Beekeepers Association.

Honeybees as a species are not in danger of extinction, but their ability to support the industry of commercial pollination, and by extension, a large portion of our food supply, is in serious danger.

Whole Foods recently imagined what our grocery store would like in a world without bees by removing more than half of the market’s produce. Here, we also take a purely hypothetical look at how the human diet and lifestyle would change if honeybees and other bee pollinators disappeared from our planet one day. This is the worst case scenario — it’s possible that human ingenuity and alternate pollinators can mitigate some of these outcomes, but not necessarily all of them.

If bees dies, beekeepers who make their living by managing bee colonies will go out of business.