Bee Love

All bees, including the beloved bumblebee, are in trouble and need our help. Since the Second World War the demands on agricultural land have meant a dramatic reduction in wildflowers (the Bumblebee Conservation Trust estimate that we have lost 97% of our flower rich grasslands since the 1930s) and as bees rely entirely on flowers for their food, this has devastated their numbers and resulted in 2 species becoming extinct in this country. Bumblebees are great pollinators and play a key role in the production of much of our food, so it is vital that their decline is taken seriously. It is easy to help. UK gardens cover over one million acres so all garden owners can make a positive contribution by using these spaces in a way that benefits biodiversity as well as making them a lovely place to play and have barbeques. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has created a brilliant online tool which can be used to assess how friendly a garden is to bees and then make really useful recommendations as to how what you can do to enhance your score: http://beekind.bumblebeeconservation.org/.

As with so many ecological issues, it is also easy to tweak your daily life to enhance the chances of bees.Try the following:

• By local and organic

• Garden organically

• Create a bee refreshment station (http://www.naturallivingideas.com/save-the-bees/)

• Leave your car at home

• Plant bee attracting flowers

• Choose household products with good environmental credentials

• Learn to be a beekeeper and contribute to care of a hive

• Tell your friends about this issue!

Something green lies at the beginning of every food chain, so without pollinators, there will be no food.

Image: Bumblebee Conservation Trust