In the last few days I've seen some honeybees around, which I saw none
of in the last 2 years. There seem to be more bumblebees around as well.
I saw very few of those last year. Are bees starting to make a comeback
I wonder?

Chris Hogg wrote:
On Fri, 06 May 2011 15:06:32 +0100, wrote:

In the last few days I've seen some honeybees around, which I saw none
of in the last 2 years. There seem to be more bumblebees around as well.
I saw very few of those last year. Are bees starting to make a comeback
I wonder?

Counter-intuitively, healthy bees will come through a hard winter
better than a mild one. In mild winters they tend to keep fairly
active in the hive, even flying outside despite there being virtually
no nectar available. As a result they consume their honey stores
faster, which means they will run out of honey before the spring. Many
bees will starve, decreasing the numbers of active bees available to
get the colony going again in the spring. In hard winters they cluster
tightly in the hive to conserve heat, and the stores of honey actually
last longer. I saw a beekeeper on the telly a few days ago who said
just that, implying that bees did quite well this winter.

I thought bees hibernate during the winter, at least if the temperature
gets below 45ºF. If it they tfreeze then they die.

In message
Frank wrote:

In the last few days I've seen some honeybees around, which I saw none
of in the last 2 years. There seem to be more bumblebees around as well.
I saw very few of those last year. Are bees starting to make a comeback
I wonder?


Some years ago my daughter gave me "bee home" for bumble bees, but so
far no bee has settled in it. Is it too late to do as suggested, catch
a bumblebeee, put it in the bee home, block the exit hole for 30
minutes and hope that it will settle there?

Michael Bell

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