We all know how important bees are to our plants and for growing fruit and veg, so I guess many of us have tried to attract bees into our gardens.

I've always grown bee attractant flowers close to my vegetable garden and have also (unsuccessfully) tried the flowerpot technique for obtaining a bumblebee nest many times.

Although I often saw attractive wooden bee habitats in garden centres I never bought one as I reckoned that if my flowerpot system didn't work then the big wooden nest boxes wouldn't work either. It was no surprise then to read last week in the papers that a four year study by scientists confirmed they didn't work.

However, quite a few online companies are now selling live British bumblebee hives and there seems to be lots of good feedback from people who've bought them...

Has anyone tried them here and if so I'd love to hear your views.