UK Bees Working Overtime In The Ideal Weather Conditions.

Bees on overtime – After a cold start to the spring which delayed many plants from coming into flower the last few weeks with regards to flowering have been spectacular. Whatever other issues the bees have with disease and pesticides they have almost perfect working conditions at the moment and seem to be making good use of these conditions. With lots of flowering plants about and other plants having a great year for pollen production the bees are in overtime mode. Every year the GardenAdvice team carry out a quick survey in a small number of gardens on pollinating insects this year shows the 2nd week in June at a 50 percent increase in bee activity over the same period last year and a 30 percent fall in bee activity in the second week in May compared with the same period last year. Hopefully the perfect bee conditions will continue for a few weeks more with perfect temperatures, not too windy, lots of flowers and not to much heavy rain.

With this seasons weather it will be interesting to see which crops have been able to take advantage of the conditions, apple growers reported a good year for flowering but if the bees were not able to pollinate because of the cold weather earlier when the apples were in flower this years crop of apples could be lower than normal.