Bee starvation warning. Can you help?

[Ciri]

So there is currently a bee starvation warning out. The weather hasn’t been kind and bees are really struggling. Bee keepers are having to feed their bees and this impacts on all of our pollinators since they all compete for the same food source.

If you could put out a sugar solution or some fondant icing dampened with water that can really help to see them through. It isn’t their ideal food source but it keeps them alive until the hive recovers. Good for the kids to do as a summer holiday activity too.

we need more flowers

I can’t find anything on google about a current “bee starvation warning”. I can see it’s a frequent problem for beekeepers but that’s what happens when you remove their natural food source that they made and sell it - you have to feed them yourself.

why are you spreading misinformation?

And do local bee keepers associations really go and deal with random home owners carpenter bee infestations? They're h

Bees don't like fake grass @DaisyAndDonaldDuck so you're safe anyway

Honey bee experts, they have nothing to do with any other bee species I'd have thought

No fake grass here, honey 😊

Clearly not many flowers either if you don't let bees in!

I agree, a source would be useful. I've just done a quick Google as I've never heard of a bee starvation warning and nothing has come up on the first two pages for 2023.

You sound grumpy about everyone being an expert, but you aren't giving any expert sources for the current bee crisis you're discussing (beyond wider long term issues) , and there are experts saying not to do exactly what you're saying, so you can surely understand why lots of us might be hesitant.

I've had plenty of bees in my garden, none look tired or starved.
We're getting to the end of bumblebee season anyway, so a few of those die off each week, but the honey bees are still buzzing away on my Iceplant, Buddleia, Toadflax and Marjoram plants. I keep something in bee-friendly flower all year in case there's a warm day as several species of solitary bee will pop out to forage whenever it's warm enough.
I do keep a pebbly dish of water in the garden at all times in case insects are thirsty.

daisy unless you or your family are allergic to bees then for your own sake you'd best make space for them in your garden. Unless you're volunteering to go without UK fresh produce when not enough is pollinated.

I garden for wildlife and I have lots of pollinators of all kinds in my garden. The most popular flowers right now are marjoram, buddleiea and echinops. The most helpful things I've done is leave lots of wild areas, long grass, overgrown ivy etc, and put a pond in.

I'm really not keen on advice like this because it's an easy cop out and I think stops people gardening responsibly. It is far better and more sustainable to plant pollinator friendly plants and have a shallow bird bath than leave sugar water out for a couple of days. I'll take that RSPB advice over a random post on the Internet with nothing from the wildlife charities to back it up..

I've a 1 acre garden full of phlox, lavender, ornamental cornflowers and a large berberis that they absolutely love amongst lots of other things. Just waiting for the hollyhocks to flower and the second flowering of the sweet williams has started.

The thousands of acres of heather filled fells that my garden backs straight onto is in full bloom.

Our neighbour has bee hives and says they are doing well.

I'm confident no bees are starving here! Perhaps it's a regional issue?

Our lavender is swarming with bees - same quantity and size as previous years.

Is it a BBA warning, and is it for specific regions of the UK?

You could plant some late-summer flowers next spring, for next late summer? I try to have lots of flowers for as long as possible - at the moment the bees are loving my buddlia, cosmos and single dahlias.

I only put seed down in may so mine are still going strong! Lots and lots of flowers left.

We have been notified via the local beekeeping association. We have a going hive purely for pollination/environmental reasons.

most bees in loft spaces will be honey bees. Not always but if it’s a big swarm it’s likely to be honeybees.

I’m sharing this far and wide OP
save our bees, save our planet
🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

We've had wasps and white-tailed bumblebees in our eaves, but never honeybees.
The last couple of years white-tailed bumblebees have colonised our bird box, so they're nice and close to our flowers but away from doors.

Don’t share it far and wide it’s basically bollocks and not recommended by reputable bodies like the rspb

And people like you are why the human race is (quite righly) doomed. What a fucking stupid and ignorant attitude.

Oh don’t be so dramatic 😂

This is why an excessive concentration on ‘wildflowers’ is not the best option for wildlife. Once the meadow season is over, by mid- end June, they need the later flowering plants such as Shasta Daisies, hardy geranium, buddleia, sedums and campanula. butterflies enjoy these , too.

Whatever. Do it or do not. I can’t change the world.

I am not for one minute saying it’s something you should be doing all of the time. The article is absolutely right in that respect. It isn’t good for bees to be fed sugar water or fondant in the normal course of things. Neither should you give them honey since that can introduce disease. But in a time like this when bees are facing a starvation warning it is however going to stop them from dying in the short term and whether the plants are being pollinated by bumble bees or honey bees the essential thing is that they are pollinated.

Anyway I’m out. I am pottering in the garden with my bees etc precisely to avoid agro. Thank you to those who are helping.

The purpose of bees is to pollinate plants and that’s why we need them. Your local beekeepers, having chosen to keep bees, should look after them properly by a) leaving the bees with a greater proportion of honey and b) topping up the food supply themselves.

we should not be leaving out the equivalent of junk food for the bees. Also according to the articles I’ve read if the bees have sugar syrup as too high a proportion of their diet then the beekeepers may not be able to sell the results as honey.

honeybees are not the only pollinators - there are thousands of other types of insects that could be adversely affected by people leaving bowls of sugar water out