Got Bees?

If its any consolation to anyone ive had plenty of bees in my garden, mostly the bumble bee, not too many honey bees tho, although i dont know anywhere or anyone who keeps them in my area, in the wild jst like the wasp i would suppose there considered pests > apart from all that i have a hedge row in my garden that blooms wth clumps of tiny white flowers during most of june & july wth a very strong fragrance, & the bees,butterflies,hoverflies,flies all love it.... And if thats not enough the berries come soon after & throughout the winter which most birds love,especially blackbirds..Unfortunately i dont know its name..i inherited the hedge 4 years ago when i moved in. > one of my neighbours said to me they never knew it had such a lovely fragrance because the previous owner kept it cut down at about 2ft..I trim the sides in winter & it must be about 6ft now..... what a beautiful reward i get for letting it run free..i jst wish i had more of it. ;) x

I see you live in the USA where 'colony collapse disorder' has been prevalent. So I guess that's why there's a shortage of bees. From what I've read it seems to be a mixture of disease (varroa mite passing on viruses), overuse of persistent pesticides, and even the way bees are kept by migratory beekeepers. Thank goodness we aren't suffering as badly in Europe yet, though who knows? The French have some pretty awful persistent insecticides which are killing off whole colonies. For the other bees, like bumbles and solitary bees, you can create a lot of bee habitats for them and other insects. I'll post a photo on my homepage of what has been done in one garden near here.
Generally don't keep your garden too tidy and clear, leave piles of sticks and turf, old logs etc round the edges so bumble bees and others can nest and hibernate.

I saw a programme the other day on t.v. about bees. It turns out colony collapse is thought to be caused by a virus which first came to light in Italy. Hence the Virus is called Italian ...... virus. Can't remember the missing word.
Here in the North East of England I have seen many types of bumblebees but not one honey bee so far this summer.