Bee,s

yes i have and i still got a spider on my kitchen window.a worrying sign of the times i believe

Hi NP, strange isnt it

yes me too, i have seen a few over the last few weeks, one nearly flew into me boxing day on the way to my Mahonia flowers and mosquetoes too- i have been bitten a few times, really quite strange, and very worrying.

Mosquitoes? ouch . glad to say i havent seen any of those here

its not strange its worrying though it suits a lot of us gardeners including me .the big picture seams a bit worrying

We often see bees in winter. The snowdrops rely on the winter hardy mining type bees for pollenation. They will fly when the temperature is barely above freezing.

Yes, there was a large bee trying to get into one of the Helleborus foetidus flowers the other day. I took his photo but deleted it because it came out blurry. I was surprised to see him, I must admit!

Owdboggy, are the mining bees black with a little white on them? If so, I have them in my top border every year.

~apparently you can put out a solution of sugar dissolved in water on a sponge in a shallowbowl ~ if they are starving and looking for food it will help~

There are various forms of mining bee. The ones we see most often have brownish red bottoms.

Yes, nothing unusual about seeing bumble bees in the winter especially when the sun is shining

maybe i just never noticed them before.
think ill give that sugar solution a try Arlene

go 4 it

The sugar and water idea is a really good one. The problem comes when we have cold weather followed by much warmer weather and the bees can be fooled into activity. They are then in trouble if they can't find food and if there is cold weather again.

I lost two hives one year because of this happening. There just weren't enough survivors to keep things going.

ah thats a shame weedpatch. do you have many hives now?

not so many insects now lol