The sun came out a little this morning but still no bees buzzing in the garden. I am really quite worried, especially after hearing about their decline too in other parts of the world.
We have plenty of flowers and bushes in bloom in the garden and there should be plenty of insect activity but...nada, nothing, zilch. Mr Happy Larder and I are seriously considering hand-pollinating our apple tree this year which might be ok for us to do on one tree but think about orchards? And it's not just apples - bees pollinate a large variety of crops including different types of berries, tomatoes etc. I have found a great report by Friends of The Earth and the University of Reading here in the UK that you might find interesting, even if you don't live in the UK: "Reviving British Bees - why we need a National Bee Action Plan".
On a more cheerful note, I have found a great recipe that I am going to try out for dinner tonight, so watch this space tomorrow for another (hopefully) tasty supper idea.
We are experiencing a similar problem in Australia. I have done a little reading on the subject and I think it seems that too many chemicals are having a disastrous effect on our bees. We had a 50 acres of remnant vegetation and 50 acres of dry land farming for quite a few years. When we bought the 100 acres there was a distinct lack of bees and birds due to overcropping the farming areas and overuse of chemicals. We used natural predators and no chemicals unless absolutely necessary. When we sold the property the birds and the bees were back including a native bee. We have a major problem with rabbits (as we do here in Australia) but one morning 2 older gents drove onto our property and offered to help eradicate the rabbits using their ferrets. Our property was pesticide free so no problems for the ferrets. In one year the ferrets cleaned out nearly 1000 rabbits without the use of heavy duty pesticides. The hawks and eagles were very grateful for the ferret spoils too.
ReplyDeleteIt does appear to be a similar story here with the pesticides. Only recently the EU have agreed to ban a certain type that seems to be responsible for the bee decline. I fear though that something else will be used instead which might be bad for another species.
DeleteVery interesting to hear that natural predators have been used in Australia to deal with the rabbit problem. We need more approaches like that, I think. Kirsten x