A few months ago I bought a really interesting book called "Fruitless Fall" by Rowan Jacobsen which is all about the collapse of the honey bee and the crises that is likely to happen as a result of this in terms of agriculture. I had only just started reading it the other day when I discovered that our last (and up until now very healthy) hive of bees had decided to move house - and had of course eaten all their honey supplies before doing so! The majority of bee keepers in this area seem to have lost most of their hives this year. There are definitely far less bees buzzing around than last year and the rate of fruit production on my passion fruits, lemons etc. was way down from previous years. It definitely looks like things are not looking great for bees around the world.
In one attempt to get some more bees into our area my husband has researched and purchased two expensive orchid plants. When they are in flower they are supposed to attract swarms of Japanese bees which we can then catch and put in our hives... probably only to have them run away again, but at least we will be keeping some bees in the area for some length of time! 
This last picture is hopefully what we will be able to take a lot of next spring.....
what a shame. Can you do anything with the beeswax? I would buy beeswax candles, hint hint...
ReplyDeleteOoooh. Ugly photo of bees and plant. We seem to have lots of bees - but ones with long dangly legs.
ReplyDeleteVery hard to type with long nails!