March Pollen

Today in the garden there were bees collecting pollen from the Hellebores, Hazel, Snowdrops, Christmas Box and maybe pollen and nectar from the Viburnum, neighbours have winter heather in flower so I'm sure they will have found that as well!

Maybe not the best focus, but it's tricky getting the catkins and the bees to keep still!!

Bees in the pond!

In the recent spell of warmer weather the bees have been very active- a sure sign of the presence of brood is pollen going into the hive. All the hives have been busy, a look at the tray under the mesh floor shows debris where the bees have uncapped stores. Last Sunday we went out into the garden and the humming of bees was astonishing for the time of year- there were bees on the viburnum and loads on weed covering the surface of the pond. Bees taking in water means they are using the stores- they need the water to dilute the honey to make it the right consistency to use. In the garden we have the pond, but at Cordwood where the bees may get water is not obvious. There are small ponds in the nearby homes, Rob has set up water traps in the woodland garden and the fields are regularly irrigated- but when we when up this week the bees showed us a source of water that we had not considered!

Old carpet has been laid down to suppress weeds here and there on the site. They had obviously absorbed water from the dew and were soaked through- interestingly the bees were on this pale coloured one but did not seem interested in a nearby blue one!