Jean Vernon - The Secret Lives of Garden Bees

THE SECRET LIVES OF

GARDEN BEES

This book is dedicated to my wonderful mum, Betty, who shared her love of nature and the beauty of small things .

Dearly missed, but never forgotten .

JEAN VERNON

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

Pen and Sword WHITE OWL

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire - Philadelphia

Copyright Jean Vernon, 2020

Hardback ISBN: 978 1 52671 186 1

Paperback ISBN: 978 1 52676 651 9

eISBN: 978 1 52671 188 5

mobi ISBN: 978 1 52671 187 8

The right of Jean Vernon to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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C onsidering the enormous debt we humans owe bees, it is surprising how little most of us actually know about them. Ask the average person on the street what springs to mind when you mention the word bee, and most will reply honey, swarms or stings. Dig a little deeper and some might acknowledge the important roles they play as pollinators, or talk affectionately about the fuzzy bumblebees that visit their gardens, but only rarely will anyone mention solitary bees or, in fact, even be aware of their existence.

It is only in the last ten years or so that I have become aware of the vast numbers and diversity of bee species we share this planet with. With each passing year I have become more fascinated by these enchanting little insects their lifecycles, their behaviour and skills, the ways in which social species interact with each other, and the complex relationships they have with flowering plants. They are, quite simply, extraordinary. As well as all this, bees have opened a window for me into the wider world of nature. Because of them I now pay greater attention to the flowers they forage upon and all the other insects that feed alongside them. They are my harbingers of spring, and the sounds of my summer. For all the months of the year that bees are on the wing, I watch them, follow them, photograph them, read about them and never tire of learning more about their ways. I miss them sorely over winter.

Jean Vernon understands all of this. She, too, has fallen more than a little in love with these wondrous creatures. If I didnt know this already of Jean, I would know it from the way she writes in this beautiful book in particular from the way she describes the bees, and other insects, she has come across in her own garden and farther afield.

Written from the heart, but with great care and attention to detail, The Secret Lives of Garden Bees is packed with fascinating information and delightful insights into the hidden world of garden bees. It contains practical advice on how we can all do our bit to welcome and encourage bees to visit our own gardens, as well as other nuggets and tips about how to help bees, which extend way beyond the usual lists of what to plant. And all of this presented in such an accessible, gently humorous and gardener-friendly way. Oh how I wish this book had been around when I first became interested in bees!

It has been most encouraging, over the last few years, to witness peoples concern and determination to help our beleaguered pollinators. This has resulted in a growing interest in gardening for bees and, more recently, a shift towards people becoming more aware of the bees themselves. In fact, as I write, twitter and instagram are positively buzzing with photographs of Leaf-cutter bees carrying carefully cut pieces of rolled up leaves, or flower petals, back to their nests, and conversations about how and where these charming little bees are building their nests. The thirst for knowledge is almost palpable. Jeans book could not be more timely.

The thing that makes this book stand out from other books about bees, apart from the fact that it is not all about honeybees, is the way in which Jean weaves together her unabashed love of bees, with her understanding of their individual and collective needs. In it, she invites us to meet the bees, singling out some of the more easily identifiable species that we are likely to find in our gardens such as the strikingly handsome Red-tailed bumblebee, the smaller, but equally stunning Tawny and Ashy Mining bees, and (you will be pleased to know) the much talked about Leaf-cutter bees. She also introduces us to less common species, including the Bilberry bumblebee and the Long-horned bee, both famed for their beauty, but also both, sadly, declining in range and numbers.

Jeans wonderful descriptions of these, and other bees, together with the glorious colour photographs throughout, bring the bees in this book to life. It has been a pleasure and a joy to read, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Brigit Strawbridge Howard
Shaftesbury, Dorset.

2nd August 2019

I m not quite sure when I first fell in love with bees, or even when I first noticed them. We had wild bees in our garden where I grew up and they were busy on our nearby allotment pollinating the beans and raspberries that we grew to fill the freezer for winter meals. They went about their business, flitting between the flowers and filling the air with their gentle and good vibrations. I dont remember being scared of them. I do remember being fascinated by their activity and I loved to watch them climbing right inside the bean flowers to collect their nectar supplies.

Even back then in the 70s, we pollinated the marrows and courgettes by hand, but thats because in the UK we dont have the Squash bee that has specialised in feeding on the pollen of this group of plants. But I learned fast that plants cant move around to find their perfect partner and that they need a reliable method to get pollen from one plant to another, mostly via the bees and other pollinators, sometimes by the wind and occasionally via bigger creatures such as we interfering humans.

I was and still am fascinated by plants and went on to study botany at university. Many plants cant exist without bees and the two have evolved together perhaps thats the best way to describe how I got to where I am today. As a botanist, a love of plants comes with bees and all the other pollinators involved in their lifecycle. To be honest, these days its the bees that turn my head more often than the flowers.

I hope youve picked this book up because you love bees and want to learn a bit more about them. More and more people are starting to understand, notice, and really care about the bees. Actually, I think its a type of addiction, because once you get interested in these little creatures, well you just cant stop.