Eco Matters: Help bees ride out the winter

We’ve all grown to love bees. No longer accompanied by squeals and sting-dodging dances, now a fluffy bee in the garden is a welcome sight.

Despite widespread conservation efforts, these buzzy creatures still need our care and protection, especially in the colder months of the year.

We spoke to local resident and bee enthusiast Michelle Hollis-Hunt, who explained that one of the best things you can do is leave hiding spots for bees to ride out the winter.

“A lot of bumblebee queens will have finished their foraging and found space somewhere to hibernate until the weather warms up in spring, such as in leaf litter, soft earth or under logs.

“Many solitary bees will also be overwintering as pupae (bees in their maturing stage) or fully developed bees in cocoons and nest cells in sheltered areas.

“For this reason it is good to leave areas of your outdoor space untidied and not chopped back until spring – resist sweeping up that leaf litter and leave perennials uncut as this all makes great habitat for critters.”

But this doesn’t mean that you won’t be seeing any signs of life from your local bees during chilly weather.

On milder winter days, you might see honeybees, and buff-tail bumblebees.

Sightings of this latter species, Michelle explains, ‘are a relatively new pattern, very likely caused by climate change. Research is still taking place on this and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT, found at bumblebeeconservationtrust.org) encourages people to record winter active bees on iRecord’.

iRecord is a fantastic platform dedicated to sharing wildlife observations, creating biological records, and tracking species to help conservation efforts. You can register and contribute online at irecord.org.uk or via their free app.

Whether or not they should be out and about, these winter-active bees will still be looking for pollen and nectar in late flowering plants.

Michelle recommends growing mahonia, winter-flowering heather, hellebore, and lungwort for early spring.

Winter is also a good time to be thinking ahead about what could be flowering in your garden by spring.

Keep insects in mind, ‘choosing single flowers rather than double means that bees can easily access the pollen and nectar from them.’

Tree planting is also a great winter activity that supports bees, ‘and as with flowering plants, the local area needs a selection of flora and fauna that flower throughout the year’.

Something to bear in mind when making your planting selections.

Lastly, helping out an individual bee when it finds itself caught out in bad weather and becomes inactive could be your good deed of the winter.

If you find one, Michelle suggests: “The best course of action is either to pop it on a flowering plant nearby or leave it somewhere sheltered. You can give stranded bees a sugar water mix for a burst of energy (see BBCT website for guidance), don’t give them honey as this can pass on pathogens.”

So there you have it: bees love honey – but only the stuff they make themselves!

The Eco Matters Column is a community-led project run by local volunteers. Views expressed are the contributor’s own. For information or to contribute to the column contact Andrew Ingram on ecomatters
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