Country life
Photo : Bumblebee by Nick Upton - 2020vision
Photo : Early BumbleBee by Jon Hawkins - Surrey Hills Photography
Photo : Bumblebee by David Kilbey
10 things you didn ’ t know about
Bees
• Bees provide one in every three mouthfuls of food and drink we eat , thanks to their pollination skills .
• In the UK , we have around 250 species of bee , which can be split into three main groups : there ’ s a single species of honeybee , 24 species of bumblebee and around 225 species of solitary bee .
• They come in a variety of sizes and colours , from the tiny 2mm long Perdita minima to the enormous Bombus dahlbomii - the queens of which can reach 40mm long , earning them the nickname ‘ flying mice ’.
• Research has shown that their brains can actually reverse the ageing process ! When older bees were reassigned the task of tending larvae instead of foraging , their brains began to age backwards and they regained the ability to learn new things . They even produce higher levels of a protein known to protect against dementia in humans .
• Making honey is hard work – a colony of honeybees can fly around 55,000 miles and collect nectar from two million flowers just to make a single pound of honey !
• Bumblebees and honeybees are both social , living together in colonies , though bumblebee colonies tend to be much smaller ( up to 400 bees compared to around 50,000 )
• After visiting a flower , bumblebees store nectar ( the sugar-rich syrup produced by plants to attract pollinators ) in a
special ‘ honeystomach ’ in their abdomen .
• Bumblebees learn to take the shortest possible route between the flowers they visit , effectively solving a complicated mathematical problem that would take a computer days to figure out .
• Solitary bees tend to be named for the skills they use to build nests . There are mining bees that dig burrows , leafcutter bees that carve out nest material from plants and mason bees that use mud to build nest compartments .
• Bees are worryingly in decline - but there ’ s plenty you can do , no matter whether you have a window box or a big garden . Find out more at www . wildaboutgardens . org . uk .
Discover more with your local Wildlife Trust www . hiwwt . org . uk
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