Bees

Information

This is a group for people who are concerned about the decline of bees, and are working locally to help them or would like to get involved.

Friends of the Earth’s Bee Cause campaign is currently calling for a national bee action plan while raising awareness of the need to help bees.

Locally, many groups and individuals have been planting bee-friendly plants and Hackney Council has created several new wildflower meadows.

Please use this group to share what you are doing to help bees - as well as news or photos of bees that you've seen in Hackney.

Website: http://www.foe.co.uk/groups/hackney/
Location: Biodiversity
People: 12
Latest Activity: Sep 12, 2015

Links

Hackney's 50 bee species - A Talk by Russell Miller 16 June 2016

Bee Walk at West Hackney Rec June 2016

Capital Bee - campaigning for a bee-friendly London.

Royal Horticultural Society: lists of recommended wild flowers and
cultivated flowers that are 'Perfect for Pollinators.'

River of Flowers - a project to sow corridors of wildflowers throughout London and beyond.

Hackney Citizen article about the bee campaign, and what you can do to help bees.

News story on the Tower Habitats website about the campaign, and Hackney & Tower Hamlets Friends of the Earth's recent 'bee walk.'

Report of the bee walk on Friends of the Earth's website.

Discussion Forum

Friends of the Earth bee campaign and new RHS research

Started by Katherine Pitt Sep 12, 2015. 0 Replies 0 Likes

Couple of things:1. Friends of the Earth is taking the government to court over it's decision to allow the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in some areas of England this autumn.…Continue

Tags: pesticides, pollinators, bees, biodiversity

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Comment by Russell Miller on March 13, 2015 at 13:36: New blog on bees and trees in early spring

Comment by Russell Miller on March 6, 2015 at 21:57: Buff tailed bumblebee queens emerging at Daubeney Orcahrd.

4 species at King Henry's Walk Garden today:

honey bee, hairy footed flower bee (males); buff tailed bumblebee (too small for a queen, = over wintering colony??); tiny unidentified species.

Comment by Katherine Pitt on September 1, 2013 at 19:46: Honeybee (I believe) on cosmos. Cosmos is a good flower to photograph bees on because the flowers are so open - almost flat.

Comment by Katherine Pitt on July 22, 2013 at 19:28: Took some photos of this bee on my cosmos this evening. From studying the Friends of the Earth ID guide, think it *could* be a buff-tailed bumblebee - can anyone put me straight?

Comment by Katherine Pitt on June 28, 2013 at 20:10: I'll try and take another, but it's not easy.. There are loads of them like that in my garden at the moment (near Newington Green)..

Comment by Russell Miller on June 28, 2013 at 17:57: Hi Kathryn

Got any other pics of your bee?

Not sure as to id from the one you posted.

R

Comment by Friederike Hanisch on June 28, 2013 at 14:33: That's fantastic news!!!

Comment by Katherine Pitt on June 28, 2013 at 14:07: Result for Friends of the Earth!!! The government has announced a national pollinator strategy. See

http://www.foe.co.uk/news/government_national_pollinator_strategy_4...

Comment by Tim Evans on June 25, 2013 at 18:15: New and even more damning study of neonics by an international panel including Dave Goulson. Note the emphasis on field realistic exposures, which is one of the industry's smokescreens. The British Bee Keepers Association continues to refuse to call for a ban.

"At field realistic exposure levels, neonicotinoids produce a wide range of adverse sublethal effects in honeybee colonies and bumblebee colonies, affecting colony performance through impairment of foraging success, brood and larval development, memory and learning, damage to the central nervous system, susceptibility to diseases, hive hygiene etc.

Neonicotinoids synergistically reinforce infectious agents such as N. ceranae and exhibit synergistic toxicity with other agrochemicals.

The large impact of short term field realistic exposure of bumblebee colonies on long term bumblebee queen production (85% reduction) could be a key factor contributing to the global trends of bumblebee decline.

Only a few studies assessed the toxicity to other wild pollinators, but the available data suggest that they are likely to exhibit similar toxicity to all wild insect pollinators.

The worldwide production of neonicotinoids is still increasing. In view of the vital importance of the service insect pollinators provide to both natural ecosystems and farming, they require a high level of protection. Therefore a transition to pollinator-friendly alternatives to neonicotinoids is urgently needed for the sake of the sustainability of pollinator ecosystem services."

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343513000493

'Neonicotinoids, bee disorders and the sustainability of pollinator services', van der Sluijs et al, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability in press 6 June 2013

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2013.05.007

Comment by Katherine Pitt on June 23, 2013 at 18:18: Inspired by Russell's talk, I took this photo of a bee on the comfrey in my garden this afternoon. Can anyone confirm whether it is a tree bumblebee? It sat very still for a long time (that's why I managed to photograph it), so maybe it was ill or dying.