Beekeeper’s Notes September 2018: Don’t Save The Bee?

Published on: 1 Sep, 2018
Updated on: 3 Sep, 2018

Hugh Coakley keeps bees in Worplesdon. He talks about bees battling wasps and thoughts on saving individual bees.

As every year, the wasps are at it again. Their colonies are closing down so they are desperately hunting for the sugar they are not getting back at their own home.

They pester picnics, feed on festering fruit and mount raids on bee hives like ninja burglars.

I have closed this hive entrance to little more than the width of a bee to give the bees the best chance to defend against the wasps. But it is hard to guard against such persistent attacks from the strikingly beautiful but deadly wasps. Click on the images to enlarge them in a new window.

They will have a go at any hive but especially a small hive which is vulnerable and offers meat and drink to the hungry wasp.

A bee is engaging with the enemy whilst other bees guard the entrance.

They are so quick to sneak past the guard bees. Once they are past the hive entrance, they seem to be largely left unmolested by the bees both inside the hive and when they leave. The bees seem to not notice them.

I have read somewhere that the wasp adopts the hive ‘smell’ to disguise its presence and avoid further attention by the home bees. Interesting if it is true.

Persistence pays off and a wasp gets in.

But what about ‘Don’t save the bee’?

There has been a lot in the press about people saving single distressed bees by feeding them tiny amounts of sugared water on a teaspoon or a piece of tissue.

I know how they feel because I take care of individual insects as well. When we get bees or wasps in the house, as we inevitably do during honey extraction, I don’t like to see them trapped so I lift them outside on my finger or in a jar.

People worry about the decline in bee numbers and even some bumble bees being threatened with extinction. So, saving a bee in trouble has got to be the right thing to do.

But is the warm feeling from doing good misplaced here?

Typically, a bee comes from a colony which is 20,000 to 50,000 strong. They live for about six weeks at this time of year. So there is a huge turnover of bees from all colonies.

Insect numbers are vast. 250,000 bee colonies in the UK, 1,000 bees dying per colony per day over the summer. That’s 250 million bees dead each day.

The bee on the ground is one of the millions, every day, that has lived its allotted lifespan. It will die very shortly despite it being revived by a drop of syrup.

Helping one bee like this is like peeing on a forest fire – good intentions but not remotely influential on the outcome of the bee population.

So, saving the bee on the ground is good thing but it must not be all we do as it has little or no impact on bees at all.

There are better ways to help bees and other insects.