More input, this time from my blogging friend and fellow beekeeper, Emily Heath:
Jude has some good points… however looking out of my back window at my neighbours’ gardens I can see a lot of paving, sheds and pebbles. Walking around my local area plenty of my neighbours have turned their front gardens into car parks – are these spaces included in the 22% of land occupied by private gardens figure?! Some private gardens may be full of bee friendly forage, but not all of them. It’s also true that we have a lot of street trees, but many of these are plane trees – no good for bees – which were chosen because they cope well with pollution.
Agree with Jude that we do need more reliable facts, research by an independent body would be good. Without a comprehensive study having been done of the forage available it’s hard to say for sure whether it’s suitable for the amount of bees here.
Related articles
- Are There Too Many Bees In London? – Comments From Angela Woods, Secretary of the London Beekeepers’ Association (romancingthebee.com)
- Are There Too Many Bees In London? (romancingthebee.com)
- Tea With Fortnum’s Beemaster Steve Benbow (romancingthebee.com)
- London legacy: the blooming park (guardian.co.uk)
- My Visit To The Ealing Apiary (romancingthebee.com)
Ooh, embarrassing! By the way congratulations on having your blog included in James’s ‘From A to Bee’: http://www.amazon.co.uk/From-Bee-First-Beginner-Beekeeper/dp/1849532729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341348379&sr=1-1
You were warned!! 🙂
Also, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Unless there is some independent research, we could be arguing about this endlessly. And the argument is on its way to the States, so I have a selfish motive. 🙂
I don’t have a dog in this fight. I just want the best for our fuzzy little friends!!
I didn’t know I was included in James’s book! Awesome!! 🙂