ONCE Christmas is over, I can start my new gardening year with fresh vigour and, quite possibly, a slightly thicker waist! I'm already on the lookout for my first pollinators of the New Year. This is often the honeybee (Apis mellifera), lured out by a warm January afternoon. The Latin name means honey-bearing bee and these creatures have been domesticated for thousands of years, for their delicious honey. We get plenty of honeybees at Spring Cottage, because there are at least two beekeepers in our small village.
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