Dandelion king

The humble dandelion is great for bees, as Val explains

- Val Bourne

A FEW years ago, I was lucky enough to visit Ireland at snowdrop time. I was struck by two things. First, the small fields were incredibly lush and green, and full of grazing livestock. Second, I noticed hordes of tiny bees on the snowdrops in the gardens I visited. These tiny bees were less than half the size of a honey bee and quite dark in colour, and the snowdrops were alive with them. That’s something I never see in my cold Cotswold garden. Our early snowdrop pollinators are honeybees and bumblebee queens, plus the odd large hoverfly that’s overwintered.

I do get tiny bees here, but they don’t usually appear until mid-April, due to our colder climate. However, the difference in numbers isn’t due to climate. The agricultural system close to my home consists of large arable fields that are regularly dosed with chemical preparations. I live on the farm drive, so the arrival of machinery is a regular event here. The local fields are expansive and without hedges. Our local farmers are constantly trying to upgrade their yields on land more suited to pasture than crops. In previous times, sheep would have grazed in much smaller fields and there would have been plenty of wild bees about, because a pesticide regime wasn’t being used back then.