Native Honey Bees & Flowers.

Following on from last week’s post, here are the other essays that I wrote for the Women and Bees Collective about my favourite bee and a flower.

Our Native Bee.

Recent research reveals that most honey bee species originated in Asia. One species called the Western honey bee, Apis Mellifera, evolved in Northern Europe and migrated to Africa between the ice ages before moving north and dispersing across Europe when the climate warmed up. They adapted to each country they adopted thus evolving different characteristics. There are several sub-species of the Western honey bee such as my chosen bee, Apis mellifera mellifera (Amm), which is a dark bee in its purest form.

While it is true to say there are very few pure-bred Amm bees in the UK, there are pockets of pure and nearly pure Amm over Scotland and some parts of England, Ireland, and, probably, Wales. Andrew Abrahams on the island of Colonsay is a fine example of someone who lobbied Scottish Government for many years to make the island a Native Honey Bee Reserve (pure Amm) where it is illegal to bring any other type of honey bee to Colonsay.

I admire this bee because it is suited to a marginal land where the wet maritime climate can reduce foraging opportunities for less hardy bees. They fly close to the ground following the contours on a windy island like Colonsay and they thrive and collect enough stores for survival here.

Once I rescued a colony of near native bees from a nest site in a house that was being demolished. The individual bees were much hairier than any bee I had ever seen before, and collectively they made me think of a woolly mammoth in the ice age. The bees in their winter cluster huddle close together with long fine plumose hairs interlacing and trapping warm air. They are thrifty bees consuming fewer stores over the long winter months than other sub-species such as the Italian bee, Apis mellifera ligustica. The latter continues brood raising into the autumn long after our native queen bee has stopped laying. This produces large colonies and impacts honey stores which means that the Italian bees have to rely on beekeepers feeding them over winter for survival.

The rescue colony was true to form with a very small brood nest in April, and enormous stores of honey. They were tuned into building up slowly for one main honey crop which is a summer one ending with ling heather in August. They were also gentle and nobody was stung during their removal from a wall cavity and transfer into a conventional hive.

My own bees are locally adapted. I have no control over mating so I don’t try to keep pure bred Amm bees. Sadly, there are beekeepers near me who like to buy in queens of different sub-species, according to the latest trends in beekeeping for honey production, and I have to work with what I have at the time. However, I am pleased to discover, on testing wing morphometry, that my bees were ( a few years ago) 25% Amm and 75% Carniolan (from Slovenia). This accounts for their foraging in very low temperatures, sometimes as low as 4˚Celsius. I know this because I conducted a small research study over winter a few years ago when bees collected water from a dish on my shaded patio.

If only Brother Adam had ventured north over Hadrian’s Wall instead of searching abroad for the perfect bee. He would have found it in Scotland and wouldn’t have been compelled to genetically engineer the Buckfast bee whose traits and behaviour contradict those of our native bee. Having said that, a lot of beekeepers find this bee works well for them in different climates from ours, and it can produce lots of honey for them under good conditions.

Meadowsweet.

I’ve chosen meadowsweet, Filipendula ulmaria, because of its bounteous beauty and resilience. Meadowsweet acquired its name from its original employment as a sweet fragrant ingredient to flavour mead. It is another member of the diverse rose family and thrives in damp soil. Large swathes are found in marginal boggy land in Scotland, or close to small burns (streams). The rough leaves and tough reddish stalks are more shrub-like than flowery, but the lacy display holding masses of tiny creamy fragrant florets could grace any bridal bouquet.

It is not a major nectar producing plant, indeed there is doubt among some that it secretes any at all though meadowsweet is worked in other parts of Europe by honey bees for nectar. The small flowers are easily accessed by short-tongued bumble bees such as the white-tailed and buff-tailed bumble bee. It is also popular with wasps, long-horned beetles, and several moths including the emperor and pug moths. I know that we are truly in summer when I see honey bees coming home laden with the most delightfully lime green- coloured pollen. Meadowsweet flowers from June to September. The individual pollen grains are tiny and measure around 18 µm when I look at them under a microscope.

Meadowsweet has been used for centuries as a folk medicine for various ailments such as fever, sore throats, coughs, colds, and headaches, and in 1835 chemists isolated salicylic acid (Aspirin) from it. Wine, beer, and vinegars have been enhanced by meadowsweet, and when added to jam a subtle almond flavour is produced.

Back in the day when it was usual for humans and animals to share housing, the odour was none too pleasant and meadowsweet was scattered on the floor as an air freshener. When meadowsweet is crushed the perfume released is more antiseptic than floral. Queen Elizabeth 1 set the trend among more noble households by scattering meadowsweet in her bedchamber.

I hope you agree that meadowsweet adds much beauty to damp boggy places where many other plants may not thrive unless; like purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria, they enjoy wet habitats.