The Wild Bee Handbook Review.

Introduction.

Well, here we are in the festive season with the solstice and Christmas fast approaching. This is my last post for 2024 and I wish you all my very best wishes for the holidays and new year.

Welcome to everyone who recently subscribed for regular blog posts, and thank you all readers for your continued support. Thank you to all guest bloggers, and people who took the time to comment on blog posts.  I especially want to thank those of you to have generously donated towards the maintenance, upkeep and security of this site. It has helped me a lot. I very much appreciate that some of you donate every month. This inspires me to dig into recent research and try to produce pieces on topical, but varied, subjects on a regular basis. You know who you are and I invite you to suggest a topic that you would like to read about in 2025. If anyone else would like to sponsor a topic, send an email with your suggestions for interesting blog posts along with a donation.

Happy holidays, Everyone, and a happy healthy New Year.

The Wild Bee Handbook.

Meanwhile, I have a lovely book to share with you and it is not too late to order this up for Christmas.

Title: The Wild Bee Handbook

Author: Sarah Wyndham Lewis

Photographer: Maria Bell

Artist: Claire Harrup

Publisher: Quadrille, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-78713-918-3

Hardback, 14 x 22 cm, 207 pages

Cost: £17:99

Available: Northern Bee Books and Bermondseystreetbees.co.uk

The Wild Bee Handbook by Sarah Wyndham Lewis is the ideal present for everyone who likes to read and learn about our environment, and discover how we can improve things for future generations.

Wyndham Lewis is an experienced bee farmer and co-founder of Bermondsey Street Bees. She is also a professional speaker and writer, and her previous book Planting for Honeybees remains a bestseller in both the UK and USA.

Wyndham Lewis’ many years of beekeeping and engaging with the natural world inform this wonderful guide to wild bees, health and habitat protection.

There are nine chapters covering the following topics: the differences between social, solitary, and cuckoo bees; how bees function; life cycles; pollination and today’s problems; wild bee species; gardening for bees and how to create natural habitats; plant lists for useful seasonal trees, shrubs, flowers, and herbs; resources including bibliography and where to find further information online. Chapter four contains a wild bee guide covering 25 bee species. Every bee has been carefully illustrated, and alongside each one approximate size are given along with scientific names. We learn where and when we will see them, and a detailed account of their habitats and life cycles. 

This is a beautifully illustrated book with exquisite drawings of flowers and bees. Embossed bees and flowers decorate the front cover and are both visually appealing and nice to the touch. There are also several colour photographs which are mostly of flowers.

This book has been primarily written for the public, some of whom have already been misled by the media and think that honey bees are declining and therefore they should become beekeepers to save them. The main messages are delivered with skill and sensitivity, and the author gently busts myths and points the reader in the right direction for the individual. The author exposes the cunning marketing ploy called “bee washing” whereby some companies claim to support bees and market products without any scientific evidence or due diligence.  The reader is advised on the common problems often associated with “quick-buck bee hotels”, and how to make one themselves inexpensively at home. 

This is a wide-ranging handbook in which everything is explained clearly and succinctly so it will be easily understood by anyone without a scientific or beekeeping background. The goals have certainly been achieved, and The Wild Bee Handbook is likely to spark further curiosity and raise the profile of all our important pollinators.