Tuesday 3 August 2010

Bees and hollyhocks

My garden seems to be full of bees and hollyhocks at the moment - and I am delighted to have both. I love hollyhocks, with their huge, bright blooms. I am also very happy that so many bees seem to like my garden - particularly my hollyhocks - and are happily pollinating my flowers.

With bees in decline, I am always surprised when anyone suggests getting rid of a bees' nest, but recently I have heard a couple of people asking if they should get rid of nests on their property.

Being a lazy witch, I mostly let my garden go wild. Occasionally, however, I pay a gardener to mow my lawn and prune back my shrubs. When he did this a few weeks ago, he found a bees nest. I walked into the garden to find him prodding it with a stick.

"You've got a bees' nest," he said.
"Yes," I agreed.
"What do you want me to do about it?" he asked, poking it with the stick again.
"Leave it alone?" I suggested?
"But there's a lot of angry-looking bees coming out of it," he said, as some very angry-looking bees emerged from a hole in the nest.
"Perhaps if you leave it alone they won't be so angry," was really all I could think to say, in the circumstances.

I have had bees in my garden for a very long time and have never once been stung by one. But then I don't go around poking their nests with sticks.

Previous related posts:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/03/first-bumblees-of-spring.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/05/stings-in-paradise.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/07/hollyhocks.html

4 comments:

queenbeebear said...

Pokeing a nest with a stick? I think that the Bees knew where they'd be welcome!

Unknown said...

The bees in my garden seem to be getting drunk on the hollyhocks. Some flowers have three or four lethargic bees in them.

Unknown said...

The bees in my garden seem to be getting drunk on the hollyhocks. Some flowers have three or four lethargic bees in them.

Unknown said...

The bees in my garden seem to be getting drunk on the hollyhocks. Some flowers have three or four lethargic bees in them.