Creating a buzz for World Bee Day at Essex County Parks

Did you know, there are three broad types of bees: Honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees?

While we often hear 'save the bees' it normally (and incorrectly) refers to honeybees, which are farmed by humans, are mostly non-native strains and are not endangered.

However, bumblebees and solitary bees are our endangered native bees. They have suffered huge declines in recent years, which has been partially driven by the loss of wildflower-rich grasslands and is a reason why our landscape restoration work at Essex Country Parks is so important.

Bumblebees and solitary bees are also important pollinators as they can pollinate a wider range of plants, including some species honeybees can’t pollinate.

In fact, in some situations the presence of managed honeybees can negatively impact our native bees due to competition for limited floral resources.

At the Belhus Woods Country Park the team have been busy with a landscape restoration and habitat management programme of the woodlands, wood pasture and grasslands (as well as some wetland works). Specifically the team are hoping to attract more carder bees to site.

Regular surveys of the grasslands have revealed an abundance of bees such as:

• Red-tailed bumblebee
• Hairy-footed flower bee
• Clark's mining bee
• Short fringed mining bee
• Green-eyed flower bee
• Early bumblebee
• Buff-tailed bumblebee
• Common carder Bee, and

• Western honeybee

  Read more to find out what they are doing and why at Belhus Woods to increase biodiversity at the park.

Hadleigh’s team have been working to restore its rare Thames Terrace grassland by clearing dense scrub and returning it to a valuable grassland habitat.

As part of a natural land management method, Cheviot goats (and other livestock), are helping to manage the low scrub that would otherwise overtake the valuable grasslands and to help rare bee species found on site to thrive by creating the right conditions for them such as:

• Shrill carder bee
• Brown-banded carder bumblebees
• Gwynne’s mining bees
• Red mason bees
• As well as butterflies, and glow-worms

The Hadleigh team are also mapping out a new ‘transect’ for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust BeeWalk survey. Once, this is complete it’ll help provide a monthly recording of the bumblebee species onsite.

The team are particularly looking out for the shrill carder and brown-banded carder bees, two rare species of bumblebee that we are lucky to have at the site.

Read more about what we’re doing at Hadleigh and why.

Why not build a bee hotel?

They come in all shapes and sizes and building one (or more) is a simple, fun craft and is a great way to help your children become interested in the natural world around them.

Read our ‘How to make a bee hotel’ blog and discover some interesting facts about historic beekeeping at Cressing Temple Barns too.

Lastly, please remember: When visiting with dogs please keep them on a lead and under control around livestock and wildlife. Read our blog on how Dogs at Essex Country Parks and visit responsibly.