This week we are taking a moment to think about those other bees, not the bigger furry ones, not the honey producing ones, the other ones….collectively known as Solitary bees. In Britain we have around 270 species of bee and just under 250 of them are solitary bees!
As the name suggests they don’t tend to live in colonies like Bumblebees or Honey bees and they do not produce honey. They have many complex and interesting life cycles and are definitely a group that requires further investigation. See this link for loads of ideas and info: https://www.solitarybeeweek.com/learn
On the City Council’s nature reserves we are recognizing that these relatively unknown pollinators could do with a hand. Therefore we are wanting to build the perfect breeding and nesting conditions for them in the form of a ‘bee bank’ on some of the reserves.
This is an example of what a bee bank could look like.
Take a look at our plans for installing more bee banks on the reserves, the first one is planned for Logan’s Meadow reserve, see the link below.
Please do make a response, we welcome your views.
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Yr5uzntVNkShnHZ-yizUUVsJav_t6dFMsk2cqNxHkWpUOEhJV0hYSlhBVDRIMzExWUUzRUpSUk9JVi4u
Or find it at:https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/consultations