Bee-Friendly Planting In London

[Polyanwood]

As a beekeeper whose hives sit 4 storeys up, enjoy robust health and produce reliable (per colony) yields, I have to scratch my head and wonder if the LBKA's forage "message" would be clearer if they just got on with it, rather than chatting on their Facebook page!

Great that your bees have done so well, particularly in the face of adversity (see other thread on honey yields BBKA survey)

I have never heard that the LBKA has a message about roof top hives. You might want to look into the science a bit more before saying that it has no adverse effect on bees having to fly further for their forage. Suggest you start with this one.

Bumblebee Economics by Bernd Heinrich (19 Nov 2004)

 

[djg]

Polyanwood,

The issue in this thread is bee-friendly planting. I was using the LBKA's pronouncements on rooftop bees as an example of the LBKA's publicity gattling-gun going "off-topic" (and alienating many rooftop beekeepers along the way) when they have failed to get things done on provision of forage in London - and instead you get acres of LBKA Facebook chatter about almost everything else.

Your red-herring reply illustrates exactly the sort of thing which muddies the water around the headline issue....forage....it's simply no good going off at a tangent and talking down to other LBKA members when they point out the LBKA's shortcomings.

Where are the LBKA's new bee-friendly plantings, Polyanwood? I can show you mine!

 

[alanf]

If the LBKA had spent less time making rudderless representations to the Press, which result in lots of jangling headlines, celebrity photos and laughable mistakes ...

Agree, and good to be reminded that LBKA pronouncements are not necessarily unanimous. It might also help deflect some of the tar if the LBKA made it clear to their press buddies that they cover a relatively small patch. A quick count on the BBKA website lists around 15 associations or branches that are wholly or partly covering bits of the Greater London area. Despite the name, LBKA is no more than the central one.

 

[Spadaman]

Not being a member of Facebook I have not seen any pronouncements from the LBKA, however there was an article in Mondays Daily Telegraph about the lack of forage for urban bees.

One comment from the LBKA had me very interested .
Quote " Without adequate food bees can become ill, and the effect is like one of a "shanty town" , with the disease passing through the hive and infecting all the insects"

I have never heard of lack of food causing disease! What disease would this be?

 

[Tom Bick]

Could be any but Nosema would be the big threat.

It’s the lack of food that will stress the bees and then Nosema can raise its head.

 

[djg]

Not being a member of Facebook I have not seen any pronouncements from the LBKA, however there was an article in Mondays Daily Telegraph about the lack of forage for urban bees.

One comment from the LBKA had me very interested .
Quote " Without adequate food bees can become ill, and the effect is like one of a "shanty town" , with the disease passing through the hive and infecting all the insects"

I have never heard of lack of food causing disease! What disease would this be?

I would have thought that the simple message should be that lack of food causes death !

I don't understand why the LBKA spokespeople invoke "shanty towns" and I don't know what they mean when they talk about "bee bling" and get into arguments with other organisations.

Please just concentrate on the message and use plain English.