Bees, butterflies and blooms

[Brosville]

BBC2 8pm Weds 8th February.......

"Our houses have become prisms through which we reveal what sort of person we are. And as our homes have bent to our will, so have our gardens and public spaces, manicured to within an inch of their lives. Telegraph gardening columnist Sarah Raven begins this series hoping to persuade us to be messier. It’s all in a good cause.

Our bees and butterflies – essential pollinators – are in trouble, dying off species by species. So Raven is off to a Northamptonshire village to get the inhabitants to change their ways. Perhaps once she has finished saving the bees, we could have someone to do the same for our interiors.

ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME
1/3. New series. Writer and gardener Sarah Raven tries to encourage the creation of crucial habitats for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. She begins in Northamptonshire by urging a village to choose wildflowers over neat grass lawns, and meets farmer Duncan Farrington, who is considering growing the plants at the edges of his crops. She also demonstrates how flowers helpful to insects can be cultivated at home"

 

[scuttlefish]

Curses - my local association's monthly meeting is on at 8pm tonight!

 

[Brosville]

I'm out this evening too - I'll "iplayer" it tomorrow.....

 

[countryman]

i player

 

[Easy Beesy]

Don't bother

 

[BeeJayBee]

Don't bother

 

[onriver]

Good if you're interested in wildflower gardening or the changes in the English countryside over the past 50 years, less so if you are watching from a honey bee perspective. I think I waited for 20 minutes before I saw the first and then maybe 3 in total (though I missed the last 5 minutes)?. Maybe the next episode is butterflies and the one after bees?
Lots of 'nice' people in 'nice' villages being persuaded to not mow their neat village greens so closely and 'nice' farmer types being persuaded that promoting biodiversity would actually help their yields and not surprisingly agreeing....
All credit to Sarah Raven - at least she seems to care and wants to make some changes to people's attitudes towards the flowers and landscapes they take for granted.
My natural cynicism would say that those farmers are more concerned about qualifying for their stewardship payments and would quickly drop any measures that saw a drop in short term income, and those villagers would be worrying about a reduction in the valuation of their house if there was an uncut nearby....
Don't worry - I'm quite positive really

 

[Surreybeekeeper]

Having watched it I tend to believe that these sorts of things will be encouraging people to look at bees in general and not just the honey bee. Not a bad thing really if there is enough scope to explain the difference between honey and solitary bees.....

Doesn't take a brain cell to realise it is a win win for farmers to plant hedge rows and field fringes with wildflower seeds though does it; not to mention councils to stop mowing verges and let them loose a little bit. Economic arguments sadly shout very loudly

 

[steve1958]

I think this was a good programme.
Ant thing that influences people to be more 'Bee friendly' and give consideration to saving Bees must be good.

I am fairly confident that it will influence the folk on the Allotment.

I believe the next episode looks at the best nectar producing plants to have in your garden

 

[Brosville]

I've just watched it, and would suggest to anyone who missed it that it's well worth a viewing - quiet and low key, it makes some very valid points, not least that we can all help make a difference. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0152fty/Bees_Butterflies_and_Blooms_Villages_Farms_and_Countryside/
I live in the sticks about 5 miles from Sarah Raven's garden, and like her have noticed how different the countryside is from how it was when we were kids - a simple dogwalk hereabouts will underline the differences - on one hand there are blocks of "green concrete", blasted with every "icide" in christendom that are effectively stone dead - you'll not hear the buzz of insects or birdsong, and when they're ploughed, rather than the plume of birds following the plough there's not one to be seen..........
On the other hand, there are meadows and hedgerows that haven't been cultivated for years and mixed deciduous woodlands - all of it literally teeming with life - somehow we need to find a saner balance, and found the piece about the research at Lancaster particularly striking - the birdsong in the background was very notable - the other thing that impressed me particularly was a young mum's enthusiasm for the scheme, and how her efforts were blooming - inspiring stuff!

The whole scheme couldn't be more relevant to honeybees, despite the fact it is aimed at making conditions easier for all pollinating insects

 

[nelletap]

It was a gentle programme - but I can see there was plenty to engage quite a few people. Beekeepers probably know more than most already. Hopefully some who will add to the plants in their garden and consider some wilder areas; others who are involved in Parish councils imagining they, too could do some of what was seen in the programme. The bees need the forage so it seemed sensible to start with the flowers and the need for insects was totally intertwined. Nice to see youngsters involved, too. In my youth I hated school nature walks - but having taken my grandchildren out for walks when they have visited and then been surprised when they have asked if they can do the same again - as if it were novel and exciting(!) you realise just how little they know and there were lots of activities - seed collection, seed planting, plant and insect identification - which lots of people could replicate with the young members in their family. Hopefully they will also find opportunities to show the young the inside of beehives or visit an observation hive somewhere.
Tricia

 

[victor meldrew]

At least the down turn has helped to some degree around here
The council employee on his quad bike toting a large container of herbicide and spraying all the verges and hedge row bottoms during foraging hours and leaving a trail of dead bumblebees in his wake has been absent for a couple of years now .
I can never understand the selection process for the executive office of environmental protection !! When most think, tidy equates with 'green'
As my mother used to say when describing such people ,
"All fur coat and no Knickers"
VM

 

[Hivemaker.]

With the huge increase in the popularity of beekeeping, i expect the next thing will be we are producing far too many "farmed bees" and coupled with the much reduced natural forage/wild floweres, this is also leading to a decline in the population of wild pollinators such as butterflys and bumble bees ect.

 

[madasafish]

With the huge increase in the popularity of beekeeping, i expect the next thing will be we are producing far too many "farmed bees" and coupled with the much reduced natural forage/wild floweres, this is also leading to a decline in the population of wild pollinators such as butterflys and bumble bees ect.

There are not enough pollinators round here for the acres of HB..

 

[Hivemaker.]

There are not enough pollinators round here for the acres of HB..

Your in one of the good areas then,no need for anymore wild flowers in your area, i should get some more bees.

This could also indicate that it is not the lack of wild flowers which has lead to a decline in pollinating insects?

 

[victor meldrew]

Your in one of the good areas then,no need for anymore wild flowers in your area, i should get some more bees.

This could also indicate that it is not the lack of wild flowers which has lead to a decline in pollinating insects?

Wild pollinators (bumblies anyway) start much earlier than the balsam flowers.
Gotta admit some of the stuff is earlier that the main CROP, some by me is 3/4 weeks earlier than the bulk of the stuff.

Still to late for the emerging bumble bee queens .
VM