The Secret Lives of Garden Bees

by Jean Vernon

Overview

A friendly, accessible insight into the weird-but-wonderful world of the bees you may find in your garden.

From the common or garden bumblebees that nest in bird boxes, compost heaps, and old mouse holes making ‘Winnie the Pooh’ style honey pots to feed their babies, to the quirky wool carder bee, a solitary bee that combs the fluff from garden plants to line her brood cells and the amazing leaf-cutter bee that carves chunks out of plant foliage to seal its egg chambers.

This book will reveal the secrets and fascinating lives of the bees that live and breed in your garden, from buzz pollination, to the bee robbers that cheat the plants and steal nectar by stealth.

With a seasonal guide to explore what you are likely to see in your garden, great plants to grow to help them, plus other fascinating information on these secretive creatures, this book is designed to bring alive the world of garden bees before your very eyes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526766519
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	11/06/2020
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	672,988
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.60(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jean Vernon is the wildlife columnist for the RHS Journal – The Garden. She is a contributor to the gardening section of The Daily Telegraph and has written many articles on bees, beekeepers and the needs of garden bees. Passionate about bees and the environment since a youngster, she is a natural beekeeper and passionate about championing bees of all sorts. It is her mission to unravel, demystify and explain the intricate balance of nature in your garden and to introduce you to the familiar and unfamiliar bees that live, breed and breathe within the garden habitat.

Table of Contents

Foreword 6

Starting with bees 8

Acknowledgements 12

Chapter 1 The Bees 13

Chapter 2 Meet the Bees 23

Chapter 3 Bee Behaviour 97

Chapter 4 Bee Food 110

Chapter 5 The Hostile Garden 128

Chapter 6 Plant Intelligence 137

Chapter 7 Bee-good Plants 148

Chapter 8 Season by Season in the Bee Garden 160

Further Reading 177

Citizen Science/Get Involved 178

References 181

Index 186