Why are they going in backwards?

A couple of years ago, my daughter gave me a bee house as a Christmas present. I put it up in a sunny part of the garden and waited. I can see it from my office window.

It’s had a few solitary bees buzzing about it and even a couple of Bumble Bees, but this year it seems to be Honey Bees that are attracted by it.

I was watching them all buzzing around and then noticed a strange behavioural pattern. If you look closely at about 0:30 you will see a bee go forwards into one of the holes, then reverse out, turn around, and go back in backwards.

I’ve seen this happen many times but I can’t see a reason. I think these are worker bees. As far as I know they only forage, they don’t build new combs.

Preparing to capture more rainwater

It’s a fact that I live in one of the driest regions in the UK. Average annual rainfall in Cambridgeshire is around the 500mm mark: a lot less than the 4000mm that falls in the Scottish Highlands! Capturing and saving water is therefore an absolut…

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It’s a fact that I live in one of the driest regions in the UK. Average annual rainfall in Cambridgeshire is around the 500mm mark: a lot less than the 4000mm that falls in the Scottish Highlands!

Capturing and saving water is therefore an absolute requirement if one is to have a blooming garden. This has become even more of an imperative recently as we are in a very dry spell. Historically, November is the second wettest month in the year around here (after June) but this year it looks like being the driest for ages. That persistent area of high pressure over Scandanavia has pushed all the rain bearing anti-cyclones well to the north. Scotland and the Lake District have been getting plenty of rain, but not the East and South East of England. No wonder Anglian Water have issued a drought warning for some of our area.

So, I’ve been taking advantage of the dry weather to beef up my rainwater capture system. I already had two water butts behind my office on the right hand side of the garden; capturing water from the office roof. I am now in the process of adding two more behind the shed on the left hand side. That way, I’ll have water on both sides of the gardn and I can then move to stage two; which is to implement a water trickling system.

The pictures show the two new butts joined together; a picture of the office on the right hand side and a picture of the shed on the lefft hand side. You can’
t see the butts themselves because of the reed screening in front of them.

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