As spring turns into summer my garden is buzzing with insects. Like many people we are particularly keen to give our local bees a helping hand and a bit of love. Gone are the days where we pull up dandelions with abandon. Now we’ve got a scruffy, weedy, wild flower patch at the bottom of the garden; complete with a bug hotel, bird box and hedgehog home. It might take a year or two for them to be populated, but we are doing our bit.
We are always on the look out for bees buzzing about the place and we have been learning a little bit about them too. Did you know that there are over 20,000 species of bee in the world and around 270 species of bee in the UK; but only one of these is a honeybee. People can be frightened of bees because they sting, but usually only if they’re being attacked or feel threatened. The are 600 species of stingless bees in the world. They’re all worth looking after and encouraging, so what can you do to encourage bees into your garden?
- Grow plants with nectar and pollen
- Create bee hotels and bee friendly habitats
- Don’t been too keen to weed
- Grow some wildflowers
- Leave a patch of your garden unattended and let it run wild
- Stop using pesticides and weed killers
You don’t have to have a big garden to make the world a bit more bee friendly, a window box or a couple of pots of flowering plants by your front door can all help. If we all learn a bit more about our bee friends, together we can help to support them and create an environment where they can thrive.
The free to download sheets include pictures to colour in and a few facts about –
- Bees
- Beehives
- Honey
It’s enough to keep the kids occupied for a while and a good place to start if you’re going to start learning about bees with them.
Download your FREE learning about bees worksheets here
If you enjoyed this, you might also like these other blog posts:
- How to encourage bees and butterflies
- Spring Scavenger Hunt
- Six brilliant nature books for children
- Make your own Manchester Bee craft
