There are over 250 species of bee in the UK, made up of 225 species of solitary bees, 25 bumble bees, and just one honey bee. Different species have different life cycles and are active at varying times throughout the year.

Honey bees live together in their thousands mostly in man-made hives, although there are some feral colonies that live unmanaged. These colonies survive from year to year as the honey bees build up their stores of honey throughout the summer to see them through the cold winters.

Other types of bees build their own homes that last just one season. They live alone or in small groups and can make their nests in various locations such as underground in old mouse nests or even in walls, as some species of solitary bees do.

As bees visit flowers to collect nectar to eat and pollen to feed their larvae with, they transfer pollen from plant to plant. This pollination service is essential to numerous plants that we rely on such as many types of fruit, where the bees help to improve the quality and yield of the plants that they visit. Different species of bee are better at pollinating different crops. Pollinators also help with plants used for seed production as well as many farm crops such as oil seed rape, beans and alliums.

Sarah Harkin

Bee Ecotoxicologist