We can do our bit to save the bees
Praise Bee is a charity set up to encourage the return of Mason Bees to our countryside.
The solitary Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis) doesn't make honey, isn't aggressive and doesn't burrow into buildings, but it does block its nest with mud, hence its name. And it's a significant pollinator.
Churches and organisations like the Women's Institute, the NFU, the police, the MOD and hospitals countrywide are putting up bee nests and encouraging bees to use them. The nest on our church is in its third year, and we've been able to distribute almost 50 pupae to other sites with the help of Viv Marsh, the man behind the project.
Treatment of crops to reduce pest and weed damage would seem to contradict the ethos of bee protection, and it's quite hard to find unbiased information about the choices.
For instance, there's lots of protesting regarding treated seed. It's said that over time the accumulation of poison in insects that feed on the flowers will kill them, thus threatening our pollinators including bees.
One alternative is to not use treated seed but to spray the crop at intervals through the growing season. It is said that this method directly targets pollinators killing larger numbers at one time than the treated seed.
The third option would be to not treat crops at all. This would save more bees and other insects, but crops would be eaten by pests and swamped by weeds with the result that the price of rapeseed oil and other products would increase, and the consumer doesn't want to pay any more than they have to for food.
We could of course stop growing rapeseed in this country and fall back on other sources of oils, palm oil and soya, grown out of our sight and mind, decimating, as we know, the rainforests in Indonesia and South America.
So we have choices, we must decide, cheap food and sprays or expensive food and no sprays.
Or, I think, hide our heads in the sand and hope that nature will prevail. Not likely. But we can try and do our bits for bees as a nation.
If you're interested in joining the Praise Bee project you could contact viv.marsh@postalplants.co.uk
Rosemary Allen is a retired livestock farmer living near Ellesmere
