Be(e) friendly !

The queen

The queen is protected by worker bees, which feed her and communicate thanks to their horn.

The drone

The drone are the male in the colony and mate with the queen.

Worker bee

The worker bee has a short existence: around 30 days. It will handle many jobs. The most famous is to collect pollen, It is a long and hard work, ending by the death of the worker bee.

The bee is endangered : save her !

Urbanization, intensive farming, pesticides and artificial fertilizers. A long list of very destructive human habits, killing more and more bees each day.

More bees = more fruits and vegetables

Some tips to attract bees

Whether your are lucky to have a garden or a terrace, or by simply protecting the environment,
you can participate in helping bees.
Mr Stéphane Ellien, landscaper at Terre Blanche Hotel Golf Spa Resort*****, provides you with a simple guide to welcoming bees :

1. Let nature take its course

There is so much beauty and elegance to be found in nature and the bees have been very happy here for millennia. Don’t use pesticides because these do not discriminate. Plant a patch of wild flowers. Leave a pile of logs and dry leaves in the corner.

2. Offer bees flowers

You should begin by offering the bees flowers that are rich in nectar and pollen – ideally that bloom throughout the year. Bees eat the nectar and feed pollen to their young. Lavender and thyme are among my favourite as they are fragrant and you can use them in lots of dishes – we are known for these herbs in Provence. In Britain honeysuckle, foxgloves, rosemary, astilbe (‘peach blossom’), snapdragons are all good for bees too – the more colour the better, especially purple which they like. Single-petal flowers are the best ones. If you have grass, you can also let the poppies and daisies grow and not chop them down too often.

3. Make a bee box

This timing is perfect, as March and April are the best time for making a bee box for the solitary bees (you may not know that up to 95% of bees are solitary). You can use bamboo stacked inside a box, or drill holes into a brick or piece of wood. Those holes should be different sizes from 2mm to 10mm. It needs to be well insolated, dry and in a sunny position. There are lots of easy tutorials online.

4. Fruits and vegetables

Plant flowering fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, courgettes and strawberries or a herbal garden. At Terre Blanche, besides the garrigues and preserved areas, we have an aromatic garden where we grow herbs for use in our restaurants. This way, you can get delicious home-grown produce and also help bees get the nectar they need. If you have lots of space, you should consider growing a cherry or apple tree.

5. Make a safe drinking hole

To help the thirsty bees, you can fill a shallow dish with water and add some stones in it. This way the bees can rest on the stones while they drink. A lot of the time when bees are dozy, they are just dehydrated.

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