Gain launches and gets buzzy

Gain launches today at the start of Solitary Bee Week!

Gain is getting off to a flying start, working with The Eden Project to further develop their National Wildflower Centre and helping a number of Parishes in Cornwall with their Neighbourhood Development Plans... More about our projects in later blogs!

For now, I wanted to use #Solitary Bee Week to highlight one of my inspirations for establishing a new environment and landscape consultancy in Cornwall. I love bees! Their ecology is fascinating and each bee you meet definitely has its own personality.

Did you know that there are over 270 species of British bee? Some are eusocial (i.e. live together in a group with a queen and workers taking care of the brood) but most are solitary, with the female nesting in a single burrow. These are the solitary bees.. and what a brilliant bunch they are. More efficient at pollination that a honey bee and (in my opinion) much more interesting!

However pollinator numbers have been in steady decline. A 2014 survey report on bees in South West England by Buglife showed that up to 75% of some of our most threatened bee species have been lost. The study researched 23 species considered to be at risk in the UK, twenty are declining whilst three have become extinct. In the last century, Cornwall has lost seven out of 25 species of bumblebee.

Osmia caerulescens - Blue Mason Bee

For the past few years, I have grown an interest in solitary bees and their identification and have become a regular contributor to IRecord, the online recording system managed by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. I attended training earlier this year with Steven Falk who’s ‘Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland’ is the must have bible for anyone wanting to study bees. At the moment the kids and I are having fun watching a little Megachile bee - a leafcutter, building its nest in our BeePot from Green and Blue.

I established Gain to do as much as I can to turn this around. I’m able to advise on land management for pollinators and how to build gain for bees into development of all kinds. If you’d like to do more for pollinators but don’t know where to start, get in touch…. and its Solitary Bee Week! Get out there a see what bees are out and about in your patch.. I’d love to see your pics!

Colette, Gain Director