I was just nosing around the veg plot admiring my broad beans (Bunyards Exhibition), when a bee turned up. She didn't stick her nose in the flower like I expected, but got her spiky proboscis thing out and cut a hole in the top of the flower then buggered off.
How are my broad beans going to get pollinated at this rate. I noticed that all the flowers have been got like this.
Is this OK, or am I in for a disappointment?
Dave
Are those holes 3/8"round holes??? It is possible that these are the female bees, they cut flowers and leaves , they store the pollen at their stomach in stead of in their 'baskets' on their legs.
They are NOT honey bees.
They are not the bees from hives, but have their nests in hollow pieces of wood., use the leaves and flower cuttings for their nests.
What you can do is put netting over the broad beans. :(
Or give the bee and her little babies a fine nest ;D ;D ;D
saw the first bee in the garden for quite a while now today ..... didn't go anywhere near the broadies :'(
Have four or five solitary's on the edge of my plot, the toilet block is on a concrete base but there are some holes in the hardcore at the edges which they seem to have colonised!
;D
I feel guilty now, the bees round here are doing their jobs very well. I have strawberries and tomatoes forming. Sorry.
I have heard they can do exactly the same thing to runner beans! Honestly, if it isn't one thing it is another, you sit back assuming now the beans are to big and tough for the slugs to attack that the bees will now help reward your TLC by pollinating the flowers and producing lovely tender beans, instead they nip in the back door, rob you blind and clear off leaving you with nothing but bare stems! I am assuming broadies need pollinating and don't have perfect flowers, otherwise I would suggest fleecing them. ???
That's pretty common, though it's runner beans which are the classic target. The flowers are too big for the bees to reach the nectar through the flower, so bumblebees (usually) bite through at the base of the flower, and then honeybees take advantage. Part of the problem is that these are selected strains with flowers which tend to be enlarged by comparison with unselected plants.