Bee Haven at Tattenhall Hall

Tattenhall Hall garden is open Sunday, 20th May 2 – 5.30pm for the National Garden Scheme and the Sandstone Ridge Festival.

A research project is currently being undertaken by a local entomologist, she is studying bumble bees, and has found the garden to be a real haven for bugs of all kinds and especially bees.

On a beautiful sunny day this week she was seen riveted to the spot watching a red-tailed bumble bee queen drink nectar from the wisteria with its very long tongue. She also spotted common carders, cuckoo vestals, garden bumbles, early bumbles and tree bumblebees amongst others. Three of these are nesting in the garden, as there were lots of worker bees flying around. These bees may well be visiting other gardens in the village as they have quite a wide range. There are 20 different species of bumble bees but some are very rare being limited to specific habitats, so her view is that the garden is very much a good place for flying insects. She also saw a beautiful darter dragonfly, lots of honey bees which are nesting in the walls of the very old house and hoverflies which are good for the garden as they eat greenfly.

If you want to encourage bees into your garden it doesn't matter if they are native wildflowers or cultivated flowers as long as they have single flowers, not double, and then there is more likelihood that there will be pollen and nectar available.

So if you are interested in bugs then join us at Tattenhall Hall garden on Sunday and be prepared to stand still, look and listen.......................... bzzzzzzzzzzz!

Click on the images to enlarge them.