Meet Baz

Meet our resident bumble bee. We call it Baz. It started to appear a few days ago when the warm weather seems to be here to stay. It buzzes around in our garden, takes in the sun, then after a while pops back into its tiny home which is at the bottom of the Buddha garden.

Baz is very different , size aside, from its honey producing sisters. It is solitary whereas honey bees are social insects. Beekeepers are encouraged to think of bees as a collective being, rather than a collection of beings, and to care for them accordingly. Although we tend to anthropomorphise them, in reality honey bees could not be more different from us humans. We choose to be social beings whereas bees are social beings by nature. Their social structure is as complicated as ours but cannot be explained in simple human social political analogy. That said in the current economic climate it would be interesting to think what would happen to bankers et al if they were bees. Indeed, what type of bees would they be? Drones perhaps. I digress.

Yesterday, being a good citizen, I registered myself as a beekeeper, which according to a recent (badly written) article in the Times, is an issue with the government's bee inspectorate. I hope that they don't decide to come and look at my bees just yet - they are not here till May.