A blog written by Rachel Richards, Buglife’s B-Lines Officer, originally published by Countryside Jobs Service for World Bee Day 2026.
Today we celebrate the beautiful, amazing, diverse bees found in the UK and across the world, inhabiting every continent except the Antarctic. One of my absolute favourite signs of spring is hearing the buzz of my the first queen bumblebee of the year checking out my garden, or gracing me with a fly-round; when a bee approaches you and flies around you, perhaps noting your location in the landscape.
When we talk of bees many people tend to think of honeybees, or perhaps bumblebees, but the UK supports around 270 species of bees, 24 of these are bumblebees and the rest are solitary bees. In the world there are around 250 species of bumblebees and it is estimated, around 25-26, 000 bee species in total! These come in many shapes, colours and sizes and many don’t even look very much like bees.
Take the yellow-faced bees, also know in some countries as masked bees, genus Hylaeus (meaning ‘of the forest’). Worldwide there are believed to be around 700 species. In the UK we have 12 species of these tiny (4-5 mm) black bees with yellow or white facial markings, while in Hawaii this is the only genus of native bees present, with 64 species recorded. As the scientific name suggests these bees are often found to have a connection with trees and shrubs, nesting in old hollow stems of plants such as brambles. In the Pacific islands however it has recently been discovered that their association with trees is even closer than we had realised. In 2024 a paper was published[1] sharing the discovery of eight new species of masked bees found in the tree canopy of Pacific forests, six of these bees were in Fiji. The researchers explained that after decades of searching for new bees they had decided to look up, something many of us studying bees can forget to do.
In UK gardens, if you know what you are looking for, you are most likely to find yellow-faced bees face first in chive flowers and easily caught for closer examination and release using a small glass collecting pot. These bees don’t carry pollen externally, like most bees, instead they store it in their crop. As a result they are not very hairy bees, looking more like a small black wasp, with each species, having slightly different white or yellow facial markings which are most distinctive, as with many bees, in the males.
At the other end of the spectrum of size and hairiness of British bees, you will find the flower bees, genus Anthophora. The relatively widespread and charismatic Hairy- footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes, 13-15 mm – pictured first in this article) which is gradually making its way north in response to climate change, is an important spring pollinator which shows strong sexual dimorphism (the males and females look very different to each other). Like most solitary bees the males are the first to emerge. They are orangey-brown with yellow facial markings and distinctive long black hairs on the front legs which are used to stroke females and spread pheromones when mating. Most females, on the other hand, are black with bright orange hairs on the back legs. Both can look rather like a bumblebee but with a faster, more zippy flight, especially in males, and a distinctive high pitch buzz. It’s not just bird watchers who need to tune in to sounds!
We could talk indefinitely about the wonders of bees, they are beautiful and fascinating creatures. They are also incredibly important – to the quality of our lives and the health of ecosystems.
Around 90% of wild plants require some insect pollination – these tiny creatures support blooming wildflowers and blossom bringing colour and life to the British countryside that we love. One in three mouthfuls of a healthy diet requires insect pollination; our diet would be severely limited without them and insect pollination (with bees doing much of that work) is calculated to be worth c. £690 million to the UK each year.
Much of our wildlife, including bees, is facing increasing threats from major issues including habitat loss , climate change and pesticides. But what can we do to help support our bees and enable them to flourish? The good news is that we can all do something, and sometimes it’s not just what we do, but it’s also what we chose not to do that can really make a difference.
With around 69% of the UK farmed, farmers who chose to farm with nature are in a unique, position to bring about big improvements for pollinators and other wildlife. Regenerative farming techniques, which are becoming increasingly more mainstream, work with nature, minimising the use of costly and harmful inputs like pesticides, and reducing soil damage with techniques such as no-till farming. Restoring wildlife-rich habitat brings huge benefits to farm business.
Here are a few simple steps that farmers and other land managers can take to support bees and other beneficial invertebrates on farms:
- gap up hedgerows with native shrubs and allow then to flower and set seed leaving dead wood as nesting habitat
- manage field margins and track edges with an annual cut and collect to encourage more wildflowers
- cut some less flower-rich edges and corners on a longer (2-3 year) cycle so there are always areas with tussocky grasses as overwintering and nesting habitat
- protect your flower-rich habitats, species-rich hay meadows, SSSI’s or flowery field corners
- ensure you have wet features on farm with wide flowery buffer zones
- identify or create solitary bee nesting habitat
- reduce your use of pesticides and veterinary medications and increase IPM (Integrated Pest Management)
- use flower-rich field margins, hedgerows and ditches to increase habitat connectivity across the landscape
Though most of us are not farmers, many of us are gardeners and can apply similar principals at home however big or small our outdoor space may be. Avoid the use of pesticides, including herbicides, let areas of your lawn grown longer between mowing, provide a range of pollinator-friendly flowers from spring through to autumn, and where space permits include ponds, nesting habitat, and scruffy wild corners where animals can shelter.
Whether you are an experienced wildlife gardener, a long-standing regenerative farmer, or fairly new to these ideas please do what you can and visit our interactive B-Lines map where you can add your pollinator friendly habitats to the map. B-Lines is an imaginative programme working with individuals, communities and organisations to restore connected flower-rich habitats, supporting our wild bees. Join with us today, on World Bee Day, and every day to help our wonderful bees!
[1] Dorey J.B. et al 2024 Secrets in the canopy: scientists discover 8 striking new bee species in the Pacific
Further reading