What Is The June Gap?

During June it's not uncommon for there to be a gap in forage for bees, this often depends on the area and what's in flower. I have bees across the 3 counties and the difference in what they bring in during the June gap is quite apparent, my Herefordshire bees always have plenty of forage during the June gap but have a late start to the year compared to Gloucester bees due to not a lot of oilseed rape (OSR) in the area. There are lots of plants you can plant to bridge the June gap and make life a little easier for our pollinators, some of those being honeysuckle, clematis, geranium, thyme, cotoneaster, choiysia, sage, bramble, wallflowers, campanula the list goes on, these are to name just a few and they are not just for bees but for all pollinators.

So why can't we just feed the bees sugar syrup through the gap?

Often syrup is used to help feed colonies that have just been split or who are weak and lacking stores, plants contain nutrients for bees that sugar syrup doesnt and continual feeding of sugar syrup weakens the bee's gut health and immune system leaving them open to attacks from all sorts of pest and diseases. In a year like this, a lot of beekeepers will have been feeding bees through all the rain in May now into the June gap, so in some cases almost 2 months of bees needing to be fed and this is why we need you guys to plant as much variety as possible into your gardens up and down the country.