My garden is completely devoid of honey bees. There used to be hundreds but they’ve all gone. Fortunately we seem to have replacement bumble bees. Not so many but they are doing a job. They must be more resilient to the deadly toxins our couldn’t-care-less agricultural industry is bunging out to up their profits.

I was sitting on my patio and noticed that the bumble bees had taken over a nesting box. I was a bit bemused by a big gaggle of bees hovering around outside the box. They did not fly off or go in. They were just buzzing around.

Liz was worried. She was a bit scared and thought she might get stung. She wanted me to move the nest.

Turns out that the bees are drones hanging about waiting for the female to come out. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? They take forever. She’s most probably in there running a comb through her hair.

But it’s OK. The drones don’t have a sting. As we guys all know it’s the women who have the barbs. We just do what we’re told.

We are so lucky to have a bumble bee nest like this. It’s a lucky bird-box. We’ve had blue-tits in it for the last two years and now a hive of bees! Great!

I just feel sorry for the poor honey bees. The insecticide industry have polished them off along with half of the rest of the insects – goodbye voles, bats, swifts, swallows, hedgehogs, shrews, house-martins, frogs, toads, newts, warblers, lizards and all the rest of the creatures that feed on insects.

They won’t stop until the whole planet is a desert.

But for now, until they bring in stronger pesticides, we have a great colony of bumble bees – fascinating!