Following on from the Butterfly Survey Results, we caught up again with Huw Pennell, who also runs the Bumblebee surveys on the Farm as part of the UK-wide Bumblebee Conservation Trust Beewalk project. He has been running the Bumblebee survey for the last three years at the farm. This year, he’s collaborated with Katie Smith (Lauriston Wildflowers, Farm volunteer and sessional worker) to set up a second survey area that covers the Allotments, hedgerow and Market Garden. So we can now monitor populations in the cultivated parts of the farm, as well as on the original boundary transect.

How Are Bumblebee Numbers This Year?

This year has been a much better year than last year. 2024 was the worst year for bumblebee numbers nationally since Beewalk records began, and this was reflected on the Farm where we saw numbers decline by 41%. The good news is that this year’s brighter, and drier spring and summer saw our bumblebee numbers bounce back. Across the eight month recording period, we recorded a 171% increase in bumblebee numbers on 2024 and a 50% increase on 2023.

Why was this?

The better weather meant the overwintering bumblebee queens had better conditions for setting up their nests. They had a greater choice and quantity of pollinator plants at the crucial spring nest rearing period and then throughout the summer. This supports larger and healthier nest populations. At the same time, the farm’s agroecological methods – including using clover and other green manures, planting a wide diversity of (chemical free) pollinator food crops in the Market Garden and Allotments, and maintaining wild meadow areas – means there is always something in flower for the bees.

Which Species Fared the Best?

There are 24 resident species of bumblebee in the UK. Six of these are known as cuckoo bees who parasite the nests of social bees. This year we recorded seven of The Big Eight social species and three species of cuckoo bees across the two transects. This is one more social bumblebee species and two more cuckoo bee species than last year. Finding two new cuckoo bee species suggests there were larger numbers of bumblebee nests on the Farm to support them.

The most recorded was the ‘all ginger’ Common carder bumblebee. The Common carder accounted for 44% of all recordings on the original boundary transect and 30% of recordings on the new cultivated transect. The carder tends to emerge slightly later in the season, but flies for longer – up to the end of October.

The great news is Red-tailed bumblebee numbers recovered significantly. In 2024, their numbers crashed nationally by 72% and by 80% on the Farm. This year, Red-tailed numbers recovered and increased – with numbers 111% higher than 2023. We believe this was helped by the presence of white clover at the Farm, especially along the boundary walks. The Red-tailed is a short-tongued species and is especially fond of white clover, so this would have helped them during their critical nest rearing period in the spring.

Two Red-tailed bumblebees on Birds-foot trefoil (photo by Huw Pennell)

What were the New Species Recorded on the Farm?

We didn’t find Garden bumblebees on the Beewalk last year, though we had the year before. In 2025, we found them on the new transect in the allotment area. They may have been there in 2024 as well. This is a long-tongued species which tends to favour long-tubed flowers like comfrey and foxgloves. There aren’t many of these on the boundary survey area, so the Garden bee is benefiting from the Community Allotments – they will have been attracted to the wider variety of long-tubed flowers of the vegetables.

Garden bumblebee on foxglove (photo by Huw Pennell)

The two new species of cuckoo bee were the Forest cuckoo and the Field cuckoo, who parasite the nests of the Early bumblebee and Common carder bee. We didn’t find large numbers of cuckoo bees (just one or two at a time). But the presence of Field cuckoos reflects the greater number of Common carder bee nests. And we found the Forest cuckoo bee (which is short-tongued) along the blackberry hedgerows on the cultivated transect – one of the favoured flowers for them and for the Early bumblebees.

In addition, entomologist and Farm biodiversity volunteer David Notton recorded The Heath bumblebee elsewhere on the Farm. This is one of the ‘Big Eight’ and not one we recorded on the transects this year – so, another one we can hope to find next year.

Key Numbers

Number of recorded sightings on the new cultivated transect: 426
the food growing areas are particular bee hotspots

Number of recorded sightings on the original boundary transect: 296 (up 171% on 2024)

Most common recorded species: Common carder bees = 36% across the two transects

Number of Red-tailed bumblebees recorded on the boundary transect: 55 = 19% of total count

Number of cuckoo bees sightings across the two transects: 4

Any Other New Bee News From 2025?

There are over 270 species of bee in the UK, of which the farmed honey bee is just one. In addition to the 24 species of bumblebee, there are close to 250 species of solitary bees, which are critical pollinators in their own right. As we aim to increase biodiversity on the Farm, we are supporting solitary bees by adding bee hotels and bee banks. David Notton has led a project to install bee hotels for the ariel cavity species like the Red Mason Bee in the Market Garden and Allotment areas, while I have worked with Allotments Co-ordinator Agnes Taiti and a team of volunteers to create bee banks in the Allotments to support the solitary mining bees. The good news is that some of the bee hotels have already attracted Red Mason Bees (which are especially important for Orchard tree pollination). We hope to see the mining bees start using the bee banks in the Allotments next spring.

Bee hotel for cavity-nesting bees already in use (photo by David Notton)

Huw Pennell, November 2025

All of us at Edinburgh Agroecology Co-op are heartened by this year’s bee and butterfly survey results, and very grateful to Huw Pennell, Juliet Wilson (butterfly surveys), Katie Smith, David Notton and the Community Garden and Allotment volunteers who have done crucial work to understand and support our bee and butterfly populations.

The dramatic contrast between last year and this lets us feel how much pressure a more unstable climate puts on everyone – from our insect populations to ourselves growing veg. Also, we know these improved numbers are still in the context of a century of decline nationwide. The landscape should be absolutely buzzing. It’s still all-too-quiet, and there is a lot more instability to come.

However, here we have a small demonstration of how agroecological food growing creates better conditions for life to flourish. We couldn’t help the pollinators with last year’s rain and cold, but we can still create the conditions where they will be able to find food and nesting space, given the chance. If you’d like to get involved, click here to see the volunteering opportunities at the farm, or make a donation to support our work. If you have your own growing space, Lauriston Wildflowers can supply farm-grown wildflower plants to support pollinators. Also look out for the latest ‘Foodbank for Pollinators’ by environmental artist Natalie Taylor, which is currently taking shape on the wildflower mound at the farm.