There’s been quite a bit of bee related news in the papers this week, some good, some not so good…

The bad news

• Climate change and deforestation in Ethiopia means rare sweet white honey is growing scarce. It will be sad indeed if the bees and their honey die out.

The good news

• The UK’s five rarest bumblebees are making a comeback, with the help of wildlife-friendly farming. Putting in pollen and nectar-rich flower margins to fields, growing red clover hay meadows and rotating the grazing of animals on land has helped in farms in Kent and East Sussex.

>>The shrill carder bee, Britain’s rarest bumblebee. They have pale greenish yellow chests and the queen makes a shrill sound when she flies.

• Bees are very clever (possibly could be classed as bad news for the beekeeper!). So clever that their tiny brains beat computers at finding the shortest route between flowers discovered in a random order.