But it also says changed weather patterns -- possibly due to
climate change -- are altering flowering times as well as
causing droughts and floods. The United Kingdom has about 250
species of bees, of which one is the honeybee, 25 are bumblebees
and the remainder are so-called solitary bees, which, because
they do not provide honey and are not as picturesque as the
hairy bumblebees, are mostly under the research radar. But they
all pollinate. Debating the role of climate change While the
honeybee, whose hived colonies are managed and fed sugar water
when the necessary nectar is absent, is adaptable enough and
managed enough to survive despite significant losses, the same
is by no means true of all the other bees. And according to Gill
Perkins, conservation manager at the Bumblebee Conservation
Trust, while honeybees used to be the most numerous and
therefore the most important plant pollinators, that is no
longer the case. She doesn't blame climate change. She blames
intensive agriculture, noting the disappea