Plants for Bees is a beautiful and immensely practical book that aims to improve our understanding of the different types of bees we have in the UK, the threats to them and how we can plant bee-friendly gardens to help them survive and thrive. Written by a team of experts with the foreword by Kate Humble (TV presenter).

Native bees are a hidden treasure. From alpine meadows in the national forests of the Rocky Mountains to the Sonoran Desert in the Coronado National Forest in Arizona and from the boreal forests of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska to the Ocala National Forest in Florida, bees can be found anywhere in North America, where flowers bloom. From forests to farms, from cities to wildlands, there are 4,000 native bee species in the United States, from the tiny Perdita minima to large carpenter bees. This illustrated and colorful pamphlet provides valued information about native bees --over 4,000 in population --varying in a wide array of sizes, shapes, and colors. They are also different in their life styles, the places they frequent, the nests they build, the flowers they visit, and their season of activity. Yet, they all provide an invaluable ecosystem service - pollination -to 80 percent of flowering plants. Blueberry bees, bumble bees, yellow jacket bees, carpenter bees, and more are explored, including the differences in their gender, nests, and geographical regions that they visit.

An introduction to the roughly 4000 different bee species found in the United States and Canada, dispelling common myths about bees while offering essential tips for telling them apart in the field

The Pollen Loads of the Honeybee by Dorothy Hodges, an artist and experienced beekeeper, was first published 1952. It included drawings of pollen grains which will never be surpassed. The originals are preserved at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This booklet, published by IBRA, reproduces these drawings. Dorothy Hodges was a trained artist with an artist's acute powers of observation as well as being a beekeeper. In 1946 she had the idea of making a colour chart of pollen loads. It took several years for her ideas to gestate but the glorious outcome was the publication, by the then Bee Research Association, of The Pollen Loads of the Honeybee in 1952. Designed as a very practical guide for beekeepers, the importance of the book was immense and it has long since risen from being a humble textbook and guide to a much sought after collectors' item. Its rarity and importance mean that it is no longer easily obtainable and so difficult for the ordinary beekeeper to appreciate its contents. For this very reason IBRA has decided to reproduce Mrs Hodges's delicate drawings of pollen grains as a separate publication and in so doing hopefully make her work known to other generations of beekeepers. Although the painstakingly produced colour charts of the original book still have their value it would.not be possible to reproduce them with sufficient accuracy to do justice to the original work. However, the drawings lend them-selves to reasonable reproduction. They are of outstanding artistic merit and offer the possibility of identifying the pollen forms which are most frequently collected by bees. For beginners these drawings will do good service as an introduction to the pollen analysis of honey. The drawings need no explanation other than a name - the family group, the Latin scientific name and the common English name - thus making the book independent of language barriers. This means it can be appreciated in many countries where the original work was unknown or is now out of reach because of rarity and cost. The cover is taken from Dorothy Hodges own watercolour painting that she suggested might adorn the dust jacket of the original publication. The artwork was not used and so this booklet allows it to be seen publicly for the first time in almost sixty years. Finally, for the convenience of the reader, the actual pollen drawings retain the same page, numbers as the plates in the original book. Richard Jones Former Director, IBRA October 2009

This engaging and easy-to-use natural history guidebook provides a thorough overview of native and honey bee biology and offers tools for identifying the most common bees of California and the Western United States. Full-color illustrations introduce readers to more than 30 genera of native bees, noting each one's needs and habits and placing them in their wider context. The author highlights beesÕ ties to our own lives, the food we eat, and the habitat we provide, and suggests ways to support bees in our own backyards. In addition to helping readers understand and distinguish among major groups of bees, this guide reveals how bees are an essential part of healthy ecosystem and how many plants, including important crop plants, depend on the pollination they provide. As growing evidence points to declining bee populations, this book offers critical information about the bond between plants and pollinators, and between humans and nature. Thoroughly researched and full of new insights into the ancient process of pollination, Field Guide to the Common Bees of California; Including Bees of the Western United States is invaluable for the window it opens onto the biodiversity, adaptive range, and complexity of invertebrate communities. Ê