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2. Help to protect swarms Swarming is a natural process when colo- nies of honeybees can increase their num- bers. If you see a swarm contact the local authority or the police who will contact a local beekeeper who will collect the swarm and take it away. Honeybees in a swarm are usually very gentle and present very little danger. They can be made aggressive if disturbed or sprayed with water. Just leave them alone and wait for a competent bee- keeper to arrive. 3 . Plant your garden with bee friendly plants In areas of the country where there are few agricultural crops, honeybees rely upon garden flowers to ensure they have a di- verse diet and to provide nectar and pollen. Encourage honeybees to visit your garden by planting single flowering plants and vegetables. Go for all the allium family, all the mints, all beans except French beans and flowering herbs. Bees like daisy-shaped flowers - asters and sunflowers, also tall plants like hollyhocks, larkspur and fox- gloves. Bees need a lot of pollen and trees are a good source of food. Willows and lime trees are exceptionally good. 4 . Buy local honey Local honey will be prepared by local bee- keepers. This keeps food miles down and helps the beekeeper to cover the costs of beekeeping. Local honey complies with all food standards requirements but is not mistreated to give it a long shelf life. It tastes quite different to supermarket honey and has a flavor that reflects local flora. 5 . Ask your local representatives to improve research into honey bee health Beekeepers are very worried that we do not have enough information to combat the diseases that affect honeybees. Pollination by honeybees contributes hundreds of mil- lions of dollars annually to the agricultural economy. Yet the government only spends a few hundred thousand annually on hon- eybee research. Write to your local rep- resentatives in support of the bee health research funding campaign.