WORKERS CAPITAL
Broken planning system makes investing in UK too risky, warns pension fund giant

Szu Ping Chan
Mon, May 20, 2024



Britain’s broken planning system has made UK projects too risky to invest in, the head of the country’s biggest local government pension scheme has warned.

Rachel Elwell, chief executive of Border to Coast, said Rishi Sunak’s failure to slash red tape meant investors were demanding a Nimby premium to plough money into the UK.

The pensions giant, which is responsible for managing £60bn of assets, urged the Prime Minister to do more to reduce lengthy delays.

Ms Elwell said: “The fact that it takes a decade to be able to link a new renewable energy source to the grid is just not good for the UK. And the amount of construction risk that brings to asset owners isn’t something that we typically would have in our risk appetite.”

Mark Lyon, Border to Coast’s deputy chief investment officer, also warned that the FTSE 100 would struggle to shake its reputation as a “stale index” as a growing number of companies threaten to delist from Britain’s blue-chip group.

While Border to Coast has £4.5bn invested in UK equities, Mr Lyon said it would be “difficult” to see the FTSE 100 “returning to [its] former glory”.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Ms Elwell said the risks extended well beyond big energy projects.

“More generally we have underinvested in our capabilities to be able to process planning,” she said.

“If things get caught in planning for several years, then you’ve got that construction risk and planning risk.”

Mark Lyon, deputy chief investment officer, added: “When you have a lack of visibility on when your returns are going to be generated, you effectively have to think about that in the return. You want to be able to compensate for that additional risk.”

Border to Coast has just launched a UK opportunities fund worth half a billion pounds.

While this represents a bet on Britain with investments planned in housing, transport and renewable energy that will benefit local communities, Ms Elwell warned that long planning delays were acting as a barrier to investment. “We’re building a portfolio that has a certain level of risk in it. And so if you are able to reduce that element of risk, we could do more.”

While Ms Elwell said maintaining a diverse portfolio was the imperative of her investment team, she added: “I think you would get more capital wanting to go in, which then could reduce the cost to the UK.”

Mr Lyon added: “Investors are [then] likely to require a lower return because the risk has been reduced.”

Britain’s stock market has been hit by a string of delistings in recent years. Oil giant Shell, the second-biggest company in the FTSE by market value, has also warned it is considering leaving London in favour of New York because of valuation concerns.

Mr Lyon said: “Some will argue it’s a stale index given that it’s ‘old economy’. It’s mining. It’s oil and gas. It’s financials. It doesn’t have a tech sector which has driven the US equity market and by default the global equity market.

“The positive points are the current valuations are significantly below where they have been long term and at a big discount to global equity markets.

“Is there a catalyst that we can see that sees the UK returning to former glory? [That’s] difficult at the moment. But there’s a lot of value within the market.”

Bordertocoast.org.ukwww.bordertocoast.org.uk/

Border To Coast Pensions Partnership - UK Pensions Pool

Border to Coast Pensions Partnership is one of the largest pension pools in the UK. Established in 2018, we were founded to manage the investments of 11 ...

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Three-quarters of Gaza marked as IDF evacuation zones, BBC finds

Ahmed Nour, Abdirahim Saeed - BBC Arabic
Mon, May 20, 2024 

[Reuters]

More than three-quarters of Gaza's territory have been designated as evacuation zones by the Israeli military since the war against Hamas began in October, an analysis by BBC Arabic has found.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued evacuation orders to Gazans since Israel launched a military campaign on 7 October in response to a cross-border attack that day by Hamas, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 people were taken hostage. The Israeli response has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza so far, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The BBC’s analysis shows the cumulative areas designated as evacuation zones amount to 281 sq km (108 sq miles). That is the equivalent of 77% of Gaza's territory.

The IDF has told BBC Arabic that its evacuation instructions are protecting civilians by directing them to safer areas.

The UN and other aid agencies insist that there are no safe areas for Gaza's estimated two million civilians. They have also questioned the suitability of an IDF-designated “humanitarian zone” in the territory.

Since the beginning of the war, the IDF has issued dozens of evacuation warnings affecting various areas of Gaza as part of its military operations against Hamas.

By mid-May, only less than a quarter of Gaza’s territory was not designated as an evacuation zone.


[BBC]

Gaza is a densely populated enclave, around 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on one side and fenced off from Israel and Egypt at its borders.

On 7 October, the first day of the conflict, the IDF directed civilians in different parts of Gaza to seek shelter, before it launched its first air strikes.

Later in October, the IDF told civilians in the north, including Gaza City, and central areas to move to south of the Wadi Gaza riverbed.

The IDF announced new evacuation zones in November which included more of central Gaza and parts of the south.

At the start of December, the IDF began issuing evacuation maps where Gaza was divided into blocks to provide more precise instructions, after coming under international pressure.

In December and January, evacuation warnings were expanded further to the south to include the city of Khan Younis and surrounding areas.

In early April, the IDF renewed warnings not to return to the northern parts of Gaza.

In May, almost half of the city of Rafah was added to the evacuation zones, as the IDF ground troops advanced into southern Gaza from the east.

Civilians were simultaneously urged to move to an “expanded humanitarian area” stretching from al-Mawasi, just north of Rafah, to the nearby regions of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.

The IDF also recently called for people in and around Jabalia and Beit Lahia in northern Gaza to evacuate to shelters in western Gaza City, as it started fresh operations against Hamas in the two areas.


[BBC]

None of the IDF’s evacuation instructions since October have mentioned when evacuation zones will be safe again, or when residents will be able to go back to their homes.

The BBC sought a response from the IDF on the scale of the evacuation zones.

The IDF reiterated that the evacuation warnings were there to protect civilians, but it did not specifically address our findings.

“The IDF is committed to international law and operates accordingly,” a statement sent to the BBC said.

Up to 1.7 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, the majority multiple times, according to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa.
Fleeing Rafah

On 7 May, Israel seized the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, after IDF troops advanced into the area.

The military ordered civilians to evacuate eastern Rafah for their own safety before launching the offensive.

About 1.5 million displaced civilians had been sheltering in Rafah before then, according to the UN.

Unrwa reported that more than 810,000 Palestinians had fled as of Monday, as Israeli tanks pushed into the city.

In one satellite image captured on 8 May, an area in central Rafah which was once busy with tents for displaced people looked deserted.

[BBC]

The IDF has been directing civilians towards the “expanded humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi, a narrow coastal strip of agricultural land that was first designated as a “humanitarian zone” in October.

The expanded zone now measures 60 sq km.

The IDF said the area includes “field hospitals, tents and increased amounts of food, water, medication and additional supplies”.

A satellite image captured on 8 May shows what appears to be a new field hospital which has been constructed in Deir al-Balah.

[BBC]

The UN has questioned the idea of directing civilians to al-Mawasi.

“Al-Mawasi, in particular, is an area that is a lot of sand and desert,” Louise Wateridge, communications officer of Unrwa told BBC Arabic.

The IDF’s designated humanitarian areas had limited infrastructure and supplies, she added.

Fidaa Alaraj, a co-ordinator for the charity Oxfam in Gaza, says the humanitarian situation is getting worse in al-Mawasi.

"It is very crowded... Tents are everywhere and are now right on the beach front," she explained.

"There is also not enough food, water and fuel to go around," she added.

Ms Alaraj, a Palestinian from northern Gaza, said she had been displaced several times since the start of the war herself.

BBC Arabic spoke to other Palestinians who had been forced to move several times already.

A displaced woman from Rafah said there was neither water nor electricity when she arrived in al-Mawasi.

Hamdan told BBC Arabic that he had been displaced four times since the conflict began.

"We came to al-Mawasi and could not find tents. And the ones that were available were very expensive. There are no toilets and we had to bury barrels underground to use them as toilets.”

“This is expensive, and life is very difficult. There is no hygiene at all," he added.

Additional reporting by Lamees Altalebi and Paul Cusiac

FDA allows Neuralink to implant second patient with brain chip

Neuralink will implant a second patient with a brain chip despite some initial issues with the first one. This time the quarter-sized chip will be implanted deeper to prevent it from retracting. Dr. Akshay Syal talks with NBC's Gadi Schwartz about how the procedure works.

May 20, 2024

 

Study reveals alarming rates of postpartum depression among mothers in six countries

 

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By Vijay Kumar MalesuMay 19 2024Reviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc.

In a recent study published in the journal BMC Public Health, researchers determined the frequency of postpartum depression (PPD). They identified associated predictors and coping strategies among mothers in six countries from June to August 2023.

Study: Exploring predictors and prevalence of postpartum depression among mothers: Multinational study.

 Image Credit: KieferPix / Shutterstock.com

What is PPD?

PPD is a prevalent mental health issue that affects about 10% of women after childbirth, with some studies suggesting up to one in seven women are affected. PPD can develop within the first year postpartum and persist for several years, thus significantly differing from the short-term "baby blues" many mothers experience.

PPD often goes undiagnosed, with around 50% of cases unrecognized. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria for PPD include mood instability, sleep disturbances, and suicidal ideation.

Some factors that influence the development of PPD include marital status, social support, and unplanned pregnancy. Nevertheless, additional research is needed to better understand the varying prevalence, risk factors, and effective interventions for PPD across different cultural and demographic contexts.

About the study

The present analytical cross-sectional study involved 674 mothers from Egypt, Ghana, India, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq during the childbearing period. Conducted from June to August 2023, the current study included mothers who gave birth within the previous 18 months, were citizens of one of the targeted countries, and were between 18 and 40.

Exclusion criteria included multiple pregnancies, illiteracy, serious health issues in the baby, stillbirth or intrauterine fetal death, and mothers with medical, mental, or psychological disorders interfering with questionnaire completion. Mothers who could not access or use the internet and those who could not read or speak Arabic or English were also excluded.

Study participants were recruited using a multistage approach. Two governorates were selected from each country, with one rural and one urban area identified from each governorate. Mothers were surveyed through online platforms and public locations such as well-baby clinics, Primary Health Centers (PHCs), and family planning units. All study participants completed the questionnaire using tablets or cell phones provided by data collectors or scanning a Quick Response (QR) code.

The questionnaire, initially developed in English and translated into Arabic, was validated by healthcare experts and tested for clarity and comprehensibility in a pilot study. The final questionnaire included sections on demographic and health-related factors, obstetric history, PPD assessment using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and psychological and social characteristics.

Study findings 

The frequency of PPD in the total sample using the Edinburgh 10-question scale was 13.5%; however, this prevalence significantly varies across countries. PPD was highest among mothers in Ghana at 26.0%, followed by India, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria at 21.7%, 19.1%, 8.5%, 7.7%, and 2.3%, respectively.

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The current study included 674 participants, with a median age of 27, 60.3% of whom were between 25 and 40. About 96% of study participants were married, whereas 67% had sufficient monthly income and at least a high school education.

Health-related factors revealed that 40% of the study cohort smoked, 95.7% did not smoke, 54.2% received the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine, and 44.1% had previously contracted COVID-19. About 83% of the study cohort were not diagnosed with any comorbidities, whereas 92.4% did not have any history of psychiatric illness or family history.

PPD was significantly higher among single or widowed women at 56.3%, whereas 66.7% of PPD cases occurred in mothers with medical, mental, or psychological problems, and 35.7% reported previous cigarette smoking habits or alcohol use. Mothers charged for their own healthcare services had higher PPD rates.

Most mothers were not on hormonal treatment or contraceptive pills, with 46.1% experiencing unplanned pregnancies and 68.6% gaining 10 kg or more during pregnancy. About 61% of the study participants delivered vaginally, whereas 90.9% and 48.2% of mothers had healthy babies and were breastfeeding, respectively.

There was a significant association between PPD and mothers on contraceptive methods, those with one or two live births, and those with interpregnancy spaces of less than two years. Additionally, mothers with a history of dead children and those who experienced postnatal problems had higher PPD rates. About 75% of mothers were unaware of PPD symptoms, with 35.3% experiencing cultural stigma or judgment. Only 6.2% of affected women were diagnosed with PPD and prescribed medication.

Mothers with PPD often had a history of PPD, financial and marital problems, and cultural stigma. Despite receiving more support, 43.3%, 45.5%, 48.4%, and 70% of mothers felt uncomfortable discussing mental health with physicians, husbands, family, and their community, respectively.

Social norms, cultural beliefs, personal barriers, geographical disparities, language barriers, and financial constraints were among the causes of not receiving treatment, which was reported among 65.7%, 60.5%, 56.5%, 48.5%, 47.4%, and 39.7% of mothers, respectively. Logistic regression analysis identified several significant PPD predictors, including marital status, infant health, postnatal problems, nationality, pregnancy status, and psychological factors.

Journal reference:

• Amer, S. A., Zaitoun, N. A., Abdelsalam, H. A., et al. (2024). Exploring predictors and prevalence of postpartum depression among mothers: Multinational study. BMC Public Health. doi:10.1186/s12889-024-18502-0 

 

Higher fluoride levels in pregnant women tied to children's neurobehavioral problems

 

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 Reviewed

May 20 2024University of Florida

Higher fluoride levels in pregnant women are linked to increased odds of their children exhibiting neurobehavioral problems at age 3, according to a new study led by a University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions researcher.

The findings, based on an analysis involving 229 mother-child pairs living in a U.S. community with typical fluoride exposure levels for pregnant women in fluoridated regions in North America, appear May 20 in the journal JAMA Network Open. It is believed to be the first U.S.-based study to examine associations of prenatal fluoride exposure with parent-reported child neurobehavioral issues, which include symptoms of anxiety, difficulty regulating emotions and other complaints, such as stomachaches and headaches.

Fluoride, a mineral, has been added to community water supplies since the 1940s as a way to reduce dental cavities in children and adults. Nearly three-quarters of the U.S. population receives fluoridated tap water. The impacts of fluoride on human health, both positive and negative, have been the subject of much recent debate and ongoing scientific scrutiny.

The study's lead investigator Ashley Malin, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology in the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions and UF College of Medicine, said that taken with other recent studies conducted in Canada and Mexico on the effects of fluoride on young children's IQ, the findings suggest fluoride may negatively affect fetal brain development.

There is no known benefit of fluoride consumption to the developing fetus, but we do know that there is possibly a risk to their developing brain. We found that each 0.68 milligram per liter increase in fluoride levels in the pregnant women's urine was associated with nearly double the odds of children scoring in the clinical or borderline clinical range for neurobehavioral problems at age 3, based on their mother's reporting."

Ashley Malin, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of epidemiology, UF College of Public Health and Health Professions and UF College of Medicine

The fluoride levels found in the study participants' samples are typical for people living in communities with fluoridated water, the researchers say. However, according to the paper, authors do not know whether findings observed in this study are generalizable to other U.S. populations or are nationally representative and therefore more research is required to address that question.

Individual differences in a person's fluoride exposure can be attributed to variances in dietary consumption, such as drinking and cooking with tap water versus filtered water, or consuming food and drinks naturally high in fluoride, including green and black tea, certain seafoods and foods sprayed with fluoride-containing pesticides.

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For the new study, investigators used data from the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors, or MADRES, study conducted at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. MADRES is led by Tracy Bastain, Ph.D., the senior author of the current fluoride study and an associate professor of clinical population and public health sciences, and Carrie Breton, Sc.D., a professor of population and public health sciences. The MADRES study follows a group of predominantly Hispanic women with low-income and their children living in Los Angeles County from pregnancy through childhood.

Researchers collected urine samples from MADRES participants during their third trimester of pregnancy. Urinary fluoride is the most widely used measure of individual fluoride exposure in epidemiological studies, including those assessing effects on fetal brain development. Because fluoride, when combined with disinfecting agents, may cause lead to leach from lead-bearing water pipes, the scientists conducted various analyses to be sure any neurobehavioral effects could not be attributed to lead.

When their children reached age 3, study mothers completed the Preschool Child Behavior Checklist, which assesses children's behavior and emotions. The investigators found that women with higher fluoride exposure during pregnancy tended to rate their children higher for overall neurobehavioral problems.

The study team hopes their findings spur policymakers to create specific recommendations for fluoride consumption during pregnancy.

"I think this is important evidence, given that it's the first U.S.-based study and findings are quite consistent with the other studies published in North America with comparable fluoride exposure levels," Malin said. "Conducting a nationwide U.S. study on this topic would be important, but I think the findings of the current study and recent studies from Canada and Mexico suggest that there is a real concern here."

Malin's research is supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. The MADRES study is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Source:

University of Florida

Journal reference:

Malin, A. J., et al. (2024). Maternal Urinary Fluoride and Child Neurobehavior a

Scarlett Johansson Says OpenAI Ripped Off Her Voice for ChatGPT

In a scorching statement, Scarlett Johansson claims that after she turned down an invitation to voice ChatGPT, OpenAI brazenly mimicked her distinctive tones anyway.

Scarlett Johansson attends the Asteroid City red carpet during the 76th annual Cannes film festival on May 23, 2023, in France.

PHOTOGRAPH: GARETH CATTERMOLE/GETTY IMAGES

Last week OpenAI revealed a new conversational interface for ChatGPT with an expressive, synthetic voice strikingly similar to that of the AI assistant played by Scarlett Johansson in the sci-fi movie Her—only to suddenly disable the new voice over the weekend.

On Monday, Johansson issued a statement claiming to have forced that reversal, after her lawyers demanded OpenAI clarify how the new voice was created.

Johansson’s statement, relayed to WIRED by her publicist, claims that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked her last September to provide ChatGPT’s new voice but that she declined. She describes being astounded to see the company demo a new voice for ChatGPT last week that sounded like her anyway.

“When I heard the release demo I was shocked, angered, and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference,” the statement reads. It notes that Altman appeared to encourage the world to connect the demo with Johansson’s performance by tweeting out “her,” in reference to the movie, on May 13.

Johansson’s statement says her agent was contacted by Altman two days before last week’s demo asking that she reconsider her decision not to work with OpenAI. After seeing the demo, she says she hired legal counsel to write to OpenAI asking for details of how it made the new voice.

The statement claims that this led to OpenAI’s announcement Sunday in a post on X that it had decided to “pause the use of Sky,” the company’s name for the synthetic voice. The company also posted a blog post outlining the process used to create the voice. “Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice,” the post said.

Sky is one of several synthetic voices that OpenAI gave ChatGPT last September, but at last week’s event it displayed a much more lifelike intonation with emotional cues. The demo saw a version of ChatGPT powered by a new AI model called GPT-4o appear to flirt with an OpenAI engineer in a way that many viewers found reminiscent of Johansson’s performance in Her.

“The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's, and it was never intended to resemble hers,” Sam Altman said in a statement provided by OpenAI. He claimed the voice actor behind Sky's voice was hired before the company contact Johannsson. “Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”

The conflict with Johansson adds to OpenAI’s existing battles with artists, writers, and other creatives. The company is already defending a number of lawsuits alleging it inappropriately used copyrighted content to train its algorithms, including suits from The New York Times and authors including George R.R. Martin.

Generative AI has made it much easier to create realistic synthetic voices, creating new opportunities and threats. In January, voters in New Hampshire were bombarded with robocalls featuring a deepfaked voice message from Joe Biden. In March, OpenAI said that it had developed a technology that could clone someone’s voice from a 15-second clip, but the company said it would not release the technology because of how it might be misused.

Updated 5-20-2024, 9 pm EDT: This article has been updated with comment from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

 

ICJP director warns UK MPs ‘justice is coming’ over complicity in Israeli war crimes

BySKWAWKBOX (SW)20/05/2024

Senior lawyer says ‘ink is almost dry’ on the guilt of many MPs who have enabled and covered Israel’s atrocities

Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak and other UK MPs may be looking uneasily over their shoulder tonight after receiving a renewed warning from the lawyer leading a pro-Palestinian justice group about their own guilt regarding Israel’s war crimes, after International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced he has requested arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Tayab Ali, a partner in Bindmans, one of the world’s leading human rights law firms, and a director of the International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) published his stark warning on Twitter/X this evening, telling MPs who have supported and enabled Israel’s atrocities against the people of Gaza that it is now too late for them to do much to avoid their guilt and complicity, because ‘the ink of history on your potential complicity is almost dry and you already made your decision’ – and that ICJP will be demanding personal legal accountability for guilty MPs:

Scotland Yard has already called for evidence after the ICJP warned Tory PM Rishi Sunak and notionally-Labour leader Keir Starmer that it would prosecute them if they colluded in war crimes against the Palestinian people. Starmer has even gone as far as to tell a radio interviewer that Israel had a ‘right’ to cut off food, water and fuel from Gaza, with several of his front bench MPs publicly defending his statement until he later tried to pretend he hadn’t said it.

Israel has killed at least 40,000 civilians and potentially as many as 100,000, overwhelmingly women and children, with double that number maimed and wounded and many more set to be murdered as Israel continues its invasion of Rafah and its block on the entry of food, fuel and medicines for more than two million people.

SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.

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Do your bit for nature and essential pollination: build a bee nursery!

Anna Andrews20/05/2024

Red Mason bee couple . Photo André Karwath aka Aka. Wikimedia Commons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

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If you’re like me, you find the damage wrought by us humans on the natural world very depressing. The easiest way to cope is by just not thinking about it; but the ostrich approach – while a form of self-preservation – will, of course, only add to the problem. Most of us, though, if we are sufficiently engaged, can do some, albeit very small, things to help nature. An individual effort might only be a minuscule droplet in the bucket, but added together…

Which is a comforting thought.

One cheering thing I’m doing at present is my ‘bee house’. When I say “house”, it’s not a fashionable ‘beach hut’-style one, but a section of functional plastic drainpipe, capped at one end and open at the other, which I have filled with cardboard tubes of a specific diameter suitable for the species I am hoping to attract: red mason bees and leaf-cutter bees.

These are solitary bees, which as the name implies, don’t live in colonies as honeybees do;  they are, apparently, just as important for pollination, on which much of our food depends. Many bee species are in decline for a variety of reasons including loss of habitat, pesticide use and climate change.

We can help redress the balance: we can provide nesting places, and if we have a garden (or live near one) full of pollen-rich flowers which are not sprayed with chemicals, that is good foraging habitat for bees – and many other insects.

Once mated, the female bees find a suitable crevice or hole and lay an egg at the back of it, ‘provision’ it with pollen, and then seal the egg in. It will hatch in its own, single cell. Depending on the species, the female caps the cell with mud, or with sections of leaf. She then lays more eggs in individual cells in front of the first, progressively working to the entrance of the hole (or cardboard tube!) and capping it off at the surface.

The eggs hatch into larvae which grow inside their cells before cocooning themselves to develop into adult bees over the winter. Once spring arrives, they break out into the air and the adult phase of their life cycle. I have not managed to find out whether a bee emerging from a cell at the back of the tube can escape if there are failed cells between it and the outside.

Unfortunately, the eggs, larvae and unhatched bees are subject to predation or can be killed by parasites, diseases, moulds, or the weather. As a consequence, many experts suggest not leaving the bee house to its own devices but removing the cocoons for safe-keeping until the following spring, thus ensuring that there is a new generation to continue the life cycle. This is, of course, only possible if the bee house has removable tubes which can be taken apart to save the bee cocoons.

In March 2023, I bought the pipe from a specialist online firm and fixed it to the side of the shed – the required ‘sheltered spot facing south’ – where we would be able to see it. It was partially successful, in terms of the number of tubes the bees used; but the instructions recommend taking the tubes out soon after they are filled (to help protect the eggs and larvae), and in the autumn you are supposed to soak the tubes in water until they disintegrate, and then remove the bee cocoons for safe storage over the winter.

I chickened out of both these processes. Firstly, I found that if I removed a tube as soon as it was filled, it seemed to disorientate bees still using other tubes, and they stopped visiting the pipe: totally self-defeating. What’s more, the prospect of soaking the tubes and trying to separate the bee cocoons without damaging them and injuring the bees, was much too scary.

So I stored the filled tubes in the garage all winter, and then returned them to the pipe in early April, making sure I put them back the right way round; spring 2024 just seemed too cold until then. I hoped that, somehow, if there were any surviving bees, they would manage to get out, and on the first sunny days, to my delight, some bees did begin to emerge. Although small – about 10-12mm long –  they buzz quite loudly, so it’s hard to miss the activity if you’re on the lookout for them.

Bees beginning to nest. 9 May. Video by the author

I have no idea how many adult bees emerged in the end, but I did witness some new bees coming out, and saw how at first they just drop to the ground, presumably because their wings are still soft and weak. You have to mind where you walk!

Newly-emerged bee. Photo by the author

Then the weather changed back to cool and wet, and there was no sign of any more bees coming out, so I cleaned the pipe and stocked it with fresh tubes, although I also put back last year’s capped or part-capped ones, just in case there were any bees still to emerge.

Nothing happened for two or three weeks after that and I began to doubt the bee-man’s confidence. But then, during a short spell of warm, calm days, the bees started to arrive to nest. On suitable days there’s been lots of activity and the cardboard tubes have been steadily filling up. The bees are not aggressive and rarely sting, so it’s easy to watch them at close quarters.

Tubes filling up. 19 May Video by the author

In the autumn this year I’m going to summon up my courage and try soaking the tubes to remove the cocoons; the detritus and parasites are said to sink, while – in theory – the cocoons float, so can be scooped out, put on kitchen towel to dry, and then stored, ‘breathable’ but  frost-free, until the spring, when they are taken into the fresh air to hatch.

Wish me – and the bees – good luck!