Noticed we have a fair few Bees coming an going from the roof of our porch. We don’t generally use the front door so that’s not a problem but the kids are playing near there quite a bit and I’ve already been stung once a couple of weeks ago, don’t really want the kids getting stung as well.

Whats the best way to move them on? I understand that Bee populations are dwindling so don’t really want to kill them.

Any advice?

Get a beekeeper in. Don’t kill them.

I did have a thread with a similar problem, relating to hornets and a water tower.

Can’t find it now.

Gardeners world dealt with this. Any bee keeper will want them.

They’re not honey bees though, just bumble bees. I’ll probably leave them and see what they do but if we get too many i might need to get some one in.

Best to leave them (lapsed beekeeper here) if the are Bumbles – they will do their stuff this year and then die this winter – the new queens from the nest will have flown, mated, and will hibernate somewhere before looking for a new nest site in spring. Bung up the hole when the nest has died. You should not have any problems with them if you just leave them to do their thing

They still pollinate, which is the basis for the concern over their decline. Bumble bees are much less likely to sting than honey bees, which in turn are much less likely to sting than wasps. Just don’t poke sticks into their nest or swat at them unnecessarily. Basically, leave them bee and it’ll be grand…

We had this with bumbles last summer, we did just as captaincarbon says, left them alone (quite nice to watch to be honest) and at the end of the summer sealed the hole they were using. No problems at all, and no returns this year.

ads678 – Member
They’re not honey bees though, just bumble bees

are honey bees preferable to bumble bees?

Genuine question, i’ve no idea.

Bumbles are best treated as pets you don’t have to feed and better to have in the fabric of the building than honey bees. Normally quite the docile they will die off naturally in a month or two.

@ seosamh77
yes (unless you want honey, obviously)
a honey bee colony will reduce the population slightly (kill off the unwanted males) but will remain basically intact, hibernating over the winter, then will waken come the spring and keep going. So come the spring, you’ve still got them. A bumble bee colony will die off almost completely and will rebuild the colony in a new place come spring.
Honey bees produce honey to feed the colony over winter, bumble bees don’t bother because they’re all going to die.
Fascinating creatures

I don’t want to kill them, just wondered if there was a way of moving them on. I’m not going to bother them and will just warn the kids not to overreact towards them, although the kids aren’t actually bothered by them it’s usually adults that flap about……

If they are bumble bees just leave them they will do no harm. If they are honey bees you’d know because there would be **** thousands. So in summary just leave them. Some bumble species are very rare indeed

If they are what we had last year they will be tree bumble bees and the one buzzing around your porch are the males.Last year our caused no problem and eventually left of there own accord. The only slight problem was one of the parcel delivery drivers didn’t leave a note in through the door as he has an bad reaction to bee stings.

BigButSlimmerBloke – Member

cool, ta.

don’t worry, a little squidgy yellow bear will be along shortly and will get himself stuck in the hole. Or so I read in a book.

We’ve had some bumbles for a few weeks. Don’t seem to be causing any problems, and the bit of the eaves they are in is blanked off from the house so just leaving them alone.

Slightly annoying, quiet, continuous low pitch bzzzzzzzz can be heard through our bedroom wall. Quite amusing that someone in the nest says the bee equivalent of “bedtime” at around 11pm and they shut up until morning 🙂

Our bird box is currently full of bees, consequently renamed to ‘Bee Box’ Quite interesting to watch. As everyone says, just leave them alone and they’ll go eventually.

There are some pretty good identification guides available on the Bee, Wasp and Ant Recording Schemes website.

You could try to get some pics of them and have a go at identifying/recording them. Might be a fun thing to do with the kids…

I usually try to make a note of the first Queens I see each spring and send them in to our local environmental record centre