Anyone know anything about bees?

Just got home to spot a bee going into an opening in the brick work by my back door.

Minute later it came back out, quickly sealed the gap with masking tape and now I have 3 bees trying to find the entrance again.

quick google and they are either honey or masonry bees.

any advice would be appreciated, would post pics but can never get it to work

Mason bees are great – docile, solitary, useful pollinators. Take off the masking tape and let it get on with its good work.

They’re laying eggs in holes in your wall – each one in a little cell with some pollen. The first one laid will wake up first next spring and then bites the bum of the next to get it moving etc until they emerge.

They’ll be busy for a few weeks around now and then that’ll be it until the spring. The extra ones are males drawn to the pheromones of the egg laying female.

quickly sealed the gap with masking

Why on earth would you do that?!

Can’t be masonry then as there were three at the same time.

im quite happy to leave em be if the won’t harm the wife or dogs

Because it’s right by the door, wife is concerned

Mason bees are the ones with a dodgy handshake. Usually found in big buzzness or the police

Honey bees make breakfast cereal

All bees are good and we should look after them

Just read the rest of your post purist, ok thanks for feedback

Because it’s right by the door, wife is concerned

FWIW there’s a wall next to the kids education garden at RHS Wisley which is usually busy with mason bees at this time of year. If the RHS is happy to have them next to visiting kids, what’s your wife concerned about?

We briefly had Tree Bees exhibit this behaviour, got a good photo for the local Beekeepers Association to identify them.

They moved on after 3 days, the most hassle they caused is I had to rescue loads stuck in the house, including quite a few that needed sugary water on a spoon to get going again.

Get the kids interested, look up the masonry bees’ lifestyle etc, use it as an educational opportunity

Milk producing bees? Boobees.

Thanks for all the feedback, I’ve opened the hole back up now the wife is reassured.

got to keep the missus happy lol

Thanks Charlie, you’ve inspired me to up my bee spotting game. Lots here, apparently we are a bee city.

my wife fancied trying apiary but she was recommended to start small so started with three dozen in a little hive. But they were ridiculously docile, barely left the hive at all. We enlisted the help of the local apiarists society and they sent round a young beekeeper to see if he could liven them up a bit. What a transformation, just a few minutes with my wife and he soon had her 36 bees out and flying around.

They’re dead good at hexagons, hope that helps

Hexagons *are* the bestagons

The Bees are awesome, a very talented bunch of musicians from Craggy Island (The Isle of Wight).

Bees actually make circles, not hexagons.

The trouble is that they squeeze the circles too close together so they get squashed into hexagons.

What a transformation, just a few minutes with my wife and he soon had her 36 bees out and flying around.

Jesus **** Christ

@theotherjonv

That deserved more credit, chapeau! 😁

🤣🤣🤣🤣

can’t really take the credit – Humphrey Lyttleton and his record archivist Samantha for that.

Bees can be inconvenient, just opened the lid on the compost thing, after mowing the lawn. It seems bumblebees have called dibs, so now I have to use the green bin for grass cuttings that I’ve not paid to be emptied.

I would go no mow but the rest of the garden is a bit lazy students residence in look.

They have their own cool theme tune

just a few minutes with my wife and he soon had her 36 bees out

Ok, I’ll put my hand up. I don’t get it. Is it just me?

Went on a walk today with the cubs. Ont the last past down the hill I saw a lot of dead bees, and one of the cubs counted 22. It was a hot day but I wouldn’t expect that to kill bees – or could it?

Not sure what’s going on this year but we’ve got very few bumblebees – have a couple of heather bushes which are in flower and normally covered in them.

There were a few earlier in the spring; I don’t know if it’s been too wet/windy but it’s a bit of a worry.

We did have a swarm of honey bees fly over the other day then take up residence in next door’s chimney.

@creakingdoor – that refers to a body measurement and they are both not covered…

The cherry blossom tree near me are normally buzzing with bees, they’re barely making any noise this year , 😞

Thankfully our garden is abuzz with bees atm. They’re loving the brassicas we left to flower. Almost too noisy, but glad to have them. Need to clear those brassicas soon, we’ll have to wait until the bees are done.

Some of the trails by us are looking a bit barren. There’s a small hive nearby with a colony of 600. Do you think another 50 or so would make a difference?

@didnthurt It’s a real worry, isn’t it? Where are you? We’re in Rochdale, colleague has similar in Saddleworth, but someone I know in the W Mids says he’s not noticed anything different.

West Lothian

@didnthurt I’m West Lothian as well. Seen a few more bees about now that the weather has warmed up a bit!

Bad spring for bees and lots of colonies starved a  few weeks back – there was pollen about but too wet for them to get out 🙁

Do we know if they‘ll recover?

Do we know if they‘ll recover?

They starved to the point of whole colonies died. Ours were ok but FIL who is a very experienced beekeeper lost one of his. Swarms are in high demand at the minute as folk try to re-establish hives. So yes, I think they’ll recover long term assuming the weather is kind the rest of the summer and over next winter. Another bad winter could have a serious impact.

All the miner bees living in lawn came out this weekend and kept getting stuck in the house – just needed batting out of the nearest window. I’m hoping this is a sign of another good bee year for us.

Ok, I’ll put my hand up. I don’t get it. Is it just me?

It’s a joke about his wife’s breast size i.e. 36B.