Bees!

We have what appears to be a hive of bees living in one of our external walls. There’s a ~2″ hole in the mortar between some bricks with fairly steady traffic in and out.

This would be absolutely fine, except it’s close to our bathroom window and the dozy little fuzz balls keep coming in the house and I’m concerned that 2 year old TP Jr. is going to find one and get himself stung.

So, what to do? I don’t want to harm them but is it a realistic prospect to encourage them to move out? If so, who should i contact to facilitate their relocation?

Cheers,

Paul

Close your window leave them bee they’re becoming endangered and we need them.

I’m well aware of their status and overall importance. Hence asking if relocation is a realistic proposition.

Bumble bees…?

Bumble bees…?

I think so, yes. But I’m not certain which species.

https://www.bbka.org.uk/help/do_you_have_a_swarm.php

Relocation isn’t necessary they really do not sting unless massively provoked, you can handle them and they won’t sting as they’re not evil bastards like wasps.

But I’m not certain which species.

They generally have very limited numbers in the hive and are quite reluctant to use their sting. It’s worth searching for images of the contents if for nothing more than idle curiosity.

Here’s one…

note that bumblebees can sting and are more likely to do so if their nest is disturbed. If you decide to move a nest, it is done at your own risk.

https://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/faqs/moving-bumblebee-nests/

They’re cool. Marvel at their busyness.

It could ‘bee’ worse

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-40252990

Could be masonary bees. Doubt if any bees in that situation will want to be encouraged to move. Local banks or local Facebook group for beekeepers. Best leave the bees to it.

Thanks, teasel. Using some trunking to ‘move’ the entrance away from the window until they’re done, then patch up the hole seems like the best strategy.

Just put up some nylon mesh on the inside of the window.

Good man!

🙂

Edit : It might take them a while to find the entrance so a few could wander in before doing so. From experience they appear to have navigation issues for a few hours if the ground or area around the entrance gets disturbed.

If local area disturbed they will normally all do an orientation flight to get to grips with different scene. Can be alarming if thousands come out to do it but they’re only checking out what you’ve done.

Yeah as kids we’d put a stone in or a stick near their entrance to watch them learn their new surroundings, blame Attinburgh for showing us that one.

The Bee situation has escalated slightly. It seems that they have a back door inside the house! I think the hole in the mortar may have been where an old aerial cable was run in and hadn’t been blocked off when the aerial was changed.

So the little blighters appear to be able to get in behind some boxed-in pipework. This feels like more of a problem than just the odd dozy one wandering in through an open window!

an old girlfriend of mine had a problem with a small nest on her house, probably no more than 3 dozen of the little critters. She tried all sorts to get them to move but no joy, so contacted the local apiary society who sent round a very attractive young man to help her out. After a few introductions he was soon down to business, and in no time at all her 36 bees were out and flying around.

(with appropriate credits to Humph and his assistant Samantha)

After a few introductions he was soon down to business,

Blimey he must have have been attractive.

My missus keeps bees in the garden, from what i’ve seen if you change their entrance (you reduce the size in winter and when wasp season starts) they’ll be(e) a bit confused for a while and keep landing where it used to be(e) but they’ll get their bearings eventually.

In terms of moving them on, the way that honey bees work is that once the hive is full, the old queen will take approx half on a sunny day and move out (this is what a swarm is), leaving behind half the colony. The half colony that remains will start feeding some grubs more royal jelly, this will then produce queen cells – which ever queen gets out first then goes round and stings any unhatched cells (to kill the occupants) leaving only one queen. The process then repeats next time that the hive gets full.

Note that the queen only ever mates once and uses a little bit of the bee jizz everytime she lays, so eventually she’ll stop laying. At which point the other bees will kill her (or the bee keeper more often) and the royal jelly thing happens again. This is all from memory when my missus drones on at me about bees. So may be wrong!

All the above being said, I don’t think honey bees are actually viable in the wild any more due to the varroa mites. So not sure how much the above applies if it’s masonary bees.

Blimey he must have have been attractive

<dutch accent> “why is this man actually fixing the fridge moving the bees?”

missus drones on at me about bees

I will never be able to read the word bees without thinking of this:

Could be masonary bees.

Think masonary bees are solitary.

Any budding Melittologists want to play name that bee? Excuse the terrible photo’s, best I could grab with my iPhone this morning.

Looks like a golden brown on back of the head/thorax and legs and a white arse. This particular fellow was around 15-20 mm long.

Very like a tree bumble bee.

Masonary bees have a little gang. Nothing like honey bees and tend to move on fairly regularly to new homes.

we appear to have a nest of what looks to be bumblebees in the base of our garden parasol! Noticed at the weekend that there was a constant stream of bees in and out of the main gap (well, actually it was our 6-month old puppy who noticed – he now sits for hours just watching them fly in and out).

I wouldn’t have thought there was enough room in there to make it viable but they seem happy enough…

..and from the Bee Conservation website:

Bumblebees sometimes nest in places from which it is difficult to remove the nest without killing it. Porches, wall cavities, air vents, eaves and roof soffits have all been recorded. Because of the difficulty in reaching into these places, removing the nests from them cannot be done without help from someone experienced in moving bumblebees.

In these cases, it is important to remember that bumblebees don’t cause any damage to homes. They do not eat wood (like wasps do), and don’t leave behind a big mess. If you can put up with living with the nest nearby, it should die naturally within a few months, and the bees will all leave or die at the end. If you don’t want bees nesting in the same place the following year, block up any entrances to the nest and other suitable nest spaces nearby. If the bees are being bothersome by entering and leaving the nest (e.g. in porches, where they usually fly at head height), you can try to re-route the entrance of the nest using our advice, below.
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Aside; yesterday I revived a tired bee in our conservatory, by feeding it sugary water/paste. It’s one of the most satisfying things i’ve done lately, I ended up sitting and watching the little dude drinking it with his slightly unsettling Gene Simmons tongue and getting more and more active and un****ed, it was lovely. Then he bumbled off, no doubt high as ****, to tell all his mates “Go and play dead in that thing over there and the stupid human will give you mad superfood”

I’ve never managed it but Mrs Pondo has – one day, one day…

I’ve tried before but failed, this time I basically pushed sugar mush right under his face.

We have honey bees in our chimney. Last year they were a bit of a problem but only for a week or so. We literally had hundreds if not thousands decide to pop into our living room. They were well organised and all made their way over to the south facing window. Initially we carefully picked them up and took them outside but it was clear they were all dying so we later got the vax out to do the clear up. The local bee keeper couldn’t get to the queen so the hive stayed put.

We had a swarm about 3-4 weeks ago, and since then it’s all been pretty quiet so happy to live with them as they are not causing any bother.

Don’t worry they’ll leave when they’re readY.

Heh. They’ve obviously mistaken your wall for a tree. Did you get it sorted?

Here’s the garden variety nesting for the third year before a year’s break after a badger decimated the previous colony. I see this first thing everyday as it’s right outside my ‘kitchen’ window…