• This topic has 12 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by Drac.
Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Why are there loads of dead bees on my patio?
  • dingabell
    Free Member

    Have noticed in all this hot weather that there are quite a few bees walking around on the ground on our patio. There also seems to be a lot of dead ones. Are they dying because they aren’t getting enough water? I’m not even sure if they drink, or whether they get their fluid intake from pollen? Please enlighten me.

    PiknMix
    Free Member

    Are they brick bees? They littered our patio when we had them.

    jivehoneyjive
    Free Member

    There are extensive global studies ongoing into bee deaths~ they are a key part of pollinating alot of the crops that feed us.

    Theories include mobile phones/wifi and pesticides but ultimately, no one has yet found conclusive evidence.

    “Could it be Monsanto”?, I hear avid conspiracy theorist Ernie Lynch shout… probably not, but you never know.

    Here is the very latest on this worrying phenomenon:

    http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/scientists-discover-another-cause-bee-deaths-and-its-really-bad-news.html

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    footflaps
    Full Member

    Last year we stayed in a B&B in Coniston and the owner kept Bees, had done for decades. He was pretty skeptical about the whole bee hive sudden collapse thing and said it was 100% down to weather, apparently if you get a week of rain just at the wrong time in the summer, it can devastate or completely kill off a hive.

    smatkins1
    Free Member

    Maybe someone nearby has used an insecticide on their nest.

    nick1962
    Free Member

    Maybe this guy has been loitering in your garden

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    Perhaps after much deliberation they finally answered the question concerning whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles.

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    No idea bumbles were thriving in our garden until a badger decimated their nest looking for a food source due to the extended dry weather. Wonder if you have had a nest in your garden attacked?

    glupton1976
    Free Member

    Fris bees? I have a few of them lying in my garden – they’re not doing much.

    jonahtonto
    Free Member

    ok so i realise this is going to make you all think im wearing a tin foil hat but….

    monsanto make a pesticide that has been shown to devastate bee colonies, and crops that have to have these pesticides used on them. they also have a patent on a ‘superbee’ that is immune to this pesticide.
    now the board at monsanto want to make money. that is their job isnt it? to make the company as much money as possible at any cost. we as an animal are completely reliant on bees, as in we simply cant survive without them. so, if i were in the position of the board of directors of monsanto, the only logical thing to do would be to kill all the bees.

    teasel
    Free Member

    a badger decimated their nest looking for a food source

    Exactly what happened here last night. A few years back I’d put a piece of 12mm ply over a slight dip in the ground and covered it with soil and other garden debris to allow the smaller beasties to build their homes. The badger has ripped the ply to pieces in a bid to get to all that lovely buzziness. I assume it was with its mouth as there’s no sign of a break-in to access my power tools.

    I’d post a pic but it’s just a big hole in the ground with a few dead bees dotted here and there. Shame, but I guess the ol’ badger has to eat something and slugs are slim pickings at the moment.

    schnor
    Free Member

    OP – are they honey bees or bumble bees?

    If they’re honey bees it could be a nearby hive swarmed (when a hive decides to split, half stay and half fly away to find somewhere else but most die eventually) and you got some that didn’t make it.

    If they’re bumbleys then I don’t know TBH. Do they look like they are walking around in the soil looking for moisture? You could try putting some water out for them (see below, but use a bowl or something similar). Or as mentioned, badgers.

    As for bees drinking, most of the time they get enough water from nectar, but in this weather they do drink. I use a birdbath filled with gravel and enough water so they can stand on the pebbles to drink but also not drown.

    As for CCD (colony collapse disorder)? I think its 70% weather, 30% a mix of dozens of factors (a large percentage of that a lack of genetic health / variation IMO). Of all the hives I’ve lost over the last few years its been down to the weather – last spring the queens were put off mating by the weather (so laid only male bees, who don’t actually do anything) and this year the sudden cold spell end of march / early april was just awful 🙁

    Drac
    Full Member

    Nuptial flight?

    Bees and as I recently found out Ants too are triggered by an event which the think is something to do with the weather and swarm. They breed with the queen and the head for the ground to start a new colony.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

The topic ‘Why are there loads of dead bees on my patio?’ is closed to new replies.