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Bees in my compost
Mars marvelous mowers
Posts: 11
I have spent the last few seasons making my garden wildlife friendly. I now have hundreds of bees living in my compost bin. Whilst Im happy to welcome them they have tended to get rather cross & protective of their new home when I drive by on the mower, fill the compost bins near it or just walk by. They become rather menacing & I now fear for the young children that visit. I do not want them destroyed & have tried to find someone who would like them to no avail. Any suggestions?
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Are they honeybees? If so this should help http://www.bbka.org.uk/help/do_you_have_a_swarm.php
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Honey bees do not make nests. Guess they are bumble bees, they most likely will raise their young, as birds do , then leave.
Surely where a honey bees brings up its young and keeps all the honey is a nest?
In the sticks near Peterborough
Bee hives, all our bees are in bee hives, on combs, which are cells in wax.
Thankyou Dovefrom above, I have checked out the bumblebee conservation website & discovered that my bees are forest cuckoo bees. As you suggest, cowslip2, they will raise their young & leave. Meanwhile I will be ensuring any visitors to my plot steer clear of the compost area. The bees are very happy spending their days on the rosa rugosa which is flowering like mad at the moment. I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your query nutcutlet but would be interested to know. are we able to post photos here?
And the honey bees which swarm and are not taken by a beekeeper and re-hived ???
What do you think happens to those?
What happens is, they make nests in a hollow tree or compost bin or some other space, where they build their own honeycombs
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/insects-and-invertebrates/34523-honey-bee-hive.html
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Yes I can post photos. Hope you like them.
Glad you've identified them and can work out a way of living together
To post photos on here you need to click on the green tree icon on the toolbar above where you type your post, and follow the instructions to upload a picture - afraid it doesn't work for phones - yet
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Oh, fabulous, you beat me to it. Great photos
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I think you bees are actually tree bumblebees, look them up they are our only bumble with a orange thorax and a white tail.. They like to nest in bee boxes to,
cuckoo bees take over a bumblebee nest and don't have workers, so wouldn't have many going in and out and foraging to bring in supplies. 