Where do bees live?

[What A Waster]

Not on about ones kept in a hive by a bee keeper for honey.
When we see all these ones in the garden do they have nests in bushes or something, or do they go back to a hive somebody has got in a garden.
Must be wild bees not looked after by a keeper.

 

[becs]

Some build nests and live random places like compost heaps and under sheds. Some are solitary bees. They just fly around pollinating things. We've got a insect house on our fence with thin wooden tubes in for solitary bees to lay eggs in.

 

[Leon Solent]

In gert big holes in the back garden like these diggers or miners. Nasty vicious ones dug up by badgers. Kept me out the garden until I bombed them under cover of darkness. Still got stung though. It knacked. The hole they'd dug was as big as a bucket.

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[What A Waster]

In gert big holes in the back garden like these diggers or miners. Nasty vicious ones dug up by badgers. Kept me out the garden until I bombed them under cover of darkness. Still got stung though. It knacked. The hole they'd dug was as big as a bucket.

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That's horrendous.
What did you bomb them with?

Some build nests and live random places like compost heaps and under sheds. Some are solitary bees. They just fly around pollinating things. We've got a insect house on our fence with thin wooden tubes in for solitary bees to lay eggs in.

Do they use it much?

 

[waddy999]

Several hundred species of bee in Britain iirc....worth a Google my friend, some nest underground in disused burrows some nest in treetrunks.

 

[becs]

Do they use it much?

A few of the tubes have been used. My back garden is a bit basic as it's been a playground for years, but I'm starting to reclaim it for myself now the bairns are older. I'm going to plant bee friendly flowers as I transform it so hopefully they will use it more.

 

[What A Waster]

Several hundred species of bee in Britain iirc....worth a Google my friend, some nest underground in disused burrows some nest in treetrunks.

Will do. Been a lot of bee activity in my garden today, but i don't have any flowers for them to be getting stuck into.

 

[Space Hopper]

When a bee's friend moves into a new hive they throw them a house swarming party.

 

[Leon Solent]

That's horrendous.
What did you bomb them with?


Do they use it much?

I started with fly-spray and that's when they got ugly so I legged it and regrouped. Sneaked up on them and petrol-bombed them and that just blew the lid off the nest and that's when I got stung. Followed me up the garden as well. Hard little buggers. Ended up using proper wasp nest destroyer I had in the garage dispensed down a length of copper 15mm blowpipe. It did the trick after a few hours and a few doses.

They were under this tree stump in a big hole with a tiny entrance initially.

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[Charmless Man]

Not on about ones kept in a hive by a bee keeper for honey.
When we see all these ones in the garden do they have nests in bushes or something, or do they go back to a hive somebody has got in a garden.
Must be wild bees not looked after by a keeper.

I believe the majority of bees are solitary and live in a small burrow on their own, praying that wasps and ants don't eat them.

The social ones make hives wherever, including in holes in the ground.

Will do. Been a lot of bee activity in my garden today, but i don't have any flowers for them to be getting stuck into.

The big bumblers at this time of year are queens looking for a site to make their colonies.

 

[mickb2112]

I thought bees were protected? You can`t just destroy a nest like you can with wasps can you???

 

[hefty em]

I was wondering this about pigeons the other day.

It's a quiet time.

 

[The Archer]

Not on about ones kept in a hive by a bee keeper for honey.
When we see all these ones in the garden do they have nests in bushes or something, or do they go back to a hive somebody has got in a garden.
Must be wild bees not looked after by a keeper.

I think it depends on the type of bee. We had a few bumble bees living in a nest under our decking last year, probably no more than a dozen. They were there from about now until August/Sept

 

[spitfire]

Brentford

 

[Thurston]

I started with fly-spray and that's when they got ugly so I legged it and regrouped. Sneaked up on them and petrol-bombed them and that just blew the lid off the nest and that's when I got stung. Followed me up the garden as well. Hard little buggers. Ended up using proper wasp nest destroyer I had in the garage dispensed down a length of copper 15mm blowpipe. It did the trick after a few hours and a few doses.

They were under this tree stump in a big hole with a tiny entrance initially.

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[Red]

The big bumblers at this time of year are queens looking for a site to make their colonies.

Found one in my garage the other day, that big I could have put a saddle on it.

 

[What A Waster]

I started with fly-spray and that's when they got ugly so I legged it and regrouped. Sneaked up on them and petrol-bombed them and that just blew the lid off the nest and that's when I got stung. Followed me up the garden as well. Hard little buggers. Ended up using proper wasp nest destroyer I had in the garage dispensed down a length of copper 15mm blowpipe. It did the trick after a few hours and a few doses.

They were under this tree stump in a big hole with a tiny entrance initially.

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What kind of dog is that?

How big is your garden if you've got deer living in it

 

[Deleted member 5265]

I started with fly-spray and that's when they got ugly so I legged it and regrouped. Sneaked up on them and petrol-bombed them and that just blew the lid off the nest and that's when I got stung. Followed me up the garden as well. Hard little buggers. Ended up using proper wasp nest destroyer I had in the garage dispensed down a length of copper 15mm blowpipe. It did the trick after a few hours and a few doses.

They were under this tree stump in a big hole with a tiny entrance initially.

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The bees are the least of your problems.

 

[Leon Solent]

What kind of dog is that?

How big is your garden if you've got deer living in it

They just sort of hang around all day. Especially in winter but they come in summer too with the littl'uns. Don't seem too bothered but they've been here for years (well, different generations)

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[Kent_Mackem]

Honeybees will swarm when the queen runs out of room to lay eggs. The existing queen leaves the nest with the flying bees. The workers (who are in charge in reality) then feed royal jelly to an existing grub and convert the cell into a ‘queen cell’ shaped like a peanut. If there is more than one the first queen will hatch out and kill the others while they are still in their cell.

The queen leaves with the flying bees as a swarm. They will generally climb into a rugby ball shaped lump somewhere nearby. Then scout bees go off to check out potential new homes - chimneys, hollows in trees, space under eaves etc. They waffle dance the direction and range so that the others can go and check out the new gaffe. Eventually a decision is made and a pheromone is released. They all take off to the new home, build comb and the queen will continue to lay eggs.

Meanwhile back home it takes a little while for the younger workers to be able to fly so nectar collection and therefore honey production takes a nosedive. The bee economy becomes temporarily fucked. It’s why beekeepers will try to intercept swarming behaviour before it occurs. The new virgin princess will fly out on her own to a “Drone Congregation Area”. These are generally in the same places and may well have been for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. The male bees (drones) all hang around waiting for her then she mates with around a dozen or so mid-flight. The drones the die, job done. She stores their DNA and then spends the rest of her life - maybe 2-5 years - laying eggs.

It’s quite common for honeybees to be feral - the swarm originated from a beekeeper’s hive 1 to several generations ago. However the parasite mite called Varroa tends to do for feral colonies within a year or two.

The honeybees are just for the next few months collecting nectar from the oil seed sugar fields. The nectar is so full of sugar, and in such abundance, that they will prefer this to most other sources. Also the sucrose and glucose levels in OSR honey is high, compared to blackberry and lavender which is high in fructose. It makes the OSR less soluble and it tends to granulate and go hard - not to everybody’s taste.

Hope this helps?