Nests

[BLUEBEL]

Hi,

I do not know anything whatsoever about bee's.
Could anybody tell me how the nests form and how new bee's are produced and what they look like. Somebody told me they look like grubs is that true.
I have a nest in my compost bin but will not look at them.
Any help would be appreciated.

[G4WIL]

Hi bluebel,
I thought someone would have answered by now :confused:.
Different species of bee build their nests in different ways. I suspect your bees are bumble bees which love to build in compost heaps :).
Basically , In Spring time a mated Queen bee immerges from Winter hibernation, she then searches for a site to build her nest in (your compost heap for instance), She builds little wax cells and lays an egg in each, she also builds a waxen cup in which to store honey and pollen, she forages for nectar and pollen and nurses her first round of brood, which go through the normal development of an insect, ie egg/ grub/ crysalis and finally imago ( adult bee.)
she then ceases foraging as the fiirst round of brood now takes over these duties !. Towards Autumn she produces queens and drones(male bees).
The young Queens are mated, then all the colony dies save them, they themselves hibernate for the Winter, next Spring time the whole cycle starts again :cool:.

John Wilkinson

[doorman]

Hi bluebel,
I thought someone would have answered by now :confused:.


They did here http://www.britishbee.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=10216#post10216

[G4WIL]

They did here http://www.britishbee.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=10216#post10216

Thanks doorman, 2 threads same topic :D:D:D :confused:.

John

[debzeb]

I have also recently found what i think is a bumble bee nest:confused:
i have noticed bees around the honeysuckle in the garden and since clearing out a disused barn have come across a pile of rubble with increased buzzing as i approach it. we have left it alone and understand from the web site that they will not harm me or the family and can be moved in the autumn.
i am very nervous about moving it and would like some help/advice were to move it too? if we move it to the outside of the barn will they move back into the barn later on and re nest:eek:

[Chris]

Bumble bees aren't at all aggresive, but mess around with their home and they ain't going to be too pleased. If their nest was moved, say, a few meteres away, bees are not 'clever' enough to realize this. They would head back to the site of their nest and just become very annoyed.

Bumble bees nests die off at this time of year. Most in my district have already. This colony will not be alive for much longer - of the order of 2 or 3 weeks max, I would think.

[SoniaBJ]

Hello and Happy New Year to anyone who reads this post.

During the later summer months, I have a compost bin, that I must say I do not compost really, it sits with dried twigs and other gardern matter a sad thought. However, I had discovered to my delight that I have bees inside. I am not sure how many but largest one I saw had a red bum with a tiny black bit at the bottom and a yellow strip across the head but the rest of the body did not have banding that I could see, any ideas what type of Bee it could be? There were quite a few tiny ones that were so small I could not tell their markings. The compost bin gets sunlight on it during the morning and shade in the afternoons. It is a little damp around it due to a very over active fountain! During the cold weather I assume that the bees will die as mentioned by a previous post? What is the possibility that the Bees will return or they still there but there isn't any movement at the moment? I do not want to discourage the Bees and like them being there. I used to have a hedge of Hebe at the front of the house, and the Bees were regular visitors, and sometimes failed to go home, and clung onto the brickwork of the house, like a group of teenagers that had been out drinking too late and decided to sober up before going home! Unfortunately, the hedge needed to be removed so that is why I am pleased they have returned all be it in the compost bin, but I am a little nervous about a mass exit or going too close to investigate more any thoughts or suggestions?

Sonia :


Hi,




I do not know anything whatsoever about bee's.
Could anybody tell me how the nests form and how new bee's are produced and what they look like. Somebody told me they look like grubs is that true.
I have a nest in my compost bin but will not look at them.
Any help would be appreciated.

[Richard Bache]

Hi SoniaBJ,
From your description I would guess that either you saw a Male Bombus lapidarius (see http://popgen.unimaas.nl/~jlindsey/commanster/Insects/Bees/SpBees/Bombus.lapidarius.html) or Bombus pratorum (see http://www.gardensafari.net/english/bumblebees.htm). Both are relatively common bumblebees. lapidarius is the larger of the two, but only the male bee have the yellow stripe around the head. pratorum is smaller and usually has another stripe around its 'waist' (the anterior of the abdomen), but this may have worn off on older bees. As with all bumblebees, they produce annual colonies only and therefore would have vacated your compost heap well before now. The males and the fertile females (queens) would have mated in the Autumn and the queens will be hibernating, ready to start a new colony in the spring. Even in the summer, when such a colony would be active, you would not need to worry about a mass-attack from bumblebees- they are really very placid.
Bumblebees do like nesting in compost heaps, but the fact that they nested there last year does not lend any assurance that they will nest there this year. The Queens will find somewhere to their liking! You have done exactly the right thing and left them alone all summer. I would treat the compost heap as your own now (until another bumblebee decides to nest in it!). It is worth mentioning that you may come accross the remains of the nest and perhaps the odd dead bumblebee in the compost heap if it hasn't degraded too much. Don't worry- they will not use it again.

[Chris]

Nothing much to add to the previous post.

You might like to note that there are a number of books and no doubt websites which give indication to which species of plant and tree are most useful to insects like bees.

I am sure you know that useful habitat for bees is much in decline. The so-called countryside is awash with herbicides and pesticides and many urban gardens have had their vegetation ripped out and covered with concrete for off-road parking and the like.

[SoniaBJ]

Thank you for your reply Richard, it was very kind of you, I will look on your web links and have a look. I am sorry for such a naive question, is it the fact that the Bees have already nested there once that they will not return because of the debris of the previous one, dare I say it like wasps (which I do not like at all, because they sting for the fun of it, ha!? Haven't quite understood their function in the world yet.

I am very interested in learning more about keeping a hive, and hopefully will learn a lot from this site and further reading.

I noticed that you have many hives, how did you actually start to get into keeping them?

[Richard Bache]

Hi Sonia,
I don't know exactly why bumblebees don't (as a rule) return to old nest sites. I think they are a bit fastidious and sporadic in their choice of nest site, and so the chance of bumblebees using the same spot twice is a little slim. I suppose that nesting in the same spot would make them susceptible to predation, but more to the point the queens chosing the site this year will not be the same as the one that chose the site from last year, and so why should they use the same site? If two queens set out to find a nest from last year's site, clearly both cannot use the same site again.

If you're thinking of keeping bees yourself, most beekeeping associations hold beginners' course and your local association is Essex BKA (http://www.ebka.org/index.html), which has several local branches accross the county. You might want to get in touch with them about beginners' courses they are running. I got into beekeeping in a similar way: my family went to beginner's courses after we had seen our local association's display at a local agricultural show. I've never looked back!

[RoofTops]

Sonia,

From your description I suspect they may be the red tailed bumble bee, bombus lapidarius. Take a look at the male (which has the yellow band) at this link, this seems to match your description quite well: http://www.bwars.com/Bombus_lapidarius.htm This is a fairly common and widespread bee which often nests under stone slabs or at the base of dry stone walls. It sounds as if yours have burrowed into the side of the compost heap. They are unlikely to sting unless you try to interfere with their nest, although they do fly round people's heads who get too close to their nest site. The nest will die out at the end of the year and the only survivors will be young fertilized queens which will spend the winter in hibernation in sites such as old mouse nests. If your bees are very different, e.g. not a bumble bee, then I can only suggest looking through the photo gallery on the BWARS site: http://www.bwars.com/Gallery.htm this does not include all the possible species but it would be a good start. Try osmia rufa first, it has a red body but lacks your yellow band.

Going off on a tangent, there are well over 200 species of bees and wasps in the UK. It is also impossible for the non-expert like me to tell a bee from a wasp - the only difference is diet, bees are vegetarian and wasps are carnivorous. I don't mean I can't tell a bumble bee from one of the yellow and black wasps which drops into the strawberry jam, but for other species it is more difficult. Look at this link: http://www.bwars.com/nomada_sexfasciata.htm which most people would probably think is a wasp - but its a bee, albeit a slightly odd bee as it steals into other bees nests and lays its eggs there, like a cuckoo.

John Laidler

[SoniaBJ]

Thank you Chris for your comments, I have started to take more of an interest in the garden as of late an those who inhabit it. I agree that it is a shame that people do feel the need to concrete over ground to make room for private parking. I am not a person that has everthing in rows etc and like a 'wild' feel. I have a section that is designated to wildflowers, and smaller fruit trees due to garden size, such as Cherry, Apple 'Fan' style along the fencing. Figs are not doing so well this year or any other come to that. Where the compost bin lies there is many strawberries, rubarb and a newly planted hebe bush. There is is huge amount of mature laylandi and roses etc.

Richard was kind enough to send web links re identification and the Bees look like Bombus pratorum but what was interesting is that I have also had in the last year Conopidae and the physocephala rufipes, I thought they were wasps or some kind of fruit wasps.

Sonia

[SoniaBJ]

Hi Rooftops,

I see what you are saying in terms of identification, the links are very useful. It is a bit like opening a new world, once you start taking interest it is so amazing how much you really do not know about how many species that we are sharing the planet with.

With you name is this an indication where you keep your hives?

Sonia

[SoniaBJ]

Rooftops, hope you did not think I was being rude, about where you keep your hives, I know some people in London do this.

Sonia

[SoniaBJ]

Richard, thank you for the link to the Essex site, it unfortunately dosen't have a listing for 2009 yet, but I will call the contact for this area. What was interesting though was the New Letter.The show that was held at the end of October held workshops on different things but one was a beginners session to Bee Keeping. I will let the forum know what is available once I have had chance to talk with them.

Sonia

[RoofTops]

Sonia,

The Rooftops thing is just the name of my house. The original owners who built it had a battle with the people behind about the height of the roof. When the objectors went to the great apiary in the sky the original owners raised the roof - physically so to speak. This looks better but has left me with two sets of roof trusses in the attic - which make moving about up there a bit difficult!

On a more serious note, you are quite right, in places like London there are a number of rooftop hives and the bees do very well by all reports. It is generally assumed this is because of the warmer temperatures of the big city and abundance of nectar over a longish period from the gardens rather than the height of the hive. However, our bees are natural tree dwellers so perhaps they like an elevated position, but I have no plans to put my hives on the top of poles to find out!

Picking up on Richard's point, my understanding is some solitary bee species will re-use nest sites, the mason bees osmia rufa and the wonderfully named hairy footed flower bee for example. (The males of the latter have hairy knees by the way). For these mining bees this may be determined by the scarcity of nest sites but most of the communal nest building species don't seem to re-use old nests. Choosing to find a new mouse or vole hole each year or like the carder bees, build a new nest from grass. I guess this is an evolutionary thing to avoid the build up of disease and the parasites which thrive in the communal nests. On a honey bee keeping note there is general acceptance now that we need to ensure our hives do not becomes safe refuges for disease and parasites and there are a range of tactics used to avoid this - from changing the hive floor each spring to a technique called a shook swarm in which the bees are unceremoniously tipped into a brand new hive and left to get on with making a new nest for themselves. The latter gives the bees a major setback for a period but they do seem to come back very strongly and in good health. I've used it myself for a couple of years now and it is very effective treatment against our current major threat parasite - varroa.

JL

[SoniaBJ]

Hi Rooftop,

I was intresting to read your post, and it did make me chuckle a little, I now I have this image of your roof!

I said in my previous posts that I would let people know when I found out about the courses for beginners at the Essex Bee Association, unfortunatley I have nothing to say, but have left another message for them to come back to me....

So I will keep my word to anyone who is interested as soon as I have the inforamtion.

[RoofTops]

Sonia, Thanks for the update. Keep trying to contact your local association but if all else fails try contacting the BBKA itself. However, this is the beekeeping close season and as not much is happening bee-wise many beekeepers are currently hibernating - so wait for warmer weather and lighter evenings. This is when they will start to emerge.

There are courses "nearish" to you, depending where on you live in Essex: Barnet in Hertfordshire have just started one (020 8449 0305) and Ealing in London (www.ealingbees.org.uk) have one starting in Feb.

John