New Honey Bee nest on the edge of our patio area

[Karen.greg]

We are currently in the throws of extending the rear of our house and have recently dug out a patio area with a sloping bank where a ramp will be built up to a raised lawn area. The sloping bank area is still soil, and the soil is very sandy. This is where the Honey Bee nest has taken up residence.They have only recently moved in, and we only noticed them coming in and out of the nest over the last weekend

I don't have a problem with Bees living in our garden, (I plant specifically to encourage bees into the garden) however we have 3 children under 6 and they don't exercise the same caution with bees that Adults do. Therefore for the safety of both the bees and the children I would realy like some help in re-homing the bees away from our patio.

Does anyone know if there is a bee keeper in the Guildford, Surrey area who would be prepared to dig out our bee colony?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Chris]

Bet you a fiver they are not honeybees.

Have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_bee

Or here: http://www.insectpix.net/solitary_bees_gallery.htm

Bet you £100 these bees will not sting your kids. (They might easily be a stingless variety of bee).

[Nellie]

I'll second what Chris said that they're almost certainly not honey bees.

Depending on the approach your Council takes, it might be worth contacting their pest control. Our's wont kill a bee colony unless there is no other alternative and they might well be able to identify what the bees are and suggest an appropriate course of action; hopefully that they don't sting so can be left alone, attempting to move the nests doesn't have a particularly high success rate in most cases.

[RoofTops]

Given the time of year they could well be the bees mentioned in my post at this link: http://www.britishbee.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2478 The females of this species look like all black bumble bees. The males - which bother the females around the nest holes - have yellow jerseys.

If you could describe them or ideally send us a piccy we might be able to identify them more accurately.

[Moggett]

http://www.guildfordbeekeepers.org.uk/

Have a word with the local association - if there is a beekeeper near you they might have a look to positively ID them. Very unlikely that they are honeybees - like the other posts state more likely solitary bees or bumble bees. Are you sure they are not wasps?