Readers will have noticed over the last month a great deal of bee activity in and around their homes. Bees drilling into the outside sunny walls of properties, bees drilling into the soil on a sunny bank or flower border and bees flying around the chimney pots or bird boxes in gardens.
As is the way with nature it’s never straight forward, when customers call and announce “We have bees” Help !! The call could mean Mason, Mining, Bumble or Honey.
Most people see a bee and call it a bee, why do we need to know anymore about the subject. Let’s face it they produce honey, sting you and swarm in an alarming way. Well no not exactly let me explain.
Many people will have noticed bees settling on and disappearing into small holes in the mortar line on sunny house walls. These have been active since April and have raised some alarm with the local residents. The bees in question are Masonry bees totally harmless not being able to sting, but being excellent at finding pencil width holes in a sunny wall in which to lay their single egg and a parcel of pollen to sustain it once hatched. Next spring the plump youngster will have formed into an adult bee and break through the mud plug left by its parent the year before.
Mining bees have been spotted making holes into soil and lawns over the last two months; again harmless to humans they are only seeking a place to lay their next generation which they leave with a parcel of honey to get them through to next year. If you have the right type of soil on a sunny site you could attract many mining bees, all wishing to claim a piece of the land for their own. They all act as individuals unlike honey bees and ignore humans completely.
Bumble bees are so well loved in Lincolnshire I am finding out. I attended a gardening show at the showground this weekend and was astonished by the amount of visitors who tried to help them along.
Bumble bees choose some strange places to nest like bird boxes, under roof insulation in the loft and compost heaps. They are one of my favourites and it seems most of the visitors to my stand at the show agreed. Bumbles are on the decline due to changes in farming practice and an insufficient range of flowers being grown. I attended a bumble bee nest in a nest box the other day at a customer’s house. Usually people will allow the bumble bees to stay put once they have heard how low risk they are and how short their lives are. This small colony just had to be moved though the nest box was in a porch way right next to the front door. I relocated these bumbles to another location more suitable where they could live out their short lives and pollinate all our flowers and fruit.
Honey bees are often in the news with declining numbers and threats through disease and environment. The last month has been particularly busy with honey bees swarms arriving at chimneys, guttering and just about anywhere they could land for a rest or decide to make home. Swarms occur when a new queen has been laid in a hive and the parent queen decides to take off with some of the workers to split the colony before it gets too overcrowded. Swarms can be quite dramatic to witness the sight of so many bees strikes fear into most. The bees can settle almost anywhere all huddled together to protect the queen. Scouts will leave the swarm to search for a suitable new home but until that is decided on swarms can rest in a place for up to 3 days. Most swarms that I have been called to have moved on in this time and have not needed collecting.
So next time you see a bee on the house wall, in the garden, or hanging from your blue tit nesting box just remember bees come in many shapes and sizes and serve many different roles all beneficial to us and our food. In a nutshell just let them bee.