Normally here in east Warwickshire, i get 3-4 swarms calls in May: this year none. Only swarm call was in early June for a largest cast. Will check at weekend if the virgin queen is laying yet.
No calls for bumbles - only very rarely get these but then we are in a rural area and people generally know the difference.
Bait hives had some prospectors a few week back but no takers.
Not in rural Suffolk! Had two calls from folk in this small parish re 'swarms'. My reply: "Have you read my article in the parish mag (May)?".. "No!".... Doh - tree bumble bees as is often the case....!
Bees in your Bird-Box? (Parish magazine, May2018)
It is early May and the phone rings: “ Hello, is that the beekeeper? I have a swarm of bees in my bird-box”!
I am on the swarm collector’s register organised by Suffolk Beekeepers Association and several years’ experience has honed my response - first of all are they honey bees?
My rule of thumb:
Heavily-banded yellow and black, invading your personal space = wasps
Lightly-banded light and dark brown = honey bees
Rotund and furry - almost cuddly - and various colours = bumble bees
Most beekeepers on the swarm register find that the commonest call concerns the ‘Tree Bumblebee’ Bombus hypnorum’. A cloud of about twenty bees are seen ‘dancing’ in an aggressive fashion at the entrance to a bird-box or a gap behind a soffit board or roof tile. Householders and passers-by can be justifiably alarmed!
Bombus hypnorum is a newcomer! It was first reported in Wiltshire in 2001 and has spread rapidly northward to reach Scotland. Like all bumblebees it can be identified by the colour-banding of its fur: its thorax is reddish-brown, its abdomen black, and its bum noticeably white - although the dancing bees seen from several yards away usually appear to be black.
Back to the phone call: don’t panic! The maniacally dancing bees are drones and drones can’t sting! Only if the bird-box is jolted may the females issue forth and sting - but their stings are not barbed - unlike the honey bee which leaves its sting in your flesh with attached poison sac which pumps poison for several seconds.
What to do? Best of all nothing! The colony of bees will cease to exist within a month or two of you seeing the dance of the drones. A lone over-wintered queen will have started the colony a few weeks before. By the time you see the dancing drones the colony is well established. The drones are facing the bird-box entrance waiting for virgin queens to emerge. Paired bees fall to the ground where they can remain in a nuptial embrace for a considerable time. Nature’s task for that year is complete and the colony will dwindle to nothing. The mated queens duly hibernate individually and restart the cycle the following spring. The bird-box or space behind the soffit board is usually not used again.
What of Drinkstone? My most interesting call for advice concerned a bird-box with dancing drones on an apple tree in the middle of the garden. A family garden party was scheduled for the next day! This is what we did: after dark when the bees had all returned home we bunged the entrance hole with sponge. We removed the box and put it in the shade at the back of the garden. In the evening after the party we returned the box to the tree and removed the bung. The dance of the drones resumed!
In summary, if you avoid vibrating the nest or standing immediately in front of its entrance you will have no trouble and the bees will disappear within a few weeks.
