Another lady with bees

[MikeT]

Had phone call yesterday asking to remove a colony of bees. Went through the usual questions and suspected a colony of bumbles. As the house was near my grand daughters school I agreed to have a look.

As expected a colony of Bombus lapidaries in a bird box in a clump of ivy. Asked if I could remove said colony as her husband carried an epipen.

Is it legal to remove the colony and re =home elsewhere? I will tape up the bird box and refix it to a tree near my home,

Mike

 

[MuswellMetro]

i expect it is the new bumble bee that has come over from France Bombus hypnorum

you can move them but you get a lot of stragglers and your BBKA public liability swarm collectors insurance does not cover you for bumbles

 

[Michael Palmer]

Why not borrow the bird box for transport to new location.

 

[MikeT]

Why not borrow the bird box for transport to new location.

I was just going to remove the bird box with bees inside when it was dark so I have most of the bees.

Mike

 

[Marton]

That's what the bumble bee conservation website suggests.

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/faqs/moving-bumblebee-nests/




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kazmcc]

i expect it is the new bumble bee that has come over from France Bombus hypnorum

you can move them but you get a lot of stragglers and your BBKA public liability swarm collectors insurance does not cover you for bumbles

I was going to ask the same thing. B lapidarius are usually ground nesting bees, unusual to find them in a bird box.

Check out this page for what I would put my money on them being Tree bumble bee B hypnorum - http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=bee/apidae/bombus-hypnorum

This is the red tailed bumble - B lapidarius - http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=bee/apidae/bombus-lapidarius

If B hypnorum, beware, they can be very defensive of their nests, especially with vibration. The reason she has only just noticed them is because they are producing queens now and the males are hovering about the entrance. This means the nest will be gone soon, they usually end by the end of July, so ask her if she can hold out a bit longer. They do go on to make secondary nests so once this one has finished, she needs to block up the box so another queen doesn't take over.

Hope this helps

 

[For want of a better word]

Wearing pith helmet and full metal jacket...
remove bumbles.. place in a plastic flower pot right way up... mark with arrow... fix pot to flat piece of wood over open end.
allow flying bumble bees to move back in to pot ( fix in same location as nest....
and at exactly at one minute past midnight slip a plastic bag over pot and relocate to a tree away from trolls and other nasties who may feast on them... at least 3 & 1/4 miles ( as the rook flies).... remove bag and RUN !


Good luck


Yeghes da

 

[kazmcc]

Wearing pith helmet and full metal jacket...
remove bumbles.. place in a plastic flower pot right way up... mark with arrow... fix pot to flat piece of wood over open end.
allow flying bumble bees to move back in to pot ( fix in same location as nest....
and at exactly at one minute past midnight slip a plastic bag over pot and relocate to a tree away from trolls and other nasties who may feast on them... at least 3 & 1/4 miles ( as the rook flies).... remove bag and RUN !


Good luck


Yeghes da

LOL good idea. Bear in mind that bumbles fly later than honey bees. Should be straight forward. Don't worry about the ones hovering around the entrance, looking like they are doing orientation flights, they are males and don't belong to the nest. They are just on the pull lol

Have fun! I want tree bumbles!

 

[Outlander]

I had a call from a company stating that they had a swarm of honey bees that had set up home in a bird box. I went through all the educational stuff and explained that they were a bumble bee and could not possibly be Honey bees. Explained that the colony would die out and then they could move box so they did not have the same problem next year. I was told by the lady that called, her employee new the difference between bumbles and honey bees. I arranged to meet them at the site to assess moving the box.

I no longer tell people they have bumbles and not honey bees in there bird box I now ask how big is your bird box. On arrival I found a box in a tree big enough for an eagle with an entrance hole big enough for a blue tit. Oh did I say it was full of honey bees.

 

[kazmcc]

I had a call from a company stating that they had a swarm of honey bees that had set up home in a bird box. I went through all the educational stuff and explained that they were a bumble bee and could not possibly be Honey bees. Explained that the colony would die out and then they could move box so they did not have the same problem next year. I was told by the lady that called, her employee new the difference between bumbles and honey bees. I arranged to meet them at the site to assess moving the box.

I no longer tell people they have bumbles and not honey bees in there bird box I now ask how big is your bird box. On arrival I found a box in a tree big enough for an eagle with an entrance hole big enough for a blue tit. Oh did I say it was full of honey bees.

Ooops haha! In all fairness to you, that is an extremely unlikely occurrence. Did you have to eat your hat?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hilarious.
Who is going to volunteer to scribe our funny stories into a book?