Does the noise of diggers and dumpers upset the bees?

[nelletap]

Hopefully I have succeeded with uploading a sketch which shows my house and garden sandwiched between my neighbours' houses.
The neighbour the one side had his house knocked down last August and a replacement is being built so there has been a fair amount of noise ever since. Digging of foundations, assembling scaffolding, banging and cutting of tiles, builders' radios etc. We then had our garden dug up for ground source heat coils about 6 weeks ago and since Tuesday the remnants from that have been levelled with several layers of top soil (with diggers and dumpers moving the soil interspersed with raking and non mechanical rolling).
It seems to me that the bees have kept away from the noise though I did see more of them to-day and my impression is that they seem less relaxed. They are still going about their business mainly going south for forage (I didn't put a N arrow but it would be pointing directly upwards and the fields at the bottom are therefore to the South of the bees - the predominant direction in which they forage is southwards.
Is there anyone with more experience than I who can let me know whether this sort of noise would upset them? I know they don't hear as we do, but as I understand it they do feel the vibration from sounds. If it does upset them, how long would it take them to get back to normal? I ought to do an inspection this weekend when it is quiet and hopefully will be warm. I cannot really get down to the bees easily when the workmen are on site. Our workmen will be back on Monday and possibly finish on Tuesday but the builders next door have several months more work. The digger and dumper from our site will leave to-morrow so all our remaining work will be done manually.
Thanks in advance.

 

[For want of a better word]

To bee sure if they did not like the present locale, they would up sticks and moove!

 

[tonybloke]

we built a studio in the back garden 2 summers ago, chop-saws, hammers, radio, etc, no problems

 

[warts]

Similar thing for me. A neighbour has bought some land behind my two hives (not more than 30' away), and has been building (about 8 houses) and burning rubbish (!) on and off for the past 12 months. I was concerned to begin with, particularly when I first saw the first remains of one of their bonfires so close to my hive (one set of burnt out remains was only 10' away, though thankfully non as close since). My bees seem to be OK, building up nicely and pleasant to be near, so I think you may be OK, especially if they are up to the roof now. However, I am no expert...see what the others say

 

[davidharradine]

Bees are sensitive to vibrations but deaf. So if it's just noisy then they won't care. But if it's a lot of heavy thudding shaking things around then they might.

 

[Ely]

I don't think they like chainsaws

 

[merylvingien]

When i am in my woodworking shop, with planers and saws going, all of which i would imagine have different sound vibrations, the bees still come in on mass! Queen wasps too at the moment, so unless your strimming around the location of the hive, i think your safe.

As with all things, they adapt and get on with life, they have after all been at it for a long longer than we have.

As a side note, i would be interested to know how you get on with your heat pump in this country, i know over in Norway, Sweden and Finland they have good results because of the temp difference!

 

[Skyhook]

I would think the digger and dumper would be the biggesty problem- low-pitched vibrations that will travel through the ground. If that phase is over, smaller stuff should be no problem.

 

[tidymeup]

I keep my bees at work and I work in a quarry. We have big machines up to 50 tonnes which emit lots of vibration and I have no problems with them.

We also have a rifle range on the same site and when they fire something like a 303 round they make a bit of a buzz.

 

[nelletap]

Lots of helpful comments here - the quarry example is quite convincing. I think I'll do the inspection this afternoon after what should be a quiet day. I guess like any of us we can get used to all sorts of situations which are a constant. I thought I would stop worrying when I ahd got them through winter but in truth I think you always have a part of your mind to them. As someone else mentioned, the builders do also have fires quite close to the hives.
Tricia
Tricia