Great Tits feeding their young on my bees.

[Hawklord]

Like coconuts?

Lets see some photos - don't be shy!!

 

[Bescherman]

I know how they react to a sparrowhawk

The local tube station has a plastic owl at the end of the platform. I've not seen a single pigeon there in the entire time I've lived here!

Watched an Asian hornet hovering over the frames when I was checking the bees! So 2 traps later - Asian hornets 2, European 3!
Mind you with all the dead bodies I have this week from the starving hive (foul weather, but now hopefully sorted) birds, ants and everything else will have had a feast!

You need to report Asian Hornet sightings to the Non Native Species Secretariat (NNSS) [email protected]

 

[pbh4]

You need to report Asian Hornet sightings to the Non Native Species Secretariat (NNSS) [email protected]

He live in France!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[Luminos]

You need to report Asian Hornet sightings to the Non Native Species Secretariat (NNSS) [email protected]

They're not really interested in French Asian hornets, Bescherman

 

[Bescherman]

He live in France!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

You need to report Asian Hornet sightings to the Non Native Species Secretariat (NNSS) [email protected]

They're not really interested in French Asian hornets, Bescherman

Oops! I'll chalk that one up to experience.
Move along, nothing to see here... move along.

 

[Ziggymole]

Plastic snake (length of hose pipe) and plastic bird of prey only work until the birds realise they aren't a threat, but can make the birds complacent when the real thing turns up.

I've got a rather large domestic cat that the birds take absolutely no notice of, it sleeps right under the bird feeder, but they carry on regardless!
Poor cat has no street credibility. The magpies have even been seen pulling his tail. So I can't see a bit of hosepipe or a plastic bird having any effect whatsoever.

Ziggy

 

[alldigging]

Would an alternative feeding station for the birds work?

 

[madasafish]

Would an alternative feeding station for the birds work?

Makes no difference here.

Bread and seed early morning followed by high protein feed (bees) from the hives 20 meters away.

Our birds have cunning and brains as well as feathers you know.. and they know the value of a balanced diet.

 

[keith pierce]

nest full of eggs.

I have a 5 nest boxes in the small orchard where I keep my bees. 4 of them have tits occupying them . One with 10 eggs and another 2 with 8 and the other are too awkward to check what's in them. these eggs have since hatched and the parents are feeding them hard. they are welcome to all the bees that they can eat.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I watched a pair of great tits near the hives yesterday evening. They were systematically going from one hive to the next hive, occasionally stopping near the front and then going beneath the stands. I was too far away to see if they were catching live bees or picking up recently dead ones.

They're very welcome in the garden (we have a couple of nesting boxes) because they clear greenfly and blackfly from vegetable plants, so I think I can spare them the occasional bee in a year when there seem to be few caterpillars. I haven't seen them near the hives when the bees are busy, so hope any newly emerged queens would be safe.

 

[REDWOOD]

I heard there are a pair of tits in this area emptying hives of bees on their frames
Sorry I should'nt insult our feathered friends

 

[Stiffy]

As with most birds great tits are opportunistic feeders. There was video evidence a few years back of great tits taking hibernating bats almost as big as they are!
I certainly wouldn't begrudge a few bees to the birds as I am sure the numbers taken would be minuscule to the natural daily loss.
S

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Great Tits.......

Should have read the whole title before choking on my tea - I almost reported the thread as being inappropriate on a family forum

Whatever did happen to kelly Brook BTW?

 

[user 6228]

you can add wrens to the birds that clean up around the bases of hives

 

[Chris Luck]

As with most birds great tits are opportunistic feeders. There was video evidence a few years back of great tits taking hibernating bats almost as big as they are!
I certainly wouldn't begrudge a few bees to the birds as I am sure the numbers taken would be minuscule to the natural daily loss.
S

Can you point me to the evidence for that please?

Chris

 

[alldigging]

Can you point me to the evidence for that please?

Chris

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17749-killer-birds-bite-off-bats-heads.html

 

[Chris Luck]

Thanks, that's incredible.

Chris

 

[Gardenbees]

Well, the great tits were there again this morning, this time in the rain & looking decidedly damp, but cashing in on the occasional sleepy bee emerging into the drizzle, presumably on cleaning flights.

Wrens are taking an interest in the dead bees but not the ones at the entrance. The great tits seem to prefer the live ones although I'm sure any fresh dead or dying bees would go the same way.

I have three nucs with virgin queens waiting, I hope, to fly soon, so I hope they're nippy about leaving the hive. Much as I like the garden birds, it would be irritating to lose a promising new queen.

 

[Les]

Just thought I get this thread going again as yet again the Great Tits are feeding their young on my bees – from what I can see they are only taking the dead ones so are more than welcome.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Give them time, they'll soon learn to pick up the 'resting' ones on the side or roof of the hive and in no time at all they'll be catching them in flight. We have robins doing it too, they sit and wait until the right bee comes along and catch it before it lands.

We've sort of convinced ourselves that our bees are partly responsible for the increased numbers of birds in our garden over the last couple of years.