Hello all. I'm not a bee person, I've registered here to seek a bit of expert advice, so I apologise if this topic is covered elsewhere.
My father has a bird box in his garden. He usually gets blue tits in it, this year he has bees. My extensive research (ten minutes of googling) shows these are bumbles, with a few males bumbling about round the box. He's building a shed next to it, and there are often toddlers running round the garden, so he wants the bees to be elsewhere. He's not a sentimental sort, and his solution is to just seal up the entrance with the bees in it. I'm trying to talk him out of that for obvious reasons, and hope someone can help. He won't move the bird box, because it's not only firmly attached to a wooden pole (about 10 feet off the ground), but the box has a camera in it.
I've read that if the box is sprayed with a water/vinegar solution over the course of a few nights, the bees will relocate. Can anyone confirm this? Or suggest another solution that involves moving the bees out of the box without killing them? Thanks.
My father has a bird box in his garden. He usually gets blue tits in it, this year he has bees. My extensive research (ten minutes of googling) shows these are bumbles, with a few males bumbling about round the box. He's building a shed next to it, and there are often toddlers running round the garden, so he wants the bees to be elsewhere. He's not a sentimental sort, and his solution is to just seal up the entrance with the bees in it. I'm trying to talk him out of that for obvious reasons, and hope someone can help. He won't move the bird box, because it's not only firmly attached to a wooden pole (about 10 feet off the ground), but the box has a camera in it.
I've read that if the box is sprayed with a water/vinegar solution over the course of a few nights, the bees will relocate. Can anyone confirm this? Or suggest another solution that involves moving the bees out of the box without killing them? Thanks.