A fascinating insight into another of Nature's essential creatures doomed by human greed. However much scientific expertise informs us of the necessity of such species in the planet's survival, the 'want more' element will continue to pollute in their personal profit taking.

Sitting on the swing seat, in the sunshine yesterday and a little, friendly 'bumble' flew over and settled for a while on my knee – a momentary mental oasis in the daily doom recital.

rgds

Bill

that reminds me of this from 71

A very interesting link, thank you Michael. I'm moving house soon, and hope to eventually have some bees of my own…along with a couple of Alpacas, but that's another story!

John.

Many times I have been called out to Bumbebee nests asked to get rid. One of the most interesting last year was a nest that was using the mouth aperture of a disused fountain display. One of those cement faces that can be attached to a wall. Took me a while to convince the house owner to leave well alone till autumn.

Re the flower biting and attempt to control or make the plant respond. One thing which is quite common on Bean flwers is that they bite a hole at the base of the flower because their proboscis is too short to reach the nectar in the normal way, ie. down the spout of the flower.

This report is the first time I have heard of Bumbles trying to promote the plant to flower. One idea is that due to cold weather plant flowers do not make nectar until 72 hrs. at a constant 68 F. So they may be starving and use this method to speed things up. Bumbles will work at very low temps and I have seen them working a small white shrub flower on Xmas day.

It's so easy to help the bees as I found out over the past few weeks.

Two birthdays ago my daughter bought me a bee house which contained 24 holes for the bees to lay eggs which I hung up on a shed wall. It's only about a 150mm/6" cube so doesn't take up much. room

By the end of the year about 3/4 had been filled and sealed by the bees.

This April they kept me busy watching their comings and goings. Even before they had all hatched they were busy relaying eggs.

This year I reckon that about 108 bees hatched and with 23 holes refilled that's about 130 ready for next year.

I'm actually trying for more now as I found a nice bit of log and drilled some 10mm holes in it and mounted it alongside the original.

Simple things but it gives you a warm feeling knowing that you've grown something.

Brian

How deep should the holes be?

JA

I briefly kept a single hive but found my commuting between UK + IoM was somewhat restricted as though generally low maintenance it needed to be watched at certain times.

However another friend had kept bees for some years then she also suddenly developed intolerance to any sting and had on medical reasons to give it up – how common is this

I have bees nesting in the roof of my shed, or it could be in the wall and accessed from the roof. My shed walls are old, about 2 foot wide, consisting of stone chunks held by mud, with render on the inside and mortar on the outside. The pitched roof is wooden boards with roofing felt over and tiles (Roman profile?) over. The bees are entering and exiting via a gap in the wooden roofingboards – after that where they go only they know at the moment.

They were there last year, I thought they might disappear over winter, but they are still there. I don't want them there fearful of the damage they might be doing to the roof wooden structure or indeed the wall, but I don't want to kill them really – we need all the pollinators we can get, but I do want them gone.

Any thoughts anyone on how I could persuade them to move along to another home somewhere else, maybe into the wood behind us?

Chris

Neil,

when living in SW France had a Asiatic hornets nest in a tall tree…….

big hanging thing, also a thing of wonder……about a meter long and almost as big around…..

the local council refused to touch it because it was so big……

Had to kill em myself, which involed over 12m of 3/4 copper pipe, 1/2 lit petrol and an air compressor…….

AND for the interested few…..no I didnt BURN them out…….

Petrol fumes will kill them almost instantley……

when keeping honey bee's in the UK, worked with someone from the Ministry of Agri……

when bee's had a notifiable disease the bees were trapped inside and killed with a cup of petrol…..

then the hive was moved and burnt (in a safe place)…

Hornets have been mentioned. The memory bank, full, chaotic and prone to error , says that Hornets are a protected species in Germany … yes?

rgds

Bill

Cornish Jack, the Asian hornet is a reportable inhestation due to it's predatory attcks on beehives. They hold siege to the hive and the bees will not leeave the hive so stay home to defend it, I assume they have a sense of fear as well?

The asian Hornet is a brown bodied insect 3 Cm long easily distinguished from the normal yellow jacketed hornet that looks like a biiger wasp.

I see no point in any country that protects asian Hornets as it is an alien invader.

I might add that all insects like Bumbles, Honey bees and Leaf cutters etc are all proteced under the wild life and countryside act.

Edited By Clive Hartland on 23/05/2020 10:02:43