The Bees Knees

[mothhawk]

Your pictures of the inside of your hive are so amazing, Lotsaveg, that I may have a go at making one of these too.

[Hilary B]

I'm guessing that the Bumblebees will maintain the nest size proportionately to the size of the box. It may also be a different species to the beepol bees which are Bombus terrestris (a u d a x) [my automatic spell checker keeps changing this to 'addax' unless i put a space between each letter!!!). B. terrestris are known to build one of the biggest nests of our native bumblebee species.

Since I removed the lid of my beepol hive, the colony are now building a second story! I'll post some new pictures soon.

Saw an amazing sight yesterday when a large bumblebee, which could have been a cuckoo bee tried to get into the hive. One of the guards shot out of his hole and wrestled the invader to the floor. They were rolling about on the ground for a couple of minutes before the invader flew away and the guard returned to his post!

HER post, bumblebees, like honeybees, the ones that do all the work (including guarding) are female. All male bees are good for is breeding!

[mothhawk]

My first flowerpot bumblebee nest is finished and awaiting prospective tenants.

[mothhawk]

I didn't have any chicken wire, so used small dry twigs, and made a nest shaped ball inside from natural cotton wool pulled into tiny pieces and remoulded into a hollowish ball.

[Lotsaveg]

HER post, bumblebees, like honeybees, the ones that do all the work (including guarding) are female. All male bees are good for is breeding!

Oooooooooops! Sorry, I wasn't thinking!

[Lotsaveg]

My Beepol hive in the lodge has just kept on expanding since I removed the plastic lid. Here's the latest picture:



Bees are coming back to the hive with pollen about every 20 seconds !

Yesterday I received another hive without the wooden lodge which I've set up on a platform in the roof of my greenhouse next to an open vent. The bees have already learnt to fly off out of the vent and come back through the gap into the hive. I'm hoping that when my tomatoes begin flowering they'll be doing a bit of work in the greenhouse as well!!

[Lotsaveg]

Thought it was about time for an update on the Beepol Lodge...

It's still going strong after it was first set up on 18th March and the size of the nest has just kept increasing!!

Sadly though, I found an adult wax moth in the Lodge so we'll have to see what happens over the following weeks.

[Lotsaveg]

Sadly this will likely be the final update on my outdoor Beepol hive as I think it's coming to an end after 3 months of total fascination.

Another flush of new queens and males were walking around the top of the nest today. Every so often a huge queen would start to buzz her wings and then take off, circle the garden a few times and then disappear off into the horizon. This is the third batch of queens that I've seen leave the hive since it was first set up back in March!

The pictures below show a queen about to depart and a newly hatched male. There's also evidence of the dreaded wax moth within the nest (identified by the silk threads that cover some of the old egg cells. Luckily the wax moths haven't taken over the nest as often is the case with small bee nests.

I've spoken to the company who supplies the Beepol and they're currently testing some natural products that might be used to control wax moths in the future. This could be very useful for bee keepers if successful!!

They're also going to use some of my pictures on their website and are sending me a new hive!!

Here's the spectacular nest with the new queens emerging




Here's a queen just before she flew away:




Here's a newly hatched male:



When they've all departed I'll probably put another nest box in the wooden lodge and position it in amongst my runner and French bean bed.

[Lotsaveg]

Sadly this nest has now come to an end

The last queen bumbled off into the wild yesterday.

[pipkins]

Those pictures are just amazing, I may have a go myself floowing Mothhawks instructions. Thanks for a great thread all!

[Two_Sheds]

Brilliant photos, thank you

Today I discovered that Red Tailed bees are nesting in a bird's nest box in our school playground. I was called in to "do something" lol !

I took a group out there and we watched the bees coming & going with pollen (all females, right?). The children were all calm, quiet and fascinated, just two feet away, and the bees ignored us. Brilliant stuff

[Lotsaveg]

Brilliant photos, thank you

Today I discovered that Red Tailed bees are nesting in a bird's nest box in our school playground. I was called in to "do something" lol !

I took a group out there and we watched the bees coming & going with pollen (all females, right?). The children were all calm, quiet and fascinated, just two feet away, and the bees ignored us. Brilliant stuff

Fantastic!! Lets hope the PC health and Safety brigade don't turn up and destroy the nest because it's close to school kids.

[Two_Sheds]

I hope not too. I was fielding questions about the risk all morning, so printed off a quick factsheet which seemed to calm things down a bit - but they still cordoned off that section of playground with metal railings

[4390evans]

That is stunning, would be ideal for the corner of my garden once the flowers grow for coverage. x

[4390evans]

My first flowerpot bumblebee nest is finished and awaiting prospective tenants.

You got any more pics of how you made this? where they come in and out etc?

Ignore this I just seen to pics you posted.
xx