I wonder if anyone can give me some advice.
I have a webcam on a bird box on the side of our house. Last year we had blue tits nesting in it and five chicks fledged successfully. Initially the blue tit had a problem with evicting a resident bee!
This year, although the blue tits were initially prospecting the box, we have had no interest. I switched on the camera last night to see if there had been any activity to discover the box seemed full of moss. After watching it for some time, it seems that it is now occupied with quite a few bees. I managed to count five, but given the movement of the moss, there is a great deal more in there.
I am not too worried about them being there, as I am aware of the decline of bees. However, do we leave them alone? Will there be an increase in bees? I have also read that if I contact a local beekeeper they may take them away. However, I wouldn't want them taking the whole nestbox away as there is a camera in there!
Any advice will be gratefully appreciated.
Angela
Hi Angela,
Welcome to the forum,
Basically the bees will do no-one any harm if they are left to their own devices, you may not think so but you are really lucky to have them (even if at the expense of no blue tits.
The only bees bee keepers will take are Honey Bees, these usually go home but can swarm in their hundreds, even thousands
The best thing to do is try to decide what bees there is in there (maybe post a few screen grabs from your camera to the forum) I'm not brilliant with bee ID's but i'm sure someone on here is.
If thery are indeed Honey Bees a bee keeper will be more than happy to take them off your hands. i'd expect them to temporarily take your nestbox and return it promptly, If your camera is in the roof you should be ok to keep that as hopefully the bee keeper would bring a temporary cover. If you tell them on ringing up about your nest box the bee keeper may have a way of extracting them without taking your nestbox.
If they are another species, if you can live with them then I'm sure the'll be ok to be around.
H
Hi there
Thanks very much for your reply. They are really not worrying us at all, our birdcam is now beecam! I can't get colour pictures from the webcam but have been trying (unsuccessfully) to get photos when they leave the nest box. Once I have a decent, unblurred one, I will post it up.
Thanks again for your help.
No problem Angela,
Hopefully the bees will do well this year as they seem to like nest boxes, and more and more people are putting them up.
Hi Angela
We had some red tailed bumble bees take over one of our tit boxes and we left them. As long as they aren't causing you any harm I would leave them. Bees are in decline and the more we get the better for us all. :)
Sue
If they are bumblebees this might help ID which ones are living in your nest(bee)box :-)
http://www.helpsavebees.co.uk/bumblebee-ID-chart.html
Chris S.
A very old Shropshire Lad.
Thanks very much for that Chris. I am struggling to get a photo as they are just too quick for me!!
I also have your problem! Not yet resolved since the tit has fully built the nest! However, to photo the bees, taka a photo of the TV picture. Not perfect but adequate for identification
Not bees but I had wasps take over my nestbox last year.
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Hi!
I'm a big bee fan, (as well as a big bird fan!), and think you're really lucky to have a bee nest! You'll find lots of advice here: bumblebeeconservation.org/.../bumblebee-nests and they also have a forum if you've got further questions: bumblebeeconservation.org/forum
Hope this helps...and I hope that you end up finding the bees fascinating too!
xx
Hi, I too have a bees nest occupying a dilapidated bird house. We are happy to leave well alone as they entertain us from a safe distance. I know nothing about their behaviour but just wondered if anyone can enlighten me as to why there are about 7 or 8 bees constantly buzzing around the bird house. They don't appear to be trying to enter the bird house, just constantly buzzing about the entrance. Your comments would be appreciated.