Bees

SWMBO reported some gathering of insects and general humming, so she scooped up the cats & brought them inside. Examination with binoculars from a distance revealed, yes, a swarm, so now in the process of locating a swarm collector. This is definitely not one to DIY :-)

Reply to
Tim Streater
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Bees in the process of swarming are generally pretty docile. Before they leave the hive, they will gorge themselves on stored honey to last them until they've established a new colony, and whilest replete they are not aggressive. They leave the old hive, fly around for a bit in a large cloud, and then all settle to form roughly a pear-shaped cluster, usually on a low-hanging branch of a tree or bush. They will stay there for between a few hours to several days while scouts seek out a suitable site for a new colony. If after a few days they still haven't found a suitable site, it's then that they can become a bit tetchy, as they run low on honey.

Plenty of pictures demonstrating how docile swarming bees are, here

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Reply to
Chris Hogg

A swarm is usually pretty docile and safe to approach. If you don't know a local beek there's a contact page on the BBKA website

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He will try to shake/brush them into a box if they are accessible, or lure them in if not.

He should leave the box there until late dusk so all the scout bees have returned for the night, then return to seal it up and take them away.

Reply to
Reentrant

In message , Chris Hogg writes

Yup we've had them swarm in our garden a couple of times. A bit alarming the first time as I'd never seen it before. Amazing noise as well.

First time (about 8 years ago) they moved into the top of an old victorian bodged flue on the side of one of the chimney stacks and are still there.

Reply to
Chris French

Yes, I phoned a couple of bods and left messages. Meanwhile the swarm has skipped town. No noise in the attic so that's OK. I suspect the parent nest may be somewhere in our quite thick hedge.

Reply to
Tim Streater

In message , Tim Streater writes

Yesterday I called a local beekeeper because, when we went to check No2 son's house, SWMBO became really alarmed by the number of bees swarming over a plant. There was also a lot of sort of grey cotton wool like stuff over half the plant.

The keeper offered to come and I met him there. Meanwhile I'd noticed that a plant in the back garden had a similar quantity of bees around it.

He just said they were (forgotten) plants, bees love them Nothing to worry about. Look, you can stroke them. He stroked them and said see the difference between the bumble bees and the honey bees. I hadn't got my glasses and declined to stroke.

As for the grey stuff, he said that's nothing to do with the bees. It's just nature.

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Reply to
Bill

For information, the plant is Cotoneaster horizontalis aka herring-bone cotoneaster. The little flowers are highly attractive to bees and other insects, as your bee-keeper said.

The caterpillars of some species of moth make communal protective webs. One such moth is the Orchard Ermine moth, whose caterpillars' webs may cover whole bushes, such as this hawthorn bush

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. If you look closely on your cotoneaster you may see the small caterpillars crawling around inside the web. Don't know if this is what's on yours though, as other species of moth behave similarly.

Reply to
Chris Hogg

In message , Chris Hogg writes

Thanks, Chris. I have passed the info on to the son and family.

Reply to
Bill

And wasps are not so terrible either. When I went to replace the ignition switch of my ride-on mower I found a new nest just started under the dashboard. Being golf ball sized it couldn't have produced more than a handful in the few days since I was last looking at it. Having DEET (insect repellant) to hand I just sprayed some around and (watching out for the handful of wasps flying around) knocked it off and broke it open and moved it to a quiet area for the birds to feed on the dozen or so grubs.

Didn't particularly like having to do it, but I need the mower.

Reply to
newshound

Couple of years ago I was mowing round the back edge of the garden, suddenly astonished to find that a chap had landed a glider some 30ft behind the back fence, in the field. So I stopped the mower right there.

After dealing with young Biggles, telling him where the farmer lived and so on, I returned to the mower, only to discover that I'd stopped it right on top of a wasps nest in the ground. They didn't seem too fussed.

Later I went back and filled the hole with readymix and some water. I thought that would cement their friendship.

Reply to
Tim Streater

In message , Tim Streater writes

Oh yes they are............

You were lucky, I moved an electric golf buggy at Loch Lommond a couple of years ago that had been parked on a nest, they were not happy! I ended up running with them chasing me, I could run faster than the buggy, as it was I had 12 stings from them. I did have the most amazing dreams that night though and a bollocking from the medics the next day for not having gone to get myself checked over.

Reply to
Bill

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