Is it to early for bees.

[lillian]

My flowering Pulmonaria is normally covered in bees, but have not seen one bee this year. Is it to early?

[lillian]

[Georgie]

No, it's not too early, but I guess it depends where you live.  I've got lots in my garden although they seem to prefer the Narcissi to the Pulmonaria at the moment.   

[Paulines7]

My flowering Pulmonaria is normally covered in bees, but have not seen one bee this year. Is it to early?

I think your bees have all flown west!  I have some heather, pansies and primula in pots all waiting to be planted and I counted nine very large bumble bee queens on them yesterday.  I have also seen honey bees about.

[theothermarg]

am seeing a lot of queen bee's flying around which I think are looking for nest sites to start breeding. I expect they are late like every thing else (only got sketchy knowledge of a bees lifecycle so please correct me if I'm wrong
marg

[irnhed]

It depends on what type of bee  :)

Bumblebees can fly at lower temperature than Honeybees, as they've got lovely black hairs all over them to keep them warm.

BUMBLEBEES

(The big, fat, hairy ones)

At this time of year, Bumbles will be big fat queens, looking for nests.  They've hibernated over winter underground, and will be out now, looking for nesting places.  You may notice that they ignore flowers, and seem unduly interested in dark places, like holes in the ground, or log piles.

Queens will look for some nectar to get some energy, then, when they've found a nest, they'll lay their first batch of eggs.  Once the larvae have hatched, she'll tend them, feeding them a mixture of nectar & pollen is wee round balls (called Bee Bread) until they're adults.

They will then been her worker bees (they'll all be her daughters) and will collect pollen & nectar for the other eggs that the queen lays.  I don't think she then ever leaves the next again.

During the spring / summer, the colony will build up until it's about the size of a rugby ball (all underground).  You'll notice that the foraging bees are smaller than the queen.

Not sure about the detail, but some drones (males) will hatch in later summer (I know in honeybees that these are unfertilised eggs).  End of summer / autumn, a virgin queen will hatch & grow, ultimately flying with a could of drones, who will fertilise her mid-flight.  The drones then die   :(     With Bumblebees, I'm pretty sure that the drones only hatch at the end of summer, so that the colony doesn't have to put up with them free-loading for too long.

Anyway, the virgin queen will no longer be a virgin.  She'll then look for somewhere to hibernate, and will wait until the spring.

Sadly (well, I think so) all of the workers, drones & old queen will then die of starvation over the autumn / winter.  Only the (now non-virgin) queen survives.

Drones can be attracted from other nests, which helps with the genetic diversity.

HONEYBEES

(The thin, golden yellow & black ones)

As the honeybees don't have as many warming hairs, they need a higher temperature to get started.  The queen will only leave a hive if she is a virgin queen on a mating flight, or if she's an 'old' queen, who is leading a swarm to find a new hive.  As this leaves a virgin queen behind (who will hatch, then mate) this is the way that honeybees propogate.

Contrary to popular belief, a Bee Swarm isn't scary.  It's simply a colony looking to propogate itself.  In fact, before they leave the hive, the bees will fill their stomachs with honey for the journey, which makes them docile, and less likely to sting.

Incidentaly, that's also why bee keepers don't like to lose a part of a colony due to swarming.  Not only do you lose 1/2 of your bees, you lose most of your crop.  Controlling swarming is key to successful beekeeping.

If it is warm enough, you'll see honeybees starting to fly now.  They're primarily collecting pollen for newly hatched larvae.  If your honeybees are bringing in pollen, its usually a good indicator that the queen is laying.

There is nothing nicer to see than your girls bringing tonnes of yellow pollen in on a sunny day.

For nectar, they'll actually be using stores from inside the hive, as there isn't much nectar about just yet.

With honeybees, the drones can be created at any time - not just at the end of the season.  They free-load over their lives, hanging around, eating up the honey stores and generally getting in the way (just like teenagers).

However, towards the end of the season (late autumn), any remaining drones will be forced out of the hive by the workers - who won't put up with them feeding over the winter. 

So, if it's sunny & warm enough, you could see either type.

Solitary bees are another matter, but I've typed enough for now...

[theothermarg]

I wasn't far out then with the big furry ones. that was really interesting, you sure do know your bee's. every now and then I come across leaf cutter eggs all wrapped up and have been lucky enough to see one working on a rose leaf, facinating well worth having nibbled leaves I thought
marg

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'm seeing a lot of bumblebee queens at the moment, and my bees are out in force when the sun comes out. Maybe there aren't many bees where you are? Otherwise, it could be simply that you're some distance from them. I'm not sure about bumblebees, but the queens are so fat and heavy it's hard to see them flying far. Honeybees certainly won't go far from the hive at the moment if they can avoid it. I don't know how far they'll go for willow pollen if they really need to, but I don't see mine at any distance from the hives. Another thing is that right now, honeybee populations are small, and there are only the queen bumbles. So there aren't that many bees about.

[Georgie]

Result!  Nice fat bumble on my Pulmonaria today.  Not a queen - they are still buzzing around looking for nesting sites - but had the most gorgeous ginger colouring.  I'm useless at identification though so I have no idea what sort of bee it was.

G x

[Ninnyscrops.]

Pond net out already, not to clear the pond but to help the bees that bang their heads on our back porch glass roof and those that obviously forgot how they got into the greenhouses!  ;D

We put up a bat box many years ago and going to rename it a bee box (but it is next to the mahonia)!

Ninny

[Vortex]

From memory I think there are about 11 species of Bumblebee in the UK and they're not all the same size. Solitary bees I don't know that much about. Bumblebees are about in proliferation around us - never got round to building those next boxes though.
Honeybees are certainly flying although they're scarce unless you're close to a rape field which is now flowering.

[Digeroo]

I have seen three different types so far this year the very big dark ones theat seem to be so large they can hardly fly.  And a reddish brown furry type who was doing a great job on the red currants.  Finally the ones with a while bum. Not seen any honey bees yet.

[cornykev]

They all look the same to me,  ??? but there have been plenty around the lottie and my back garden, big uns and all.    ;D ;D ;D   

[greenhousegirl]

I've seen lots of bumble bees this year, not sure if they are all the same but some of them are very big, had 3 in the greenhouse yesterday they couldn't find the way out, so left the door open and all the windows went inside for a coffee and when I came back they had gone.

Would they build a nest in a compost bin? There seems to be quite allot of activity around there. Would hate to do any damage to them.

The bin is about full but not ready for using, so I could maybe leave it this year if there is a chance that they would build a nest.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[tonybloke]

They all look the same to me,  ??? but there have been plenty around the lottie and my back garden, big uns and all.    ;D ;D ;D   

have a look here, Kev
http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/bumblebees_id.htm

[triffid]

Would they build a nest in a compost bin? There seems to be quite allot of activity around there. Would hate to do any damage to them.

The bin is about full but not ready for using, so I could maybe leave it this year if there is a chance that they would build a nest.

Has anyone else experienced this?

GHGirl... Yes, if it's not a very damp compost mix: warm, dark and undisturbed are all good des-res criteria for bumble bees. If you can leave the heap alone, you'll be doing them a big favour. And they're such gorgeous gentle things, too.  ;D

Not had a bumblebee nest in our compost heap for several years, but last summer Iwas weeding a messy bit at the back of one of our garden flower beds, and couldn't for the life of me figure out what was making the noise like an infuriated hand-blender.
After about 10 mins of this, with me and the noise both stopping and starting, out of the earth popped one of the big white-tailed bumbles, shaking soil off her wings and most vexed at the damage to her lovely home. I think she warned me off before I did serious harm to the nest though, because bees were in and out of that bit of the bed for the rest of the season.

[Paulines7]

On the same subject of bumble bees does anyone know how far down in the earth they have their nests please? 

The reason I would like to know is that last night I was digging out some grass which had grown where I had my outdoor tomatoes last year when a bumble bee disappeared into a hole.  I wasn't digging very deep and don't think I disturbed the nest. 

We have many ground nesting bees all over our garden and as I still haven't got round to getting out the big weeds, I am now a bit concerned in case I disturb the bees. 

[Mortality]

Bumble Bee investigating my Broad Bean plants today.



Very dark in colour with a dark orange base, I could see pollen on its legs and it seemed to have a really long tongue? nose?

[Mortality]

Saw another investigating the Broad bean flowers again this morning, this one was all black with obvious pollen stuck to it's legs and again appeared to have a very long tongue !
Had to grab my cat before he pounced on it  ::)

[Robert_Brenchley]

On the same subject of bumble bees does anyone know how far down in the earth they have their nests please? 

Very likely just under the surface, but they often use rodent burrows and it's impossible to dogmatise.