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I dug over half a bin of compost out and put in another bin before I found the bee's nest.

I put the carpet cover back over it and weighed it down with bricks , but I am worried they will die now they have been disturbed.

They can still get in and out through a knot hole in the wood compost bin.

any advise would be much appreciated/ shades x

No advise to offer but a few years ago we had a Wasps nest on our plot, we contacted our local council  (pest control) to remove it but by the time they got to us my oldest son had stood right in the middle of the nest resulting in him being covered in them, I rushed in to help and we both had so many stings that we ended up in hospital.

Thinking about it why not try your local councils pest control?

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because they are not a pest! no offence but

they are pollinating my broad beans, I don't want to kill them / shades x

Quote from: angle shades on April 30, 2007, 21:13:10
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because they are not a pest! no offence but

they are pollinating my broad beans, I don't want to kill them / shades x

Pest control wouldn't kill them but they would know what to do with them or put you in contact with a Bee Keeper.

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thank you /shades x

They won't be honeybees, they don't nest underground. Almost certainly bumblebees, which do. I believe it's technically illegal to move them, but legal to kill them. They'll do no harm at all, and if you leave them alone for the season, they'll be fine. Don't worry about minor disturbance, they're a lot tougher than that.

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thank you Robert,yes I forgot to say they are bumblebees,cute yellow headed and orange bottomed bees.

they sort of mini swarmed me, and no wonder, I uncovered the wax cells, I waited 'til they had settled down and got there bearings again before covering with carpet again.

Would you call that major or minor disturbance? do I need to cover with compost?after all I took half a bin of compost off them, thanks very much Robert/shades x

Bees keep coming back to one of my compost bins at home (apparently that is unusual, they prefer new 'clean' sites).

I spoke to our local bee expert who runs a honey shop locally (perhaps I had better rephrase that, it looks rude; you know what I mean!) who said if you just leave them alone they will re-burrow and cover any exposed cells and be none the worse for their uncovering. Sadly they usually die off over winter, so it will then be safe to empty the compost bin.

I also asked about the size of the bees, because they seemed really tiny like miniature bumble bees to me and I wasn't sure what type of bee they were; he said the size depends on the availability of pollen and the weather, if it is a cold wet spring, the bees are titchy because of the reduced availability of pollen; this year they should be giant sized then! ;D

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Thank you Deb P, will stop worrying now ::) they do look like mini bees at the moment, can't wait to see how big they get ;)/ shades x

This is minor disturbance; it won't bother them at all. The bees will get bigger through the season as more workers are available to feed the brood. At the moment they're struggling along on a minimal diet.

Aren't you lucky - you need to cherish them!  They do an awful lot of good on the pollination front.  Their numbers have been reduced dramatically by a parasite and if you look closely at your bees you can often see little browny yellow blips on them. (a bit like ticks but obviously miniature ones!)  These multiply until they kill off the bee. Unfortunately you can't do anything to help them as any bug killer will also kill the bee.

Wasps are also very good in the garden  (provided they haven't got a nest anywhere too close to where you need to work).  They eat massive numbers of aphids but they always get a bad press because occasionally people get stung - generally  - if you leave them alone they will leave you alone.

Old Bird

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thanks for your replies Robert and Old bird, bees were ok today,/shades x