Kitchen Garden Forum

Bees have nested in my compost bin which I was hoping to use the compost. They are small bees do they stay in the compost over winter or do they die?

I'm leaving it all and keeping my distance for the time being. Its lovely compost too but I can't use it any suggestions would be appreciated. Myra

Hi Myra,

Have a look at this site, there's advice, a forum offering support and a list of members associations, there may be one in your area.

http://www.bbka.org.uk

Sounds like the bees we had a year or two ago. They die in the winter. Just think of all the pollintaing they're doing for you!

we also have had bee s nesting but this time they in those little bags you fill with compost and put trailing plants in and hang up now we have found them in the greenhouse we have got some sprouts plants that were late coming up now found hole in compost so watched it low and behold bee came out after 5 mins

I had the red bottomed bees in my heap last year,they are solitary bees but like to have their seperate nests in a group together.I left the heap alone till autumn when they had disappeared,they have not come back this year.

If the 'red bottom' bees are the solitary red mason bees, then yes, they die at the end of the summer. However, the nests they make consist of a tube separated into a number of cells. Each cell contains an egg, which hatches into a grub that eats the pollen the bee has provided for it. It then pupates and hatches out as the next generation in the spring, possibly as early as March. If they are bumble bees then I think the nest dies out, but queens will have flown off to hibernate and start new nests in the spring.

http://www.insectpix.net/solitary_bees_gallery.htm

Some good pictures on this site of solitary bees.

ken wrote:If the 'red bottom' bees are the solitary red mason bees, then yes, they die at the end of the summer. However, the nests they make consist of a tube separated into a number of cells. Each cell contains an egg, which hatches into a grub that eats the pollen the bee has provided for it. It then pupates and hatches out as the next generation in the spring, possibly as early as March. If they are bumble bees then I think the nest dies out, but queens will have flown off to hibernate and start new nests in the spring.

Our local bee man said our bees were bumble bees, but they weren't the huge type that we all call bumble bees. They were quite small and built a communal nest. We let them bee (hee hee) and they were completely harmless, disappearing after winter.

Glad about that, Jenny. I was just concerned that you might have inadvertently destroyed the overwintering pupae of the solitary bees. It's a sensitive point with me at the moment: elsewhere on the forum I explained earlier that this year I experimented by hanging up one of the commercially available nesting boxes for red mason bees. It was going great guns - nine of the tubes filled up - when it was attacked by a woodpecker. Better luck next year, hopefully....

That's nature for you! Never does what we blummin' well want it to do!

Hi Myra,

Your Bumbles will die in the autumn,the new Queens that have been produced will over winter,and each will set up home (favorit place an old Mouse nest) next year.Hope this is of help.

HI,

Getting in touch with BBKA is a good idea. Their members are very knowledgable and quite happy to come out and check what sort of swarm it is. If it is a honeybee swarm they will most likely even collect it and resite it.

I've just joined BBKA and one of the members has given me a free nucleus of bees, come out to my house with them and helped me set them up and site them. They really are a fantastic bunch.

Do'es that include me? I've been a BBKA member for years