The Right Sort of Bees

[Tengu]

Not really my problem...yet

Dad was in my garden and he found a bees nest in my compost bin so he left well alone.

He says they are ground nesting bees...evidently social bees...are they honey bees?

I will be going home next month so I will get you some pictures.

Its possible I might have a swarm for you bee keeping types to adopt...I do hope so!

 

[Robson Valley]

Wonderful. That means that you are to be blessed with good fortune.
Probably not the conventional, hive dwelling Apis melifera (honey bee.)
Instead, they may be the far larger yellow/black or yellow/orange/black bumble bees.
They don't store nectar as honey but do harvest enough for their own needs.
If they are, the nests are usually no more than annual affairs.
Here, the queens over winter and begin afresh every spring.
Their vision is excellent so swatting at them usually provokes a response.

As pollinators, they are invaluable. They pollinate many crops that the honey bee is too fussy to even look at.
They pollinate grapes, for example. Think about that.

 

[Janne]

Ground nesting bees should not be in a compost bin? They like to dig holes in the ground?
I have only seen Bumblebees nesting in ground. Normal bees in ground, rotten tree trunks, attics too.

It is a weird thing in the English language, to call bees almost the same as (bumble) bees...

 

[Robson Valley]

I see ground-nesting as opposed to nesting in tree cavities, house roofs and other elevated locations.
Ground nesting as in the two colonies of bumble bees which nested underneath my garden shed.
Probably lots of dread dry grass from mouse and vole winter nests under the shed.
None of our many bumble bee species are diggers. Instead there's a miriad of abandoned little burrows
and rock piles for them to pick from. Even our yellow jacket wasps will nest in the ground.

My "compost bin" is 6' x 6' x 4' and is no more than a box for rotting lawn grass clippings.
It can dry out very quickly in the summers here, have to remember to water it to make it work.
More than once, I've noticed a bumble bee nest from their comings and goings.
I've opened a couple out of curiosity, they look like the pictures!

In this day and time, I'm much more concerned for their welfare as crop pollinators as
the devastation from Colony Collapse Disorder coutinues to decimate honey bee colonies.

 

[Janne]

Ate there any indigenous species of honey bees in North America that can take over the crop pollinating role?

 

[Robson Valley]

The answer, essentially, is no. The honey bee is european in origin as are most of the crops which depend upon them for pollination.

What we see with our native flowering plants is a multitude of insects foraging for pollen and nectar,
the bumble bees and various flies (Diptera) of all things and the occassional butterfly.
The yellow jacket wasps have a great fondness for the gooseberry bushes. The flies are in love with the black currants.
Lots of other smaller species but these are the most conspicuous if you sat in my back garden right now and watched.

 

[Janne]

Here on Cayman we have a local bee, about half size from the normal Honey Bee.
I stepped on one last year, and thought I had stepped on a Scorpion. Much, much more painful than a Honey Bee sting.
Had lots in the garden in February, when my Mango trees flowered, and again in April when one of the Mango trees flowered for a second time.
As a result I have been blessed with a couple of hundred Mangoes!
Will give most away of course, once they start maturing.

 

[Robson Valley]

Just because they are inconspicuous doesn't mean that they don't carry a big stick!

Colony Collapse Disorder has been a disaster here in the valley in the commercial honey bee business.
Mites, bacteria on the mites, jacka$$ insecticide spraying, who knows?

Even theft. They just caught some guy (California?) who had stolen more than a million dollars worth of hives.

 

[Robson Valley]

Appears that you have no shortage to pick from in the UK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bees_of_Great_Britain

 

[Janne]

The same problem occurs in Europe. If this continues food production will go down. Maybe time for Science to start looking into developing a new bee hybrid?

 

[santaman2000]

The same problem occurs in Europe. If this continues food production will go down. Maybe time for Science to start looking into developing a new bee hybrid?

They already tried that with the Africanized Honey Bee. That ain't turning out so good.

 

[Janne]

Is that the one that likes attacking people and everything else that moves?

 

[santaman2000]

Yep. Still spreading.

 

[ValeTudoGuy]

I stand to be corrected.... But im fairly confident that ground nesting bees aka mining bees are a purely solitary species

 

[Tengu]

Good speculation. (And yes, lots of solitary bees in my garden.) But honey bees would be a good catch.

Shame I cant keep them.

 

[ValeTudoGuy]

Well, I hope you get lucky with Honey Bees.... Sadly I think you are more likely to find they are Bumbles

 

[Janne]

I am quite sure Tengu's dad knows to see the difference between Bumble bees and Bees?
Does not everybody?

 

[Toddy]

Not necessarily; we have around 250 species of bees in the UK, and though honeybees generally have the largest colonies, there are look alikes. The carder bee for instance.
Unless one has time (and isn't being frazzled by the uplifting of dozens/hundreds of bees) it's just 'a bee'.

As children we used to try to capture as many different kinds that we could in a set time. I think my record was twenty four different bees in ten minutes; everything from bakers to redhot pokers….but then, the grass area in front of out houses was a field of clover through summer.

https://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/identification/

M

 

[Janne]

I thought of the difference between a bumblebee and a bee.
Visually vast difference.

 

[Toddy]

Not as clear as you might think. Honeybees are relatively hairless, while bumble bees are furry….some of them, they're not all like miniature bear things.

We now have European carpenter bees in the UK too, and they don't have hairy abdomens either.

I asked elsewhere, and the agreement is that there are bees, wasps and flies….and that's pretty much how most folks define them.
Apparently we're weird in asking what kind of bee It's just a bee.

M