Disturbed Hibernating Queen -Advice ?

[jzbdski]

Hi there,

I was wondering what the conventional wisdom might be as to what to do when you disturb a hibernating queen bee ?

We were moving some plants around in the garden this afternoon and managed to 'dig up' a queen Bombus Terrestris (not the one from my previous post).

Clearly unimpressed at being disturbed, she wandered around for a little while before flying off with a mighty impressive noise.

We had absolutely no idea what to do and wondered what the bee will do next and whether it will be ok (having had to expend some energy in waking up).

I sort of thought that she'll probably go off in search of a new hibernation site and, given that we are not yet in the depths of winter, that she might be ok in the long term.

Does anyone have any experience of this or any advice on what best to do should we have a repeat performance ?

Thanks for your help.

Richard