Bees

[Norfolk Girl]

I love watching bees, but I am not very knowledgeable about them. My mum has a bird box on her garage wall which was used by blue tits last year. This year, about a few months ago, we noticed red-tailed bumble bees are using the box.

We didn't clear the old nesting material out of the box from the birds. I would love to know for what purpose the bees are using the box. They seem to have nimbled bits off the front of the box too.

[Monkey Orchid]

Your bees are almost certainly using the box for the same reason your blue tits were - they are nesting in it! Bumblebees of all sorts will often use old bird nest boxes in this way. They will also nest in compost heaps, log piles, holes in the ground etc.

Maybe you can take some photographs of your bumblebees and post them on this forum, to find out what species they are? (There are a few different kinds of bumblebees which have reddish tails.) It's great that you have them nesting in your garden, lucky you!

Wasps are known to chew off wood and dead plant material to build their papery nests, whereas bumblebees build their nests from wax (like honey bees do). So something else may be responsible for 'nibbling' the front of the bird box... See if you can watch and observe what is doing it.

As the weather gets cold in late autumn/winter, your bumblebees will die off and the nest will become inactive - although with climate change, some colonies of bumblebees in the UK have been observed to overwinter in gardens where there are plenty of winter-flowering plants to provide nectar and pollen.

Happy bee watching!

[Norfolk Girl]

Thank you for your very informative reply. I have seen wasps chewing up wood from fences and had one of their beautifully constructed nests in my garage the other year.

I found a dead bee on mum's patio which I'm not sure came from the nest box. Would be fascinating to have one of those boxes with a camera in to see what is happening in there.

Funny thing is, I bought a special bee box which I have had in my garden for 4 years and that has remained unused. Will have to see whether I can get some photos over the weekend of mum's resident bees.

Anything to encourage the poor things, they need all the help they can get.