Tree Bees

On Sunday afternoon my neighbour told me about somebody who had had a colony of honey bees arrive in their garden. They were in a bird box so I suspected it was probably some sort of bumble bee rather than honeybees but a gardener had been fairly sure they were honeybees, so I made a phone call loaded up the car with my empty nuc, a box of frames with foundation, smoker, tools, gloves, wellies, smock, aspivenin and some toothpaste in case of the sting and guided by satnav drove over to Anlaby to pick them up.

Bird Box of Bees

The bees were in a bird box which a quick glance told me was too small to house a colony of honey bees. They really want something about the size of an actual beehive and the bird box probably had a capacity of 2 or 3 litres. The bird box was located about head height on a wooden fence behind some tall plants and shaded below adult trees. We could see bees going in and out of the box and buzzing about near it. The small fluffy bees had an orange thorax and a black abdomen some of which had a white tip. Easily identifiable as Tree Bees (Bombus hypnorum), a type of bumble bee first spotted in the UK in 2001 and spreading ever since. The Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society maintains a map of Tree Bee sightings. Whilst this is a fairly recent arrival to our shores and they're spreading very quickly it's believed they don't pose any threat to indigenous wildlife. In fact whilst other pollinators are on the decline Tree Bees seem to be bucking the trend and doing rather well for themselves. As somoe as I posted abut it on facebook friend told me that his parents who live over near Driffield has had the same thing happen in one of their bird boxes too.

Heavily Propolised Entrance

They're actually very placid bees and I was able to stand directly in front of the bird box to take a picture holding my phone only a few inches from the entrance - although I don't suggest you try that at home kids.. You can see from the photograph they've reduced the entrance to the birdhouse so it's big enough to let one bee through at a time. Nobody does anything with Tree Bees as far as I know but looking at that reduced entrance I'm wondering if they'ed possibly be useful as a source of propolis or wax. It may be something worth looking into if I can get some hold of some used bird boxes. In nature they live in holes in trees but nowadays as well as bird boxes they've also been found in clothes drier hoses, chimneys and under eaves.

I explained to the home owner they were probably good for her garden and shouldn't really be a problem, the nest was tucked away and they'll die off by Winter anyway at which point the queen will go somewhere hibernate. I suggested that in Winter they get move the box though otherwise it'll probably get reused next year, she has a friend with some woods it will probably go to. Just after I'd explained they weren't really aggressive one decided to start buzzing my head persistently so I swatted it away a couple of times and beat a retreat. Whilst Tree Bees are normally rather placid if you interfere with their hive they can mobilise the colony to defend it, so if you find some your best bet is not to interfere with them. I also explained that the drones can be very noisy  when they start congregating around the colony entrance but they don't actually have stings. You can identify drone Tree Bees easily because they have the white tipped abdomens.

Bee Craft published some information on Tree Bees which is available online here.