Bumblebees

Whispered

Right so go ahead and give out to me. I deserve it.

We were clearing out the shed today and a mattress we were moving started buzzing. Nothing came out of it and we hadn't seen a lot of wasps or bees around, no more than usual anyway.

We threw it into the trailer to go to the local dump. Thinking it was wasps (still wondering why nothing came out....). I know wasps have it hard etc but I'm not having a wasp nest in my shed. It's right under the kitchen window and we use it a lot.

Anyway, we got home to find a few bees, with pollen on their legs, one with "a big red arse" as kieran described, crawling around the outside door of the shed.

Do you think we threw out a hive? Would bees nest in an old mattress? What should we do now? While it's not ideal to have bees in our small garden, in an estate, we wouldn't get rid of them as readily as wasps, they're less agressive for a start and as far as I know bee populations are in danger.

Can we do anything? Will the left bees join another colony? Is it too late now and will they all die?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Yeap a Bumble Bee Nest. Look sh1t happens. There's nothing you can do now as the Queen was in the nest. These things happen from time to time. No malace was intended so no foul.

Mothman

You've a few questions, I'll go through them in turn.
Yes you threw out a hive and hence yes itseems to have used mattress as nest,
Nothing you can do now.
I'm not particularly knowledgable on this subject to answer your last line without some inaccurracies, but here's what I think may happen.

If the Queen is still around then she may start again, but not neccessarily in your shed. Whether the others help to start again, I think its likely.

If Queen was in mattress she may find her way back if she got out and mattress didn't go too far.
If Queen is gone for good then the colony will die. The workers will die as well. This happens anyway at end of season, but usually the colony has produced Queens for next year which hibernate.

Whispered

I feel like crap. There are loads of little fellas with fat yellow legs hovering around the shed. Going in and out etc. I've never noticed them before. At this time of year, what stage would their hive have been at? If they were only starting could they start again? There would be no reason for the queen to be dead I don't think, unless the trip in the trailer harmed her. The dump is only about 3 km away. Hopefully they'll come back.

I never thought I'd shed a tear over bees.

Feargal as Luimneach

Whispered wrote: »

I feel like crap. There are loads of little fellas with fat yellow legs hovering around the shed. Going in and out etc. I've never noticed them before. At this time of year, what stage would their hive have been at? If they were only starting could they start again? There would be no reason for the queen to be dead I don't think, unless the trip in the trailer harmed her. The dump is only about 3 km away. Hopefully they'll come back.

I never thought I'd shed a tear over bees.

Can you get the matress back?

Whispered

No it's in the dump, thrown down into a huge skip.