Life cycle of bees. Don't want them around.

bobbyss

I was wondering can anyone enlighten me on the subject of the life cycle of bees?

I have a nest at the back of my house under a low gutter as I go out the back door. I can see bees coming and going even today when it is pouring rain.

It is pushing towards the end of September now, so what's going to happen to them? Do they all die? I would like to leave them alone as long as they don't interfere with me. I can not recall when I first noticed them there but it would have been in the summer some time.

Also I have seen many years ago a swarm of bees gathering under a tree as they look for a new home or something? Are they going to do that? In September? Is there a specific time of the year that swarming happens? Or have the bees that I have already done that and ended up here?

Are the bees in my roof at the end of their cycle or are they going to hibernate/die or what?

I would really not like to have them around next year so is there anything I can do in that regard?

Many thanks.

Rows Grower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058315208/life-cycle-of-bees-dont-want-them-around

Enquire about your nearest beekeeping association and they will send someone around to remove the hive and bees for free.

bobbyss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121151118#Comment_121151118

Thanks.

They are accessing through a gap in the fascia. How would they remove the hive without damaging the property? Completely inaccessible.

magicbastarder

what sort of bees?

bobbyss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121153627#Comment_121153627

I really have no idea to be honest. But I am assuming they will all die or swarm away.

lordgoat

Sounds more like wasps. Never seen bee's in a facia.

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121151118#Comment_121151118

100% do this please

bobbyss

1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121155961#Comment_121155961

If I don't aren't they going to die off anyway?

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121164628#Comment_121164628

Not necessarily, depend on the nest and what winter looks like, if they are native Irish bees than they are a very special lot so please ask around for bee keepers, they may wait till spring, I dont know

bobbyss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121164866#Comment_121164866

In the depths of winter will they hibernate?

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121165082#Comment_121165082

That can't be answered without knowing what type of bees they are. What you described sounds more like wasps.

x567

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058315208/life-cycle-of-bees-dont-want-them-around

We have a very similar situation in our house. We have a honeybee hive that set up through a gap in a fascia many years ago (more than 30 years now), and now accesses mainly through a small gap between two slates just above that section of fascia (it's still watertight). I can honestly say that we have never had a problem with them and love having them there. In all that time we can only recall one sting (of someone decorating a nearby window).

We had a worrying couple of years where the hive had seemed to die out, we think because of varroa (lots of wing-degraded bees crawling around on the ground), but they came back.

They go very quiet in winter, but any warmth brings a few of them out to varying degrees; and there's a lovely humm from them in summer and our garden is well pollenated. The clover patches in the lawn are alive with bees on late spring/early summer evenings!

In your situation I would do nothing, but if you do want them gone, please please do it in a way where the bees live on...

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121151118#Comment_121151118

I did this when a swarm landed on a tree out my front garden a year or two ago. Guy was here quickly and it was great to watch him remove them.

Rubberchikken

We have wasps every year in the facia. Bees at one other place on house.

Neither have ever been any bother.

If you want them gone then get someone as in the above posts to take them away properly.

I'm one of those sad yokes that encourages any wildlife into the garden. Big hedges for birds etc. I heard a woman on radio lately who discribed hedges as 'corridors' for birds. Sounded wonderful.

rje66

Beekeeper here.

Wasps will naturally die off soon and will not reuse the nest, but seal up the gap over winter.

Honey bees will remain indefinitely. A swarm is just a colony splitting in half to increase numbers. Established queen leaves with bees. A new queen will emerge to continue the colony.

x567

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121166077#Comment_121166077

Breaks my heart that well-meaning farmers locally to me have been busy since 1st Sept (and a couple of weeks earlier in one case) flail-cutting back the hedges and ditches to the point where they look super ‘neat’, but all of nature’s store cupboard of fruit and seed food for birds and small mammals for the winter is destroyed. Really hope that the sources that mainstream farmers read or take notice of can take up the challenges of informing and educating our land custodians of the need to better protect and nurture biodiversity…

bobbyss

At this stage I am not sure if they are bees or wasps as they look the same to me. The issue I have is that they are outside a back door and while they do not bother me when I come and go they are very close above my head. I think I am allergic to stings. I have not been stung in many a year but I do recall the last sting I got when I was younger was horrendous.

Also how can they be removed so they live on if they behind a fascia and out of reach?

Many thanks for your responses thus far.

magicbastarder

At this point I think you need to share some photos, or otherwise find out whether they're bees or wasps!