UKC

Hi all,

I have an old open compost heap at the back of the garden which I want to get rid of to make way for a new shed (the current one is full of bikes!). However I've been informed that there's a nest of bumblebees in the compost heap.
I don't want to disturb the bees, and have been told that they will die out over winter. Does anyone know if this would be after the first couple of hard frosts or will it take a while (insulated inside the compost)?
Also a bit of googling suggests that the queen bee hibernates rather than dies. Is this true and can she be rehome?

In reply to MikeR:

I don't know, but well done for asking

In reply to MikeR:

Yes, the queen bee hibernates and lives for a year approx. She will die towards the end of the following summer and new queens hatched during the summer will then hibernate the following winter. Workers and males don't survive the winter. That's why the first bees you see in the spring are quite large (the queens who've hibernated) and later on you see workers and males which are much smaller.

Can she be rehomed? I doubt it. But if there was a nest in early summer, then the new queens which have hatched during the summer may not have used the same nest.

In reply to MikeR:

>> "Any be experts out there?"

Talk like a pirate day has been and gone for this year.

In reply to Andy Nisbet:

Thanks Andy,

No idea if there was a nest early summer. The first I knew about it was in July when I stuck a garden fork into the compost and a swarm of wasps flew out! After legging it, I called a pest control guy who came and killed the wasps, but said there was also a nest of bumblebees (they were far enough apart that he could get rid of the wasps without affecting the bees).

In reply to MikeR:

How bigs your compost heap??

In reply to tspoon1981:

About a meter and a half cubed at a guess. The wasps were somewhere top back while the bees came in and out of a hole low down at the front. The pest control guy put some powder down around the entrance to the wasp nest which they take into the nest.

In reply to MikeR:
If the pesticide didn't kill them, any new queens from that colony will probably have moved elsewhere to start their own new nest.

I would take a longer view - set up a bug hotel, leave a pile of wood/leaves in a corner somewhere, plant 3 season nectar producing plants, put a wildlife pond in if you can but I wouldn't worry about the possibility of upsetting a single bee hole when moving a compost heap.

In reply to MikeR:

I'd bee surprised if the queen would hibernate in a hole where she'd be vulnerable to predation from mice through the winter etc.. I think they'd also avoid it as the freeze thaw cycle could collapse the little tunnel and trap them.

In reply to Ron Rees Davies:

Don't think the pesticide killed them as there were still loads buzzing around the garden through August and September.

We're trying to make the garden as wildlife friendly as possible with various veg/herb/flower beds and I'm planning on building a lean this winter to for seasoning firewood. Downstairs neighbours who we share it with have a 1 and a half year old though so not keen on a pond.

In reply to MikeR:
If so, why are you trying to kill the wasps then?

In reply to Stig:

Because I don't want to get stung, and especially don't want my neighbours little kid to get stung playing in the garden. Bumblebees are pretty docile and wont sting you unless you really provoke them, while these wasps were pretty aggressive.

If they had been more out of the way I'd have been happy to leave them in peace.

In reply to Andy Nisbet:


If you find the hibernating queen in the first place, transferring should not be much of a problem. Just make sure to keep her cool and find a similar space under the new pile. Finding her is the much bigger task.

We have similar problems with our compost heaps. Every second year or so we have to abandon our attempt at flipping the mature pile to the next bin because there are too many rhinoceros beetle pupae. As a consequence, we now have four piles at the back of the garden when two would do....

CB