How to move a small bee hive

[ScotHill]

We found a very small bee hive under our shed after knocking it down - they seem pretty docile at night, can we just scoop it up with a spade and move it somewhere else in the garden? There's few enough bees around here as it is so don't really want to dispose of it.

[Silvanus]

Trying to relocate a bumble bee nest is nearly always unsuccessful. They actually have a pretty short lifespan, could you not cover with a an upturned plant pot until they've done their thing? I would be a shame to lose a colony of bees, even a small one

[ScotHill]

Yeah we don't need them evicted for a while yet, can cover them up. How long would a hive tend to last? It's literally about five inches across and no more than an inch deep so can't be many bees in there.

[ScotHill]

As a down side I now have the song Honey To The Bee by Billie fking Piper going round in my head for the last twenty four hours.

[shih tzu faced]

Put the little buzzy chaps up in a B&B while you move the hive

[ScotHill]

shih tzu faced said:

Put the little buzzy chaps up in a B&B while you move the hive

We're on a tight budget and the extra cost would sting.

[Silvanus]

ScotHill said:

Yeah we don't need them evicted for a while yet, can cover them up. How long would a hive tend to last? It's literally about five inches across and no more than an inch deep so can't be many bees in there.

Difficult to say exactly, a worker bumble lives about a month, the queen's much longer, I think you may have buff tailed bumblebees but my bee ID is a tad rusty. They have a very interesting lifestyle, definitely worth having a bit of a Google

[LordHaveMurci]

I guess you’ll get a buzz from saving them.

[ScotHill]

I was wondering how long it would take until someone mead a joke.

[LordHaveMurci]

ScotHill said:

I was wondering how long it would take until someone mead a joke.

U Ok hun?

[BoRED S2upid]

We had one under the eves a couple of years back they had gone within a couple of months if you can wait.

[ScotHill]

LordHaveMurci said:

U Ok hun?

Sorry, I'll be fine, just seeing a big queen get serviced by a large group of males took me back to my days in Brighton is all.

[Nimby]

They'll all be gone by mid-to-late summer and won't return. Any bees continuously flying around the nest and looking "defensive" are males waiting for virgin queens to emerge. Males can't sting and females only do when really threatened.

The rule with moving honey bee hives is "less than three feet or more than three miles" otherwise fliers try to return to the old site. I don't know if that applies to bumbles too.

[rfisher]

Do you live in Wales?

[ScotHill]

Scotland.

[ScotHill]

Nimby said:

The rule with moving honey bee hives is "less than three feet or more than three miles" otherwise fliers try to return to the old site. I don't know if that applies to bumbles too.

We could probably do three feet a day, it doesn't have far to go.

[Jaska]

Could you get in touch with a local bee keeper/honey company? In my experience they'd be more than happy to take them if they're the producing kind

[ScotHill]

Jaska said:

Could you get in touch with a local bee keeper/honey company? In my experience they'd be more than happy to take them if they're the producing kind

From photos on the local page they don't look like honey bees, someone above described them as bumblers so we'll probably just move them around. The local group's email address is [e-mail].

[Silvanus]

ScotHill said:

Nimby said:

The rule with moving honey bee hives is "less than three feet or more than three miles" otherwise fliers try to return to the old site. I don't know if that applies to bumbles too.

We could probably do three feet a day, it doesn't have far to go.

If you try an move bumblebees, in all liklihood, the nest will die

[ScotHill]

In digging around the site we've realised that the hive is in the middle of a concrete slab, so we can move the slab without disturbing the bee structure at all. Hopefully a couple of scooches and a shoogle and it'll be out of the way and they'll be none the wiser.

It being World Bee Day on Friday put my initial plan of pouring boiling water on it in perspective.