Peeblesshire Beekeepers Association

Daily Archive: May 17, 2017

Solitary Bees

PBKA was contacted about a “swarm” of bees in Rosetta Road Peebles last week.

Several members went to investigate and it was quickly obvious to experienced beekeepers that the bees were not honeybees – but what were they?

David Ferguson described the scene:-

There are probably about 50 to 100 of them hovering about over a section of garden wall 10 to 15 ft long, which is about 5 ft high to the pavement. I saw a couple going in and out of small holes but most were just generally buzzing about. Nearly all were carrying pollen. 

David also took some excellent photos which were forwarded to Buglife.
Jamie from Buglife gave this response:-

Masonry bees are very, very calm and safe to leave around so there is no risk to local residents or children if they’re let be. I’ve not known many people at all to ever be stung by them and those that have are entomologists who are handling them for identification purposes. They’re calm nature is why so many people put up solitary bee homes in gardens to attract them in. If you were unfortunate enough to be stung, it is meant to be far, far less painful or dangerous than that of honeybees.

I’d never say that they definitely won’t sting, but they’re very unlikely to do anything to any passers by at all and they don’t get defensive around their nest areas at all. I would always recommend them being left as they are. They’re window of activity is actually very narrow so it is quite likely that in another few weeks you won’t see them again until either a second brood later in the summer or until 2018, as all they’re doing is filling holes with individual eggs and furnishing them with pollen for food, then sealing them up and leaving them alone.

Buglife also identified the species

Andrena nigroaenea (Buffish mining bee)

Andrena nigroaenea (Buffish mining bee)

Andrena scotica (Chocolate mining bee)

Andrena scotica (Chocolate mining bee)

Apiary Visit Sunday 14th May 2017 Report

Barns on 14th May and next visit 21st May

Guest: Norman Jarvis, Border Beekeepers: has been keeping bees since 1996; was hoping to find a spare queen cell to take away but none found! He would be delighted to return in a fortnight!

The hives are now all numbered, apart from the nuc that was created on 7th: a small QC was spotted in that, will need to be checked by 28th or 4th June to see that the queen is mated and laying.

All hives except 6 and 7 were checked.

1: Super added; and super with brood now underneath the brood box. Once brood has hatched, put this under 3’s brood box (see below)

2: No queen cells, queen seen, (re)marked & clipped. Brood box added ABOVE so bees can start drawing out foundation – this to be removed once some frames have been drawn out so that they can be used for nucs/swarms.

3: shallow frames in brood box  with unstable comb beneath, suggest removing the super from underneath Hive 1 as soon as it’s empty of brood, and putting this super beneath the brood box, with the 2 shallow frames (removing unstable comb first) until the brood in the shallow frames has hatched. This colony is producing very irregular comb, clean up, add fresh frames and enough dummy boards (in store cupboard) to close all gaps.

4: had 2 queen cells and few bees – left, inspect on 21st or 4th June

5: empty

6: nuc created from this, it should be acting as normal.

7: nuc created by this by removing queen and frames – this needs to be checked  by 28th or 4th June to see that the queen is mated and laying.

 

The paths and hives area has been neatly strimmed – thank you!

Runners for frames have been left in the store cupboard

AC took away one nuc box – a molehill had come up underneath it, the 3 frames inside were damp and mouldy, the interior was damp and had some soil in it; the exterior has been slightly strimmed on one corner. I’ll get some exterior filler and paint; clean the nuc box and fill it with fresh frames and foundation.

Taken away: Em MacKie took away one nuc box and one empty hive with frames, in preparation for splitting colonies at Kailzie.