Please refer to links to the right hand side for more specific information. Below is general types of bee information.
Honey Bees
If you have a
swarm of honey bees arrive in your garden, you will see a large cloud of bees in the air and they will settle on a tree, hedge or wall and form a large cluster as large as a rugby ball. Keep children and pets indoors but once settled they are not likely to attack any one provided you do not disturb it.
These can be collected by a local beekeeper and safely re-hived. Contact your local Bee Keeping
Swarm Officer who will be able to arrange collection of the swarm. We do not collect Bumble-bees and Wasps, so please ensure you try to correctly identify them before making your call.
If you contact your local beekeeping association
secretary, they some times have a list of beekeepers who collect
swarms, but they are only available to collect a swarm of honey bees and not other insects such as bumble bees or wasps, so get them properly identified, more information by clicking on the link below.
The local police station and your local council might have a list of beekeepers who can collect swarms.
Bumble Bees
These are large, noisy and colourful. In the spring the large queen bee starts her nest alone just like the queen wasp. She will make a small cluster of cells and lay her eggs in them, when her daughters hatch out they will help her build the nest and collect pollen and nectar from the flowers in the area. The nest might be under a shed, in a compost heap, a pile of grass cuttings, or any where nice and dry, they sometimes take over an old mouse nest or even a bird box.
If you feel that it has to go just remember that they will all disappear at the end of summer and the nest can then be safely removed if you wish to, they do not cause any damage and are best left alone since they are difficult to re-establish once moved.
Bumble bees are very important pollinators as they will visit flowers that other bees might not.
The Bumble bees only have enough honey and pollen to help them build their colony and keep ticking over, unlike the honey bees, they do not over winter. So they do not have any surplus to give to us.
Bumble bees do have a sting but rarely use it, she will only use it to defend their nest or if she has been trapped causing her to over react.
Solitary Bees (eg: Masonry Bees, Mining Bees and Leaf Cutting Bees)
These might make holes in the lawn, walls, stones or in the ground to lay their eggs. They suddenly appear in the spring and cause a bit of concern but as fast as they arrive they, soon disappear. The worry about any structural damage being done is unnecessary, because they do not attack sound mortar. They will find soft material or natural holes or crevices to tunnel in to and lay their eggs