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Question for the bee keepers

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  • 22-05-2007 3:10pm
    #1
    tbh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 15,914 ✭✭✭✭


    I just spent a couple of minutes in my back garden watching a pretty ginormous bee rooting around in the grass. It looked like it was digging, really.
    Any ideas what it could have been doing? Do bees forage?


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    #2
    fits
    Registered Users Posts: 13,522 ✭✭✭✭fits


    Was it a bumble bee? Or could it have been a hornet.


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    #3
    tbh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 15,914 ✭✭✭✭tbh


    well, it looked like a bee and nothing at all like a wasp - furry, big bum, that kind of thing :) I'll see if it's still there - yup - it's flying off, but coming back to the same spot.


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    #4
    Cadrach
    Closed Accounts Posts: 113 ✭✭Cadrach


    Where do you live? Some bees and wasps burrow in the soil. When I lived in America I used to occasionally come across huge Cicada Killer Wasps that did this.


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    #5
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,467 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    Could've been a bumble bee. They can have nests in underground burrows, and round this time of year they'll be building up the numbers of workers in preparation for the queen to lay the eggs that will become next years queens.


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    #6
    tbh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 15,914 ✭✭✭✭tbh


    I'm in Dublin.


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    #7
    fits
    Registered Users Posts: 13,522 ✭✭✭✭fits


    It was a bumble bee so.. Alun is right they can burrow underground.
    working bees look like wasps only they're brown rather than yellow.


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    #8
    tbh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 15,914 ✭✭✭✭tbh


    ah right! didn't know that. So is it just a place to rest, or something more permanent, do you think?


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    #9
    Our man in Havana
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,476 ✭✭✭✭Our man in Havana


    The have small colonies that will live in the ground.


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    #10
    Truther
    Closed Accounts Posts: 37 ✭Truther


    Does anyone know if its true that honey-bees are dying out?


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    #11
    golden
    Closed Accounts Posts: 376 ✭✭golden


    They are on the decline for a few reasons but at the moment they are suffering from a mite infestation.


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    #12
    Nothingcompares
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,923 ✭✭✭Nothingcompares


    Yes most likely a bombus terrestris or bombus lucorum bumble bee queen rooting around for somewhere to nest.


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