Bees setting up home in my porch canopy

[PupInAPram]

There are loads of bees flying in and out of my (hollow) porch canopy. Other than closing my front door very gently, what should I do? I should add, I'm quite happy for them to stay all summer.

Oh I recognise the 3rd one, it's Fred.

Ive lived with bees in my house for rather too many years.

In my old house we would get 200 odd coming down the chimney every day. We would sweep them up and put them out. One year some of the comb must have broken as we had honey pouring through the ceiling and down the stairs and through door jambs.

We sold the house with the bees. The only way to get rid of them would have been to dismantle the chimney or kill them. Neither option was acceptable.

They never stung anyone and you could pick them up with your fingers.

Now 4 years later another hive has moved into a one stores roof space in our house. Not in the house this time so I'm fine with it. Again no one ever stung.

I think the queen of the colony could be called Bee-trice!!

Or Queen Elizabeeth

I can't get a close up photo, but they're fat and round, black and orangey-yellow, so I'm thinking bees not wasps. @Wallywobbles that's pretty cool! These guys seem pretty laid back so I guess I'll just leave them bee.

Sort of fluffy too? Sound like bumblebees.

Have a nest in the grass, you cam watch them take off from their runway like they're in Top Gun :)

My grass is going to be long enough to disappear into standing up soon, what with the 'no mow May' and now the bees who don't like noise!

I'm not keen to have bees or wasps in the house. We did have a nest in the loft and arranged, at the right time of the year, for it to be removed.

"Oh I recognise the 3rd one, it's Fred"
😄@Kat1953

@sleepymum50 lovely to "meet" another wasp fan! Sadly we seem to be in the minority, yet they need all the help they can get. In a previous property they made a next un the fascia right outside the back door, and I'd go past them numersous times each day and they were never aggressive. I could even stand close to where they were going in and out (so close I could hear them chewing the wood!) and never a problem 😊

Yes to letting the wild flowers grow. Anything the insects like is welcome in my garden, and I'll mow around the dandelions, cowslips, and cuckoo flowers etc 🙂

When my partner moved in last winter, she brought her bee hotels with her, with sleeping bees inside. It's been thrilling to watch them wake up and buzz around happily this spring!

You lot are too funny 🤣

Gingery are they happy or are they like 'what the fuck that was some strong shit I took last winter?'

I wonder if the bees will be confused when they wake up in a different place? They pop their heads out and think "WTF are we!?" 🤔😆

Definitely get a beekeeper in to have a look. We've just moved into a house and a beekeeper has had to cut out a huge colony of honey bees from under our flat roof and relocate them to hives elsewhere. It took several visits and he had to dismantle part of the wall to reach them.

Yes, we've already had conversations "for" them as they buzz around 😄

@Batinthehouse they are in a hollow porch canopy with no access to the house other than through the front door. I was kind of hoping to just live and let live until they all leave in the autumn. Did you have yours removed because they were inside the house?

@PupInAPram yes, they'd got in through a tiny hole and we'd no idea how many there were, there were thousands of them! Yours don't sound like honeybees though so you might be OK.

Look up tree bumblebees.
Could be them.

@Batinthehouse that picture is spectacular!

One of the bees is in trouble 😔 I think his wings are damaged.

Yep, he is definitely in trouble. Luckily there seems to about a billion more buzzing in and out!

They are tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum). The nest will probably last til sometime in July. Sad to see the injured one, but her numerous sisters will keep things going for the colony.

Thank you @GerundTheBehemoth I was looking at pictures of bees online and I couldn't find a match.

Here's some info about them: www.bumblebeeconservation.org/tree-bumblebee-bombus-hypnorum/#:~:text=How%20long%20do%20Tree%20bumblebee,in%20late%20February%2C%20or%20March.

That's useful @GerundTheBehemoth They are docile and do no damage to buildings, but they don't like vibration. They are very welcome to stay as my lodgers until July.

I can't see the picture clearly enough but it looks like the injured one might have mites on it. The lumps on its back. Poor thing if it has.

As you can use your back door, I would do that while they live in your porch. We had some solitary bees appearing in our living room, about 6 in two days. We had no idea where they came from, until I realised the wood that was in the wood burner had been in the garden as a perch for the sparrows under their feeder. The bees must have laid their larvae in them last year and they hatched this year. Thank god we didn't light the fire! The logs are back in the garden, as part of the wildlife area.