We have a bee hive!

[wiggletastic]

Not sure what to do about this if anything. It is in the bottom of an old wheelie bin that the people we bought the house from left behind. The had put some holes round the bottom/sides of it and I think they were going to use it as a composter maybe. I wanted rid of it but DH put some grass cuttings into it by mistake earlier in the year and hasn't got round to transferring thme to the brown bin yet. When he was going to do this last night he heard a strange humming noise in the bin (freaked him out a bit!) and then saw some bees flying in and out. When he moved the bin more bees flew out so it looks like they have built a hive under the loose dried grass cuttings.

I am quite pleased in a way that we have bees as they seem to be becoming an endangered species but I am also concerned about me and DD and anyone else out in the garden getting stung. I'm pretty sure this is very unlikely and I am being PFBish but what do others think?

My mum has a bee hive in an air brick on the side of her house. She rung the council and they won't touch it, their advice was not to squash them between her fingers

We have a BumbleBee one too, it's inbetween the lead flashing on our bathroom roof.

It's comforting when you have a bath, as you can hear them 'collectively' hum, it's like one giant hum.

Just leave them be, they won't harm you, a slong as they're left alone.

The Queen will have laid eggs that hatch more Queens, as well as workers, the workers mate with the Queens , than at the end of the Summer the Queens all fly off to overwinter and make new hives. The remaining worker bees will not survive the winter.

They don't return to the same nest, so you should.nt have the problem again next summer.

We've been facsinated by ours, it seems only a certain amount of ours are in the nest ata a time, the others fly about outside waiting till one leaves then another one will enter the next. It's like a little Bee queue, lol

Thanks for the info.

Since we hadn't actually noticed them until we moved the bin I think I will just leave them alone and let them get on with it. They can be my new pets along with my two cats and my hundreds of worms (in the wormery).