halftwo
Wird Batcher
I have been letting some light back into part of my overgrown garden recently, and have cleared a small patch ready to lay some decking.
During the work - including the removal of a conifer - I had become aware that a bumble nest (sorry, I don't know the species - but small and buffy yellow, and fortunately, very placid) had a nest in the leaf litter.
Though the area is now very different and has had some extensive, if intermittant, work completed, the bees have managed to continue and thrive.
But I'm now ready to begin the landscaping and they would be under the deck should I continue. What to do?
Today I devised a plan.
Carefully cutting around the nest with a spade I gingerly lifted the soil and nest and put it into an earthenware plantpot in the same spot. For several minutes the confused bees flew around the area and dug into leaf litter at various spots nearby, looking for their nest.
They wouldn't enter the rim of the pot. I placed a garden cane across the pot - a visual signal that was over the original site, and some minutes later they are now in and out of the displaced nest.
So, over the next two or three days I will move their plant pot home gradually away from the immediate site.
And not a single bumble even attempted to attack me. What delightful animals they are. I hope they thrive.
During the work - including the removal of a conifer - I had become aware that a bumble nest (sorry, I don't know the species - but small and buffy yellow, and fortunately, very placid) had a nest in the leaf litter.
Though the area is now very different and has had some extensive, if intermittant, work completed, the bees have managed to continue and thrive.
But I'm now ready to begin the landscaping and they would be under the deck should I continue. What to do?
Today I devised a plan.
Carefully cutting around the nest with a spade I gingerly lifted the soil and nest and put it into an earthenware plantpot in the same spot. For several minutes the confused bees flew around the area and dug into leaf litter at various spots nearby, looking for their nest.
They wouldn't enter the rim of the pot. I placed a garden cane across the pot - a visual signal that was over the original site, and some minutes later they are now in and out of the displaced nest.
So, over the next two or three days I will move their plant pot home gradually away from the immediate site.
And not a single bumble even attempted to attack me. What delightful animals they are. I hope they thrive.
