The Birds and the Bees
This, of course, is the continuing saga of the garage. I can't imagine what else you though it might be about.
The old garage is now almost empty and we've been redistributing its contents around other outbuildings. One of those outbuildings, we've discovered, is now the nesting place for Mr and Mrs Blackbird complete with a nest containing five scraggy looking chicks so we now have to be very careful when we want to go in there.
Not only that but we're going to have to upset the Queen. Whilst clearing out the old garage we've noticed bumble bees coming and going and there is obviously a nest under the floor as we see them popping down a small hole in the floor. That floor, eventually, is going to be ripped up which won't please them very much and we don't like it either but there's really no alternative. We can't afford to wait until the end of summer when the colony will be disbanded. A small consolation is that it appears to be a very common bee rather than a species that may be at risk.
Life is hard.
3 thoughts on “The Birds and the Bees”
Any chance you can get the colony moved professionally? Have someone put all their lil gear (furniture, winter coats, kitchen utensils) in a box and cart them to a new and, from the sounds of your garage, better neighborhood?
What other exciting animals have you found during this clean-out? Does England have snakes? I know Ireland doesn’t
Tudor Rose(Quote)
This spring I dug out, I hope, a colony of ground wasps that have peacefully existed next to my side door of garage for 2 years. My concern was mainly having grand kids that might stumble into it.
I also ended the efforts of 2 separate bald faced hornets building a nest on the door jambs above the overhead doors. While these critters are relatively docile, a nest developing into the size of a soccer ball didn’t appeal to me
P.S. I’m still waiting for the London post? We live vicariously over here
Old Guy USA(Quote)
Joking aside I've no idea whether bumble bee nests could be moved without confusing them totally. Honey bee colonies can be moved and when the bees are let out again they realise that they are in a new location and work out where it is so that when they go out collecting nectar they can find their way back. From what we've seen of these bumble bees moving or removing something relatively small inside the garage seems to confuse them when they return so goodness knows what effect a complete relocation would have.
Yes we have snakes. Adder (mildly venomous), Smooth Snake and Grass Snake – both non-venomous. We have seen, very occasionally, Grass snakes in the garden but they're very good at hiding and there are not any other types here. We do have Slow Worms which look like small snakes but are, in fact, legless lizards. None of these in the garage however. I did find one small toad that was easily removed to a safer place. It offered no objection.
The majority of the London post will appear as new pages on the web site in the near future under the 'Westminster' heading although I shall probably add some little snippets on the Blog. Some of the new pictures have been added to the Holborn pages recently.
Barry(Quote)