Autumn Check of the Wild-living Bees

I’ve not been over to see the bees for a while, but they arrived in June as a swarm in to a baited National so really this summer was all about letting them build up and collect stores for their first winter.

They were flying well when I arrived. We are having a very mild October here in Sussex, with temperatures up in the high teens, and staying comfortably in double figures overnight. The ivy is in full bloom, and there are autumn-flowering species like Michaelmas daisies, the last of the sunflowers, colchicum and sedum to provide nectar and pollen.

Here is an ivy bee (left), with a honey bee for comparison:

The last colony at this property, in its dilapidated Langstroth, cohabited with another colonial organism: black meadow ants. They built up the earth from the back right leg of the stand and occupied a big chunk of that quarter within the hive. The ants seem to have chosen this new hive and its new inhabitants to live in a similarly mutualistic fashion, and the bees appear none the worse for their housemates. I know ants are often expelled and deterred from hives on the grounds that they probably eat the honey; if they do, I am not in a position to make any alterations here and in any case, I have often seen ants with bees and considering their ecology, I am sure the bees would have removed the ants if it was detrimental to their development.

I checked the inspection board which was crusted with ant tunnels and wax moth. I scraped it clean – much to the ants’ disapproval. This provoked the bees – perhaps they can pick up the alarm pheromone of the ants – so I replaced the board and stood back quietly and let them settle. I didn’t open up the hive as the bees have spent a long time securing it with propolis and I am all for trusting them to make their own arrangements for winter.