Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Yorks tbh]

Hi there.
Just a quick question.
My garden is full if bumblebees and other wild bees.

Is there any evidence to determine whether a hive of honeybees 'drives out' the wild bees from the local area?

[catchercradle]

I know some worry about this but I have seen no evidence of it being a problem. Loss of habitat on the other hand is a major problem for all sorts of bees. The long tongued bumblebees get a lot of their nectar from flowers the honey bees don't have long enough tongues to get into.

[Barbara]

I agree with Dave (catchercradle) I have 9 colonies of honey bees and I still see bumble bees and have recently relocated two bumble bees nests into my garden from other people's properties where they were a problem. Honey bees usually go for big masses of flowers where they will happily forage along side many other insects including bumblers. Bumble bees tend to forage more on individual flowers that honey bees don't bother with. There is over lap but there are plenty of flowers that only bumble bees with their long tongues can forage, so no real competition. I often see bumble bees bouncing around the front of my hives in spring and even sometimes getting into the hives, so the bumble bees clearly don't see the honey bees as a threat or vice versa..... or maybe I just have very sociable bees!

[Adam Rose]

I sometimes use loft insulation as insulation in the top of my top bars. It's really excellent insulation, but bumblebees seem to like nesting in it. I don't inspect very often anyway, but one honey bee hive now has a nest of bumblebees in the roof, making inspections completely impossible !

They all seem to be co-existing happily enough though.

[trekmate]

If you have concerns, plant plenty of bee friendly flowers and encourage others to do the same!

[Ollie]

Came home after a meal out last night and our cordaline ( think that's how you spell it) palm has 3 huge bunches of lowers on it. It was about 10.30 and the bumbles where working hard alongside the honey bees, was fascinating to watch, so in my garden bumbles and honey bees live alongside each other with no apparent problem.