The Birds and the Bees
This past summer, a friend spent several days carefully building a bird house. He mounted it on a pole and set it out back near a tree and some shrubbery.
He really hoped that some of the many wild birds which visit his backyard trees might find the bird house a fine place for nesting.
Well, the birds didn't move in, but look who did!
Any ideas of what might have caused the bees to move in?
Has anyone else had problems (if you want to call it a problem!) with bees in their bird houses?
Any suggestions for keeping the bees out - besides chemicals!?
Thanks, and I welcome your comments,
California Kathryn
Fallbrook, CA
Comments
I suppose he could post a sign on the bird house "Birds only need apply" or something like that.
kathryn
Posted by: kathryn | December 21, 2006 7:26 PM
I think that sometimes swarming bees will choose any port in a storm, so to speak, as they try to find shelter, a food source, and protection for the new queen. A nice new bird house may have looked like the Ritz to those bees.
One of the reasons that bees swarm is that the original hive gets overcrowded. New queens are hatched and groomed and sent out with part of the community to form a new hive. As they search for a new location, they may make several rest stops before they find an appropriate place to call home. See, for example, www.sembabees.org/gallery/mailbox_bees.html - FANTASTIC photo of bees clustering in a mailbox. How would you like to find that in YOUR mailbox?
Posted by: Susan | December 24, 2006 5:35 AM