Bees in birdbox

After watching a great tit roosting over winter, finding a partner, building a nest (last Sunday) imagine my surprise when activity stopped suddenly. After leaving the area undisturbed for a couple of days I decided to have a closer look. As I began unscrewing the front I heard a buzzing from inside, needless to say I screwed the front back up and hotfooted it away. I did notice a bee going in the box the other evening.

If I am right and there is only the the queen inside should I take the front of the box off and remove the nest before it gets established. or should I leave well alone and let nature take its course?

 

im no expert but here's my view
since it's a bee ,and there beneficial (check up on the type of bee ,some bee's don't build colony's and other's build thousands strong and then there's ones in the middle)if it turns out to be a good/beneficial bee and if you can put up another nest box for the tits ,then i would let the bee live ,and see if the tits take to the new box (if you can put another up that is) ,or maybe you could even try to move the nest ,not sure ,


best of luck sorry i couldn't help more :o

r.c

 

We had the same thing happen last year, although we did get one family of tits raised, before the bees moved in. TBH, I forgot to clear out the nestbox after the bees, and the birds are nesting there again this spring...

 

I had bumble bees nest in our robin box last year. As the robins ignore it year after year , I decided the bees are welcome to it.

 

Hi all,

Thanks for feedback. Was going to leave the bee alone and let nature take over but I noticed 2 blue tits showing an interest in the box yesterday and decided to have a look inside to see what stage the bees nest building was at.

Upon opening the front panel I saw the bee and let it fly out before having a good look. The original Great Tit nest was stiil intact and the bee hadn't started building yet. I then set about emptying the box, safe in the knowledge that the bee would find another site. If the bees nest was already started I would have left it alone. With a bit of luck the Blue Tits will return and nest inside, still a bit of time.

 

great news pip let us know how the blue tits get on and if they nest

 

great news pip let us know how the blue tits get on and if they nest