Grow Your Own Magazine

hi all new to this,
have taken on a new allotment, apparently the worst but only one available, very over grown with brambles, have started clearing and am leaving an area with trees in for wildlife which i will plant flowers in, but as i was clearing have found i have a bumble bee nest right in the middle of my plot they seem to be nesting underground, i dont want to get rid of them as the are great wildlife, is there anything i can do for them ie build a house/nesting plants etc for them. as they are in the middle of the plot i need to be able to have someway of making their nest visable as i have kids that come to the allotmant with me and i dont want them to disturb the nest. any advice with the bees and the allotment will be appreciated. thanks klairabell

Hi Klairabell, how about planting some some lavender near to them?
It really depends how far away you want to keep the kids? If its just to mark the spot them sunflowers! Build a living fence with some annuals - snapdragons they will stand out.
you are so lucky to have them on your plot! do you know what type they are?

If they are ground nesting bees you are likely to find that they are extremely unlikely to sting Klairabell, so that's not really a problem; I'd just put some breeze blocks or better still a bit of mesh fencing round them to stop the kids from accidentally falling onto the spot. They may navigate to the nest entrance via local "landmarks" that they see nearby (ie within 2 metres), so large scale changes might need to be done gradually so they can adapt to new raised beds etc.
I think the main thing those bees need is just lots of tufts of long dead grass and a particular level of drainage for them to build their home in; so keep the soil around them the same as much as possible and you should be fine.
I am so envious. Ever since I had a friend who had a nest like that, I have wanted ground dwelling bees - but they are really very rare nowadays.

I agree with snohare ground bees and bumble bees do not sting so its a case of keeping them from being disturbed

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thanks for suggestions will try something over the week, have no idea what kind of bees they are, have seen about six flying in and out at the same time and are fairly large with white tails if anyone knows.
did get stung by a bee on site but not sure what type, so wanted to keep kids away just in case.
thanks

One beautiful scorching hot day I was building a lovely set of stone steps into a river bank for someone when I noticed a lot of bees attracted by my hosing down the soil on the edges. They were looking for mud for some reason. I paid little attention really, though surrounded by what seemed to be half a hive, until suddenly the tone of their buzz became ominous and I was stung.
I told my father this - he used to help his father beekeep the old fashioned way back in the 30s - and he laughed, and explained that taking my shirt off had been a bad idea, because bees get angry at the smell of human sweat.
I suppose I can see how that would evolve, given the traditional hunter-gatherers attitude towards beehives...you might not want to tell the kids this, but it's a good excuse to turn the hose on a hot worker !
On the plus side, I suppose I am that little bit less likely to get arthritis when I am older - although I'm afraid the first case of arthritis diagnosed in a bee will explode a long-cherished myth.

we have also taken on an allotment just 4 weeekas ago and have discovered a couple of bumble bee ground nests. We have tries to work around them and have decided to put a large compost heap made from pallets around them (triple box type). The plan is we fill the third one with the nest last, ensuring there is a fence around them keeping them safe from the kids. I do know of other allotment holders on our allotment that want to destroy the nests, but I would prefer them to live in harmony.

Yes, you'll get much more of a buzz out of your gardening that way LBB !