Hedgehog boxes

[Maggsy]

I have several hedgehog boxes, today when checking one of them, I discovered it was occupied by bees, which I was quite surprised and pleased about, so I put the lid down quickly on the box, as I didn’t want to disturb them, sorry if this is a little bit off topic, but I was wondering if anyone else have had a hedgehog box occupied by bees

[Nic]

Hi Maggsy,

Like you, I would be pleased to have a bees nest! I haven’t actually had one in a hog box, but more than once in the enclosed bit above my front porch, and a couple of times in the ground and a couple of times wasps in bird boxes. Also I filled a box a couple of years ago with bits of wood, corrugated cardboard etc. and in no time at all some bumble bees had moved in. So I’m not at all surprised that they would find a hog box a good place.

Also in his book ‘Hedgehogs’ Pat Morris says of ‘wild’ winter nests “… This type of nest will last well over a year, but those built one winter are never used the next winter, even when they are still available. However, other things such as bees, wasps and wood mice eagerly take them over. …”

You didn’t mention what type of bees, i.e. bumble or other? Mine were all bumble bees. I’d be interested to hear how they get on.

[Maggsy]

Hi Nic thanks for your reply.
I will try to keep you informed about the bees nest, to be honest I didn’t know at the time what species of bee they was, but after looking on the Internet, I discovered they are tree bees, which are not native bees, I think they was discovered over here in 2001 roughly, which are believed not to be a threat to our native bees, and they are woodland bees, but over here, are now taking up residence in people’s gardens and nesting in bird boxes and are good pollinators, I couldn’t really find a great deal of information about them, maybe that’s because they are relatively new over here, they’re life cycle is quite different from most native bees, but I’m not going to blabber on about that, as I will more likely give false information accidentally, as I am going to after reread about them again 🙂

Anyway hope all the wildlife that visit your garden is thriving and doing well and hope things are going good for you too, I enjoy reading your post when I visit this site as I find them very informative

[Nic]

Hi Maggsy

That’s really interesting about the bees. Are they a type of bumble bee? Now you’ve said that, I think the ones in my porch may have been those. I have recently noticed that some are back over the porch again. I should have looked them up, but I just love having them buzzing around the garden. It’s good to hear they are good pollinators. Did you see the solitary bees on Springwatch last night? Fascinating seeing the little nest chambers.

Thanks for your kind words. You may have read about my missing female hogs this year. The most amazing thing happened last night – another female turned up! I couldn’t get a really good view of her, she kept having her back to me, but I think she is the one I haven’t seen since last August! I just hope she comes back tonight so I can get a better view.

[Jan-Marie]

I also enjoyed the bees on Springwatch last night – I’m tempted to source a suitable habitat and put it in the garden and see if we get any. We get lots of the usual buff tail ones on our various flowers and shrubs in the garden and tree ones appearing on and off, so the immediate environment should be able to support them.

[Author]

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