Let's Buy a Box of Bees!

An managed to find a company that sells boxes of bumble bees, the idea being that they can be placed in the garden and then cross pollinate the plants as they go about their business.  They only last between 8-9 weeks and then they die off, the queen survives and goes off to make her home elsewhere.  All of this for 70 euros, although you can get a smaller box.  The 70 euros gets you 7-800 bees.  If you are interested then the website is here www.biogroei-shop.be.

I was having lunch with my colleagues and I told them that the following day I was going to pick up these bees.  This caused some amusement and curiosity.  Surly it was going to be dangerous to transport 700 bees in the car?  What if they were homing bees and as soon as I open the box they all bugger off back to the shop?  I had to bee certain it was going to bee safe!  The lady in the shop told me that I had to bee careful not to rock the box too much as there is a water/sugar solution that is the food and if it comes into contact with the cotton wool (their nest) then it will be bad.  Of course I then set out over winding roads and undulating hills a bit like Postman Pat, great no chance of sloshing about there then.  To make matters worse despite my exceptionally careful driving I did end up with a couple of dodgem cars in front of me that insisted on doing an extreme trial on their brakes, they worked and were very effective, thankfully so where mine.  I think the bees were getting car sick by the time I got home.

I had images in my mind at one point of herding bees, but then I am not sure what the equivalent to a sheepdog would be for the bee world, a bird of some description maybe?  I did see a programme recently that said Bees are positively charged and flowers are negatively charged so when a flower has been visited it then remains neutral for a while.  Apparently bees are attracted to negatively charge things.  As an added precaution when transporting them I thought I should positively charge myself, but then that would be a bit extreme.

Once home I set the box of bees inside a rabbit hutch, you will be pleased to hear there were no rabbits in there too, we bought the hutch to keep the box out of the sun and rain.  The box can either be closed, have an entrance open that allows bees in but not out and then have one that allows both entry and exit.  The idea being if you want to work in the garden you only  have the one way hole open for two hours then they are all in.  We had to wait until they had settled for the night and let them out the next day.  There was no rush though, when we did open the door they just had a quick look outside and went back in, it was a bit damp.  They stuck a leg out gave a tut and then thought naaaaahh, maybe later.

I am looking forward to seeing a bit more of them!