Beekeeping and Bees

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Q for the bee lovers about Augochlora pura (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world to c/beekeeping@lemmy.world

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I have an old bucket filled with soil which was used in years past as a stand-in planter for tomatoes on a balcony. Despite it not being particularly well sheltered from the elements, and now filled with whatever plants which have gone about seeding themselves since I stopped growing tomatoes, the pot has become a regular stop for little green sweat bees.

Long story short, I want to know about relocation of said planter (old plastic bucket for swimming pool chemicals filled with dirt, and now, miscellaneous plants), and how/when to do it. I like those little bees, and don't want to screw them over by dumping it out somewhere random, or especially during a time of year when said disruption would deprive them of shelter. Can someone offer advice on these points, please?

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[–] alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Looks like they nest in rotten wood, not soil. They overwinter in soil though, so dump the thing before the fall. Overwintering in freezable bucket would be a questionable idea anyway.

I don't have any experience with these bees though, just some reading.

[–] TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Solid advice, thanks. I'll have to figure out a way to extract the soil and plant it in the ground like a kind of plug, someplace with nothing but grass or dirt underneath shrubs would work well, I hope. It seems that the one I've been seeing for a couple of months has passed word around, there are now 2-3 most times, and I don't want to leave them hard up by simply removing it and tossing it out.