I have to laugh at this one.

I overwinter all of my colonies on my property at a place called Portland, Bonavista Bay, in rural Newfoundland.  I got an alarmed call from one of my neighbours a couple of springs ago saying that my bees were all over the sawdust in their yard where they were cutting up firewood with a chainsaw.  It’s not that they were afraid of being stung; all my neighbours are now well-educated about honey bees and are supportive of my apiculture. And, I try to keep them happy with gifts of honey.

My alarmed neighbour said they couldn’t move around their wood pile without stepping on bees; they didn’t want to kill bees.

I apologized profusely and said that if they could wait until the following day to cut their wood, the problem would resolve itself, because colder forecast temperatures would mean no flight time for the “ladies.”

So, yes, our bees can be an outright nuisance when it comes to their forage choices.  They also get into neighbourhood compost when conditions are right (they like coffee grinds, etc.).  We’ve discussed this matter previously on BEE-L (as well as sawdust foraging).

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