Introduction

Our Bumblebee nesting project started in 2011 as a bit of conservation to help the declining bumblebee population by encouraging one (or more) to nest in boxes in our garden. We discovered it's not easy, and our project quickly evolved into an ongoing and intimate study of these amazing creatures, which we are sharing here for the benefit of all.

Amongst our unexpected successes are:

A short clip in the film "Britain in a Day" by Ridley Scott (Broadcast by the BBC in 2012)

Featured in Wired Magazine for creating the World's first tweeting bumblebees

Winner of the Internet of Things award 2012 - Environmental Category

Oldest recorded age we can find of a worker Bufftailed Bumblebee - at 103 days

We've discovered, observed and collected a sizeable amount of real-world data, still being analysed and written up (Overview here). Additionally,

We've sourced several live colonies from commercial providers and have been looking after numerous disabled bees indoors.

We've learnt to recognise individual bees, spot specific/individual behaviour patterns

We measured efficiency and can predict some of their behaviour triggers.

We have some CCTV cameras pointing at the nestboxes and inside!

You can also follow BeeBoxALula on twitter where our bumblebees tweet live for themselves!

Insights

We're also using tech to monitor the lives of our bumblebees - visual, audio, temperature, sunlight, weather. We can see how the environment impacts their behaviour and understand, capture and share the marvels of their secret lives.

As a species under great threat, we've brought the critical study of Bumblebees into the Multimedia age and revealed intriguing and new insights based on direct observation.

Garden Bumblebee (Bombus Hortorum) resting in the sunI'm delighted to have been approached by the ARKive project to supply some of my pictures of Bumblebees to their Database. The ARKive project is an initiative by Wildscreen to document and preserve the World's wildlife through the use of powerful imagery. Wildscreen themselves are a not-for-profit, with Patrons including Prince Philip and Sir David Attenborough.

It is a privilege to be asked to contribute and have my photographs alongside greats such as National Geographic and BBC Natural History and other world-class image and film-makers. A large number of big conservation names are backing the project including BirdLife International, Conservation International, English Nature, The World Conservation Union (IUCN), Natural History Museum London, RSPB, Smithsonian Institution, WWF.

It's great to know that all that crawling through 10 foot ditches with the hope of not getting stung was not in vain, and has resulted in images that are worthy of documenting some of our precious Bumblebees for research purposes and for the benefit of future generations.

It's a great outcome to what has been an amazing year of discovery.

Nik Sargent

Nik Sargent

Bumblebee Project Home / Blog

Nik Sargent

Introduction

Insights

Blog:

Lying in a ditch was worth it

Nik Sargent