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.

Another busy day today preparing for the arrival of our bumble beehive later in the week. I had to construct a shelter for it so that everything is ready when it arrives. I will detail how I've tackled that in a later blog.

On the bee-catching front, it was quite en eventful day - moreso than perhaps we expected. The temperature was about 20 degrees in the sun, though quite a chilly breeze. We didn't know if this would affect what bees we saw.

We went out between 16.30 and 18.30 (with several trips to return home) and in total saw about 8 identifiable bees, as follows:

1 Carder Bee - may have entered a nest under some brambles
1 Confirmed Bufftail/Vestal Cuckoo - observed in flight, video on youtube
4 bufftails(BB30, BB32, BB33) - caught 3, unable to catch 4th
1 Redtail (BB31) - caught but wouldn't enter box, possibly a cuckoo, let go
1 Confirmed Redtail Cuckoo - caught, identified and let go

I was amazed to see this many bees out today; it's not as if there was a big hive of activity - in fact it seemed as though there were very few bees about. But, perserverance paid off and one by one I saw all these bees working their way up the ditch at the edge of the field as the sun began to directly shine on its embankments.

I was on fire today with my ditch-diving, catching 4 bees in total! 1 Redtail and 3 Bufftails!

We tried the redtail (BB31) in rear nestbox, but it wouldn't enter. And, to be honest, we weren't 100% sure if it was a cuckoo or not, so after 20 minutes we let it go. I wasn't too bothered by that.

We also tried one of the bufftails (BB32) in the rear nestbox too. She took 20 minutes to enter - which is always a bad sign. We didn't see her on the camera, but we heard her in side; but then after 2 minutes she left. Again, pretty much to be expected.

BB32 - Bufftail

The first bufftail (BB30) we caught we tried in the front nestbox. She was amazing and went straight in without any fuss at all. Frustratingly she was able to find a spot out of view of both cameras in that box! We heard a bit of scratching but not too much activity. It could be that the moss we have now put in the box is damping and reducing the sound. She spent just over an hour in the box and when she left she performed one of the most exciting behaviours we have seen to date. She crawled out and circled at a low level - this is usually thought to be getting a good view of the box and its location. She rose in height and circled a little more, then started to head off to the right. Instead of just zooming off into the distance, she came down to the lavender then flew back along its edge, back over the nest box. She hovered a little over the lavender around the nest box, then cross the road to the green just opposite, then finally headed off into the distance.

This is the first time we've had a bee "come back" after leaving the nest - i.e. show interest in the surroundings. So, it seemed pretty exciting. As usual, the big question is will she be back tomorrow? (Whilst we wonder why she didn't stay today).

Since the front box was now vacated we were able to introduce our third bufftail (BB33) to this box. She took longer to go in (15 mins) and again managed to find a spot hiding away from both cameras. (This is something I probably need to address). Again, we heard very little activity from her except the occasional buzz (maybe 3 or 4 over the space of several hours). We chose to leave the capture pot docked until dark which guaranteed her staying overnight; however, we've now removed that and replaced it with moss while she sleeps tonight.

Nik Sargent

Nik Sargent

Bumblebee Project Home / Blog

Nik Sargent

Introduction

Insights

Blog:

A Day of Ditch Diving

Nik Sargent