buzzee weekend

Lovely weather for once this weekend, so we ended up getting quite a lot done. This post is really just a video and photo update.

I took the opportunity to check the nearby field to see what queens were out and about (if any) and see if i could find any wild nests. I didn't find any nests, but I saw plenty of queens and shot some great video of a vestal cuckoo (bombus vestalis) searching for nests to invade. (see later). 

First up though, quick survey of queens seen in a 1 hour traverse along my favourite transect:

• Redtail Queens - 8 - mainly resting
• Bufftail Queens 2 - resting
• Vestal Cuckoo - 4 - nest searching
• Carder - 2
• Various others (half a dozen) in flight - unidentified

nearly all these were resting, a few flying past, and only the Cuckoos nest searching, looking for an unsuspecting established nest to take over:

One of the bufftails was more restless than most and she had no pollen - this would typically mean she hadn't set up nest (once she has, she will collect pollen to feed herself and her brood, and then ultimately not leave the nest at all). I decided to capture her and introduce her to our garden and pilkington box. Since we would not trap her in for more than a few minutes, it wouldn't matter if she had her own nest to go back to; and it could mean she would choose our box to nest in. As it happened, she took a while to enter the box and left not long later. Which is cool - if she liked the location she'll be back and if not, she's only 200 yards from where she was found and can easily get back. 

All Black

We also checked out the gardens in town and saw a few bumblebees there - another vestal cuckoo was foraging. But most interesting was spotting 3 seperate all black bumblebees forgaing and collecing pollen. I've not got a proper ID on these yet, but there are forms of all black Garden bumblebees, especially in the south/east of England (where we are). Here's a video:

New outlook

Since getting the beepol colony I've been wanting to get a camera set up in front of the lodge again. It hadn't happened yet because the camera I used last year was wall-mounted, but we've moved the lodge and now it needs to be sited in the garden on the grass. I built a stand using rolling pin and an old speaker-stand base. I used my standard maplin CCTV mini-camera mounted on top of this, and then to waterproof it, built a camera hood made from sugru. 

new CCTV camera looking at front of lodge..

Sugru is my new magic ingredient which can be moulded and stuck to almost anything and solidifies over the course of 24hrs into tough, waterproof silcone. So, here's hoping it does the job. 
And just for fun, a few other pictures:

rushing to get home... And a new box layout for our indoor bumblebees:

new box layout (with an attempt at some containment) for our indoor bees(We made some fake "wax" pots for our bumbles, to see what they do with them).

Shandy open, babies born

Events took an usual and exciting turn yesterday after I had posted my entry wondering about the mysteries of what was going  on inside our nest and whether we were seeing evidence for a second brood. 

Well, the shandy was duly cracked open as we were astonished to get confirmation that a second colony of bees was hatching. 

We caught a short glimpse of this little beauty on the CCTV (not been seen since). The picture shows her compared to the largest bee we have in the nest. 

a newly hatched bee compared with the largest in the nestAs you can see, she is tiny. We hope she is well formed and hasn't hatched too soon or been too cold. It's not quite possible to tell from the CCTV if her wings are properly intact. That's one of the things that define her potential for success.

We think there are four in total now, though they keep confusing me from time to time by staying out overnight! The bees we can identify are:

• The big fuzzy one seen above. Can't be 100% sure if she is a queen or not, but she is collecting pollen regularly.
• Two "thin & stripy" bees, with very unusual (but similar) markings. One of these has been around a few weeks and had "nest fixer" role, rarely collected pollen. But a second one now exists, and does seem to spend more time collecting pollen, but also has a nest-checking role. Because they are collecting pollen they cannot be Cuckoos; so what is the explanation for their strange markings? I like the idea that they are offspring from the Buftailed Queen and Redtailed male we saw mating. Need to check out if that is viable, but the timing would fit.
• Little "Baby bee" as seen above. We've only seen the one glimpse of her inside the nest, so have no idea at this stage what she's up to or even whether she's still alive. 

Having seen the pattern of the original colony fade, about 5 Queens emerge, see one of them mating, see pollen still being collected and seeing these new bees emerge, it's conclusive evidence that we'd had a second - albeit small - brood. 

What a wonderful journey our bees have been on! I feel like another shandy... 

Yes, gravity still works...

It's tricky when things turn out not quite as expected and there's a whole variety of things to report, so to be brief here's a round up of today's events and findings:

• We have some quick responses from the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust on the ID of some bee pics we submitted. The most exciting of these was a possible Red Shanked Carder - which is like a Redtail but apparently has red hairs around the pollen baskets. Ours did, although it was a male, so strictly did not have pollen baskets. The verdict is indeed it was a Redtail - we are told by the BBCT they often have red hairs. This seems to contradict their own ID information which says they are black. So, glad to have clarification but yet another source of frustration in trying to ID the bees.
• Our ID of some Tree bees was confirmed as well as Early Bees, so it's great to have a positive on that and some photos to match. Also my ID on the Garden Bee (where I got the really close up face photos) was confirmed too. I thought maybe some kind of cuckoo bee, but the expert says not. 
• Finally, nothing conclusive on the "camouflaged" bee I found in the ditch alongside the Garden bee mentioned above other than some kind of cuckoo. It is probably either a Gypsy Cuckoo, Field Cuckoo, or Barbut's Cuckoo. I actually favour the latter due to the extra light brown band on the lower thorax and given it was 2 feet away from the garden bumble bee (which it typically attacks) there's a certain serendipty to it. 
• We confirmed we have a hedgehog visiting the garden with a 5 second CCTV clip from 4am in the morning of him crossing the garden. We suspect he is going for the tray of bird seed which goes down rapidly! And it explains the opening under the fence that has been mysteriously created. We don't mind him coming as long as he stays away from the bins!
• We also discovered a cat on the CCTV getting on top our bee hive, between it and the shelter roof! It shook the box a bit and knocked the thermometer off, but all the cameras and bees seemed to remain intact, which is a minor miracle. Can't say I'm too happy about this particular event; cats are generally a nuisance to the rest of the wildlife and the lawnmower!
• More to report on the behaviour of bees in their last moments. We tracked down the 3rd bee that has appeared on "hive corner" where two dead bees rest and discovered it went their of its own accord and over the course of 2 hours was finally laid to rest. Extremely intriguing behaviour to see it choose its final moments in the corner where the other (that we know of) departed bees also lie.

There is also good news to report on how our new disabled bees are doing with their indoor care. The smallest and weakest which appeared to die made a slow recovery and appears to continue that recovery with each passing day. She is too small and frail to join our other special care bees, but it's amazing to see her near miraculous discovery. Today for the first time she explored some cut lavender placed in her box and appeared to try taking nectar from it. This is the first time since being in our care that she has made such a large effort to get food of her own accord; and of course it will be the best type for her. We watch with interest. 

And finally, littleBigBee was added to Holly's nest earlier in the week and from the word go they got on charmingly. There appear to be no adverse affects or domestic incidents so far! LBB is very funny - he warms up in the nestbox, feeds a little, then scoots out and zooms around the the outside area; he particularly loves to climb over the roof of the nestbox and check that gravity still works. Which it invariably does.

LittleBigBee and Holly meeting for the first time

Once he is satisfied that the outside world is more-or-less still outside and still as he left it, he heads straight back into the nestbox with great purpose and shoots round the outside edge back to the "warm end" (lit with infra red). He repeated this route as a matter of course, but lately has started shortcutting his exit from the box and has now entirely created his own one way system in and out of the nest box ; all highly enteraining, if strictly unnecessary. It is unlikely to be down to health and safety given the way he behaves on the roof, which would put any of Matt Allwright's Rogue Traders to shame. 

Our delight is that he is habiting both worlds - going to rest and sleep and groom inside the nestbox and coming out of it at other times to - well, whatever it is he does, which is run round the whole area, climb everything there is to be climb, drink everything there is to be drunk. He is very much a boy. This is unlike BLB who after a few days came out of the nestbox and never really bothered to go back in it. It seems, however, that LBB has figured out the relationship between the environments we have created and his natural instincts in the wild. Obviously we are thrilled with this. 

Down but not out...

It's been a busy few days with more bees coming into care. There on the grass was a stranded bumble - still - silent. 

It looked liked it was a bufftail or vestal cuckoo and on closer inspection it had both wings - but the right one was damaged - sort of "folded". 

found on the lawn - damaged wing.Of course, it couldn't fly. Actually, I say of course, but this is not necessarily a given. There are reports that bumbles can fly with as much as 50% of the wings missing. But that's "edge damage" as opposed to "structural damage" which what we have here. Little bee can't, for example, join the front and rear wings together with her special "hooks", owing the bend. And that's another thing, we're not 100% sure she's a girl or a boy.

The ice cream tub was summoned and duly mossed and honey-watered. And for a while it was looking good, even though when she tried to take off she managed only a slightly sustained hop. Not being entirely sure of her constitution and origin we decided on an overnight quaratine before contemplating addition to the main indoor nest, occupied by Holly. 

We were glad about this decision. The next day came and little bee was less well. Slow, lethargic and by mid morning unmoving, keeled over, with all the memories of the untimely death of BLB. We took her indoors to wait the long 24 hours that we felt we needed to be sure. 

Thank goodness we did - the next day some signs of life. A little twitching; antennae probing; sufficient energy to drag herself away from the heat of the laptop, though not to consume any drink. In the end BCW accidentally spilled some honey water on the kitchen towel and finally little bee quenched her thirst. With new energy, she heaved herself onto the moss and bedded down for the night, while we moved the tub over Holly's infrared lamp. This maintained a temperature somewhere safe around 24 degrees. 

After another night, she still had life signs, though barely impercetible. Perhaps if she was humanoid she'd be four score and twenty; creaking at the joints; wheezing and failing. Still, she dragged herself around the tub a little. She's a brave fighter. And we, the helpless spectators. 

The morning was further punctuated by the finding of another invalid by BCW. Racing across the grass, with only one wing to show for it. BCW came to the rescue and before you could buzz, this biggerLittleBumble was in a care ward of its own too. Same protocol: isolation and quarantine to begin with, for the safey of all concerned. Now, biggerLittleBumble is more energetic, but again is doomed never to fly. All that energy has to be worked off somehow - racing round the box is one way; perhaps he's a boy. Boys do that kind of thing. Well, BLB did for sure, and he was a boy.

So, in total we have taken 4 bees into care. BLB passed away soon after and it seems that littleBee might do so soon. But we still have Holly (who is doing amazingly well, almost miraculously so) and biggerLittleBumble. The big question is, can they live together harmoniously? 

Fight for survival

We thought it was about time to pay a visit to the field over the road where we had spent so long trying to catch queens and where our own brood of bees is now feasting on broad-bean pollen. We thought there might have been a couple of nests there too which we wanted to check out for activity. We couldn't see anything at the supposed nest locations - we might have been unlucky with our timing - or maybe the colonies didn't survive.

Nor could we see much activity in the broad bean field - we were hoping to see some of our own bees. So, it was all seeming a bit fruitless... 

That was until we starting walking along the ditch where I had been catching queen bees earlier in the season. I coudn't believe how many queen bees we were seeing, working their way along the moss and poking their noses into it. The only explanation for this was that they were Cuckoo bees looking for nests to infiltrate, as all regular queens will have nested by now.

Sure enough, we checked a few of them out and they were cuckoo bees (Bufftail and Redtail). We saw a few workers too (bufftail & carder) mooching about near the moss and hoped to be led to a nest somewhere, but it was not to be; most of them shot off without us being able to follow them.

The other striking thing was how massive the queens looked! The cuckoo bees seems to be a bit longer than average anyway, but of course we are now used to looking at our small workers and tiny wee Holly, so that has distorted our perception. Can't believe only a few weeks ago we were trying to catch these huge beasts!

As we wandered along the embankment we suddenly spotted this:

We did a bit of research afterwards and concluded it was two bees fighting each other (not mating). At least of them (the one resting at the end of the video) is a cuckoo bee (vestal cuckoo) - an imitation of a Bufftail bumble bee. We are not 100% sure about the smaller one - whether it is a queen or a worker; but they are definitely fighting. We can't know whether the cuckoo was prevented from entering a nest or forcibly ejected. 

From what we can tell it's fairly uncommon for them to fight outside of the nest (or at least be seen doing so ). Fights are reported to happen over the nest site itself between regular queens, who will in fact fight to the death; presumably this happens in the nest site itself when one tries to take over.

It's not unreasonable to think something similar would happen with cuckoo bees. Although they themselves are reported to cohabit with a host queen (as well as in some cases attempt to kill the host), they are also potentially subject to attack and fight to the death.

That's what we're seeing here...

A Day of Ditch Diving

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.  

Counting not Catching

We were grateful for the day off work today, thanks to the Royal Wedding of Wills and Kate and although we took time out to watch it and share in their happiness that didn't stop us on our bee quest. Some of this was planning for the Koppert Beehive we'll be getting next week (which I'll cover in another blog) and some of this was heading out to hedge our bets at catching another queen. 

The temperature was about 20 degrees but there was a breeze causing quite a windchill factor; and it seemed like a storm might  be threatening, so we weren't sure if we would see any. We are especially looking for a Carder bee; partly because they have a slightly later nesting season, but mainly because they are less fussy about the environment they nest in, so we think the box might stand a better chance with a Carder. 

However, we did see some bees while we were out - here is the full run down

• One bufftail foraging
• 2 carders - I tried to catch one but couldn't!
• One redtail - may have been a cuckoo - again, I tried to catch it, but couldn't due to uneven dry ground
• A vestal cuckoo bee (buftail) showing nest searching behaviour - we didn't even try to catch it
• 2 unidentified bees that circled us in the field

As you can see, there are still some bees about but much smaller in number; also more cuckoo bees now trying to find nests to take over; and, of course, queens with nests out foraging as they start to lay their colony. 

We're pleased that we're starting to be able to identify cuckoo bees without having to catch them; here's the vestal cuckoo we saw in flight. You can identify here by the lack of yellow band across the top of her abdomen as well as a shinier abdomen and thinner hair coverage. 

Vestal Cuckoo in flight

3 is the magic number

Much of today (once BB25 had set sail) was spent on other bank holiday chores as well as some garden and beebox improvements. Yes, I know it's hard to believe there are any we can make as we are on about revision 10! But with two boxes there is scope to test different tweaks independently. 

We are very happy with the new entrance design and the ability to camouflage the whole box; the back nestbox is really starting to look just like a grassy mound in the garden. However, each time we introduce a bee and it chooses to leave, we feel there is perhaps something we can try that might work differently. Today we decided to remove some of the brown bedding fibre and replace some of it with cut meadow straw. This is more akin to what a rodent would use/have access to for building a nest, and we know that bees are attracted to unoccupied rodent nests. It also has a much better smell of "nature" if such a thing is quantifiable. We also used some of this straw to further disguise the exterior of the boxes, to great effect.

Later in the afternoon we both went out independently to do a bit of bee hunting. I'm now tending to stick to the inside line of the nearby field edge where there is a deep ditch. Although activity levels overall have reduced, this is where I am seeing the most. Meanwhile, BCW sticks to the road side of the same field (which is incidentally where we have found a 'real' redtail nest) and back of the housing estate.

Between us we caught three vestal cuckoo bees first of all. These are the bees that mimic bufftails. The timing is textbook - about 6 weeks after the bufftails emerge, we begin to see the cuckoo equivalents looking to invade their nests. Given that we hadn't even seen one a week ago, we are doing well to identify them quickly and easily; and thankfully this particular type is sufficiently disimilar for an alert novice such as myself to be able to identify. We let all these cuckoos go as we do not want them anywhere near a potential nest.

I saw a few bufftails in tall grass near brambles (may, of course, have been cuckoos) and risked life and limb to traverse the ditch to go after them with no avail. In the end I was rewarded with a redtail.

 BB26 - redtail

We agreed to try it in the front nestbox as we had hoped to catch a Common Carder and try it in the back nestbox. The new "docking" system works a treat, but this redtail (BB26) was not for going in. After about 50 minutes she eventually entered the box, quickly traversed the inside and then left after 2 minutes. This was only to be expected - no doubt she was stressed after her capture, as she was not placid at all. Perhaps we should have let her go sooner - this is one long learning journey. 

BB26 - redtail - docked for entry!

We went back out and within a short time also both caught Bufftails. We were very careful to confirm they were queens, showing nesting-searching behaviour and not cuckoos;  this is becoming increasingly important now as there are queens with nests (who must not be taken away from them), their offspring workers, and cuckoos all attracting our attention. We go through a process of both identifying the bee before even taking it home. 

We put the first bufftail (BB27) in the rear box. She went in very quickly (it's a little baffling how some do and how some resist - we have not figured out the 'psychology' yet). Unfortunately she did not appear on camera (only one camera in the rear box) so we had to rely on audio scratching to tell she was in there. However, after 20 minutes there was no sight nor sound of her, so we assume she had gone.

We brought the second bufftail (BB28) to the front box intially.

BB28 - Bufftail

She was a funny one! She was totally still as I brought her home and then when we docked my pot, she also sat still just staring at me! Not a peep from her! I had to go out to get some food and while I was gone BCW reported that she then started buzzing becoming active, but still refusing to enter the box.

Eventually BCW decided to move her to the back nestbox to try there. I then turned up and it was the same story, she sat there, still as can be! Still refusing to go in the box.

After 30 minutes or so of this, she was apparently still not stressed, we decided we would remove the pot and leave her to her own devices. Rather like BB2, she didn't fly off (it was 8.30pm by now and we dearly hoped she wouldn't as she had a safe place to sleep here), but simply crawled up the front of the entrance to shelter in the overhanging grass. At 9pm she was still there so we let her be and assumed she felt safe for the night!

B28 bufftail - refused to enter nestbox, sleeping on entrance under grass

So, all in all, an odd day: 3 cuckoo bees caught and released; 3 "proper" queens caught, but none really interested in entering or exploring our boxes. Which is in complete contrast to the Carder (BB25) we had the night before. It's very hard to decide whether this something we are doing, such as tinkering with the boxes; or whether it's down to individual personalities and species of bee and their preferences.

There is still so much to learn. 

Bees like Buses

We were rudely awoken by the bin-men today and it seems our overnight Bufftail was too. BCW went downstairs to make some coffee and check on our guest and she was starting to stir. Within about half an hour (8.30am) she was up and away. It was threatening (and turned out) to be a beautiful hot day, so who can blame her. 

My plan was to make some box modifications, which I did and will cover in another post, including the rationale. 

I decided to go out at about 2pm to see if I could locate another Queen - having a resident bee, if only for a night, is rather addictive. And, if we are to house a colony, time is of the essence as most Queens will have managed to find a nest by now. The exception is likely to be the Carder Bees, which emerge a bit later from hibernation; we are now starting to see more Carders and fewer of the others (showing nesting behaviour).

I'd been out for about 45 minutes and was returning home along a ditch embankment when I was rewarded with a Carder Bee searching for a nest site. I threw myself into the ditch with wild abandon as we have never yet managed to catch a carder and I was determined to have a good crack at this one. I was successful. (BB24)

BB24 - Common Carder - if only the iPhone did macro photography properly!

I brought her home and we decided to try her in the front nestbox, mainly because it is the best equipped with video. Carders are supposedly less fussy about the exact nature of the nest-site too, so we felt we might be able to get away with it at the front (non-garden) site. 

She went into the box pretty happpily and did not show any frantic signs of searching to get out. In the end she stayed about 20 minutes, fairly near the entrance, then crawled up the tube and took off. Nothing special with her take off at all, no navigational circling or anything. This was pretty much as we expected, especially trying to introduce her to the box at that time of day - we didn't realistically imagine she would stay.

We then left it till 6pm-ish to go out to find another bee that we might get to stay the night. This time BCW found another Common Carder (BB25) and was able to catch her - two in one day! It goes to show how they are increasing in activity at the moment. BB25 is very vibrant in her gingery colour. 

BB25 - common carder - again, iPhone #fail on the focussing!By this time I had made some significant external modifications to both boxes - basically to add internal and external tubing (to simulate crawling underground) and a new "docking" arrangement for our collection pot. This would allow the bee to more easily be directed into the box and for it to experience a 15-20cm crawl into the box through a dark tube - more like crawling underground.

BB25 was very obliging too, going quickly into the box. The newly installed inner tube leads the bee slightly to the right and she tottered off in that direction, right into good view of the infra-red camera. She poked around a little from side to side, as if to establish the basic width of the space, but not as if she was looking for the entrance/exit again. Then she burrowed a little under the bedding, before picking a spot where she stuck her head down into the bedding and basically went to sleep.

We watched fairly closely for about 90 minutes, as it was still light and warm outside (about 18 degrees) and we felt she still might leave. Every so often she moved up and down a little, adjusted a little, but then rested still again. Part of this activity, including some up-and-down repetitions with her abdomen, could be related to her "breathing" which is thought to occur in bursts every 20-30 minutes.  

BB25 bedded down for the night, face first!The redtails got a look-in too

It wasn't all a "Carder" day. While out looking in the evening the first bee I spotted was a redtail queen. I followed it under some trees and it darted into a hole in the mud. I thought I could easily catch her there and that she was definitely in the right place to be hunting for a nest site. After 30 seconds when she hadn't come out of the hole I began to think maybe this was a nest site. Then when I saw a baby worker bee emerging from the hole, I knew we had found a nest. (And by the way, that baby worker was so cute!)

Redtail nest site - hole under some treesThe hole is in some dried out mud under some trees and about 3 inches in diameter. I'm actually quite intrigued to understand how the hole got there and what it's like underground; wishing I had an endoscopic camera!  This is exciting because it means even if we don't get any nesting in our own nestboxes, within 60 seconds of the house we'll be able to observe the comings and goings of this nest. 

At the time BCW was catching her Carder Bee, I was heading to meet her having found nothing, and then quite unexpectedly saw a redtail bumbling around in the long grass; I couldn't believe my luck, thinking we might have two bees staying the night, and I was able to catch her quite easily. As soon as I had done so I was quite suspicious. She was a bit longer than the redtail bumbles we have caught and her tail had less hair. She basically looked longer and more scrawny. And, although her legs were hard to examine properly through my glass pot, they didn't seem to have the long hairs on them. I came to the conclusion she was a cuckoo bee. 

 BB26 - redtail cuckoo beeBCW agreed with me; you can see from the picture the general lack of hairiness that is associated with 'regular' bumblebees; and look at those crazy long legs! - she basically seems like a poor copy. It's good that we are both developing our identification skills, as we do not want to introduce a cuckoo bee to our nest to find she comes back later and destroys a developing colony. So, with a certain sense of achievement, we let her go.

A NewTube Phenomenon (Part 2)

After "losing" the two previous redtails during the night we decided we would persevere with our "new tube" strategy today, but avoid sealing the bees in from now on (even for a short time). It was a hot day again today so we left our hunting until later in the evening. BCW had been unsuccessful, but as I was on the way out to meet her I decided to wander along the ditch at the side of the field, just to try a slightly new tactic. 

As per usual I was giving up hope having only seen one bee zooming across the field on the way home. At that moment I saw a bufftail nest hunting in the embankment and I was able to catch her!

We have learnt that we now have to be looking out for Cuckoo bees and make sure we get a proper Queen, so I was very careful to try and examine her. I also took a photo so that I could check after the fact too.

 Bb23 - bufftail; small and cuteWe are pretty confident this is the real deal and not a cuckloo bee. The band across the abdomen is an indicator and it looks as though the legs are correct: i.e. long hairs on the upper parts with a smoother "pollen basket". In contrast the cuckoos have more-uniform, shorter hairs on their legs, because they don't carry pollen. 

Our strategy for introduction to the nest box is the same as before: using the pot directly against the entrance until the bumble climbs in. However, instead of leaving it at that, our latest technique is to add a length of tubing (about 10 cm) into the entrance (on the outside). We have proven the bees can get down this tube ok. The reasoning behind this technique is to try and trick the bee into thinking it is going further underground than it is. Some suggestions we have seen say the tube should be inside the box, but we have avoided this for the sake of our cameras, so it's a bit of a compromise. Also, of course, our bee will only get to experience the tube on the way our, rather than on the way in: so we don't know if it will have any useful effect.  

We also made another adjustment tonight, which was to tape a pen-lid full of honey-water inside the box. I wanted to see if having access to some sustenance would encourage BB23 to stay longer and whether she would even bother to try drinking from it. 

She took about 15 - 20 minutes to go into the box and, unlike many of the other bees, headed straight for the back upper corner of the box, near where I had put the honey-water. In fact, she seemed to pause over this momentarily, maybe she did actually take a drink. Rather frustratingly she settled somewhere higher up in the box, behind camera 2, where there is no visual coverage! Just our luck. But we could hear a bit of scratching on and off and she was very placid.

Within about 30 minutes she'd stopped making any noise, so to the best of our knowledge she is still in the box! (The advantage of box 1 with the two cameras is that the entrance is much better covered and it would be hard for her to leave without us getting visual confirmation. This is a good thing as in low light the end of the new tube is hard to see, since we have disguised it within some grass.)

The difference in behaviour is quite different to what we saw when the entrance is sealed, and it is immediate. That is to say, it's not as if the bee tries to find the exit then satisfies herself it's unblocked, but just seems to immediately know this is the case; almost instinctively.  At this stage we can only surmise that the levels of light (even if low) and perhaps slightly cool air coming through the tube are sufficiently detectable and relevant to her. 

BB23 has also shown a different behaviour to other bees introduced to an unblocked box, in that she has gone much further from the entrance, rather than staying very close to it. Only tomorrow will tell if this means anything significant. Meanwhile we hope she is having a lovely slumber.