She's leaving home

It's been another eventful day in several ways.

Firstly, we were able to confirm that the drowned bee we rescued, which then 8 hours later showed miraculous signs of life, pulling herself to her feet and moving for 20 minutes, didn't make it. We tried to warm her up and get her dry and even offered some honey water. But she was unable to get to it, with her tongue trapped under her body and not enough strength the raise her head. She's been completely still now for 24 hours. 

Back in the nest, the day started quietly, in terms of activity. Our "stop out" bee, which normally comes back at 6.30 in the morning didn't show up till 8.35 - that immediately signalled something different about the way the day was starting. Indeed it seemed colder, despite (or indeed because of) the clear blue skies and bright sun. 

A lot of scraping and scratching sound was coming from inside the nest, as well as some high pitch squeaks. I'm starting to equate this with the emergence of new bees. Not necessarily hatching, but drying out and preparing to leave the nest for the first time; a process that can take a few days. 

Just after 9am big mamma bee came up on top of the bedding and rested right in front of the infra red camera, no doubt to keep warm; she stayed there till 10:45. There was very little activity during this time, just one or two mid-size bumbles taking a few foraging trips.

As we headed towards midday, the activity levels increased. The little baby bee in the nest, who worked so hard yesterday, started her trips at exactly midday, remaining unseen until then. Her exit from the nest allowed us to confirm the existence of a new tiny bee in the nest. I'd had a hunch about this yesterday and the 'squeaking' earlier in the morning I think might have been attributable to her. The final proof of her "newness" would be to see her leave the nest for the first time.

Prisoner in her own home

During this time, big mamma was appearing regularly on camera. It became apparent she was trying to leave the nest. She was absolutely huge, larger than what we remember and she struggled to climb toward the nest exit, falling back under her own weight time after time - it wasn't good to watch. Then, of course, we realised she'd be fattening herself up now in readiness for hibernation and that would explain her increase in weight - clearly her strength no longer matched her weight. Consequently she spent a lot of time scratching at the join of the lid and base of the lodge - and I realised this accounted for a good deal of the scratching sound we'd been hearing. 

She never made it out of the nest all day, despite hours of trying, but it was very obvious to see she wanted to exit. Sad though it seems, for it surely signals the end of brooding and stability in the nest, it is of course Nature's intended course. Indeed, we are surprised (if not a little worried) that she's stayed in the nest this long, as time is running short for her to find somewhere to hibernate. (Although we could probably keep the nest at a good temperature for her to survive the winter in, it would not be a hygenic environment: full of dead bees and unhealthy interest from other insects.) She may also have been missing her supplies - it was the drowned bee that had had the responsibility for bringing honey-water into the nest. We were baffled as to why such quantities were involved for such a small colony, but of course it's obvious now - Big Mamma was building up for winter.

Big Mamma trying to leave, but unable to find the strength to climb to the exit 

Much as we'd love her to stay, it was agonizing to see her "trapped" in the nest, so our plan tomorrow is to insert a small piece of card into the lodge that will provide a step to the exit - that should allow her to leave. Our only hope is that she is fit and well and will find somewhere to hibernate and is not leaving to go and die. She does seem to look as healthy (as much as we can tell from the CCTV). 

First Flight

At 13:19 our newest member of the colony tenatively climbed to the entrance. She turned and launched backwards as all new borns seem programmed to do. She was in flight! She circled close to the entrance and kept close to the nest, memorising everything she could see, gradually rising in height and wider arcs. We could see her easily on all 3 main cameras (1 newly positioned) but BCW was able to see her through the patio window - a tiny black speck against the sky. The in moments she was off up the street, the same way all the others go. Amazing and beautiful. 

She came back at 13:32 (without pollen) a trip time of 13 minutes - just enough for a first flight.

Overall activity

As per yesterday, I decided to collect some activity stats today, here are the main ones:

• Total number of trips: 47
• Trips by "baby bee": 13 (down from 21 yesterday)
• updated average trip time for baby bee: 22 mins (stdev 6.67)
• updated average pollen turnaround time for baby bee: 4.7 mins (stdev 2.27)

Activity levels were very clearly down and Baby Bee was pretty much responsible for all the pollen collection. Our newest "baby" addition didn't make any more trips after he inaugural flight. 

Most of the other trips are by a mid-size bee that never seems to collect pollen. In fact it takes honey water from the entrance every few minutes, but flies back out of the nest; Then every 30 minutes or so comes into the nest proper for a minute or two, then leaves, and repeats the whole cycle. So, it spends most of its time outdoors, just coming and taking honey from the entrance. This is the same bee that chooses to stay out of the nest every night. We have no real explanation for this behaviour - but our theory is, it's a boy and he's just having the easy life, and is probably not too welcome in the nest. Though we're at a loss to explain why he goes into it at all every half hour or so!

Tonight we are going to look into the nest for the first time in 3 weeks. We feel that disturbing it at this stage will not adversely affect the natural course of events, as we fully expect our Queen to leave tomorrow with a bit of help and the natural decline of the colony will set in. In a way it's a sad final chapter - but boy, it's been some journey getting here! 

Coming out. Again and Again.

I was away from home today, so at 6.30am when I got up for work I duly skyped into our 'incubator' to see if any of our bees were up and about. Nothing. That seemed odd. I checked again at 7.30. Nothing. Definitely Odd. 

At about 10.30 I logged in again and saw BCW tending to the box, refreshing the honey-water and helping to upturn a bee that was obviously struggling to get up. I assumed it was TLB (TinyLittleBee) whom we added to the box yesterday. But then she texted me to say that LBB (LittleBigBee) was in trouble and not well. It was not news I wanted to hear - he's only been in our care for 8 days. I dread this moment, wondering if it's something we have done or caused. (We did, for example, add some sugar water to the 'ward' a few days ago).

LBB was struggling to move around and cope with the undulating floor of the nest area; and refusing any kind of drink. He was dragging his sorry body clumsily about the box, barely making any progress whatsoever. He got stuck in the small gap where we plant the lavender stalks. It was very sad to see. We agreed that BCW should move him to a small separate tub so protect him from falling over and getting stuck. He rallied a little, appeared to drink from some soaked kitchen paper, but ultimately crawled to the edge of the tub where he has been still since for many hours. We will wait 24 hours for a final verdict.

Meanwhile, TLB, who had already started to inherit from LBB's behaviour, and benefitted from his helpful presence, appears to have gone from strength to strength. She climbs over the moss in the nestbox with great ease; she patrols the perimeter of the outer tub over the stones behind the nestbox; she hauls herself up the pine cones. Just over a week ago she was a still and lifeless as LBB is now - her recovery is miraculously remarkable.

Her routine, during the main part of the day at least, consists of patrolling the outer tub for short periods of time, then returning to the nestbox, sometimes to feed or scratch away in the moss - behaviours we still don't fully understand. This evening we've seen her come to the pollen in the outer tub, walk over it, then return to the nestbox; it's not obvious that she's collecting pollen, but it is obvious that she is heading straight for it.

Also, I say patrolling the tub quite deliberately: she is not exploring like she did initially - appearing to map out the box by going over and over its various sectors. Rather, her behaviour is quite deliebrate, following a short path that either involves checking the pollen or nectar supplies, or touring round the edge of the tub that encloses the back of  the nest box. Then she heads straight back in again.

Quite what triggers her to come out and perform this routine is not obvious to us, other than she seems to do it regularly. So it seems this is not a response to a nest attack (even though we have observed this behaviour in our outdoor hive). One of my theories is that it's part of the standard behaviour to check what's happening outside the nest. While we have not observed this to the same extent in our outdoor nestbox, we have from time to time seen a bee sitting in the entrance/exit and not actually leaving the box. I wonder if this happens more often than we realise (our CCTV would not really trigger the motion detect if the bee doesn't come right out of the exit). 

This would explain something that has puzzled me: how do the bees know, when they spend their time in a nest that they keep at 30 degrees, when to come out in the morning as the temperature changes. The only sensible theory is that they come and sense what is happening outside the nest at regular intervals, triggering a chain reaction when the time is right for foraging. 

Is TLB teaching us how bumblebees manage their working day?

Into the Light

below is a short video compilation of a few clips from recent CCTV that caught our attention - it contains the following clips:

• A bee that climbs out of the nest onto the box and then falls off! No idea what was happening there!
• A bee flying out of the box into the morning sun - I just like the way it's backlit against the sun
• Two bees leaving the box on after the other, turning round then taking off in reverse

I was rather bemused by the two bees that came out of the box and took off in reverse, wondering why on earth they would do that. And especially why two would do it in succession. Then of course it dawned on me (almost literally) - it was just at the time the sun was shining directly onto the front of the box, so I surmise they are avoiding the glare of flying directly into the sun and are instead launching in reverse. 

Is this a known behaviour?