All honeymoons have to end

BB33 had stayed for a second night in our nestbox, much to our excitement, so we came down at 10am to see whether she was there or not. 

Once again, I had expected her to have left the box, so was amazed to see her still in the box in the far corner - near where the empty honey-water holder was. Outside the box, both the honey-water and pollen holders (plastic bottle tops) had toppled over and were more or less empty.

We have no way of knowing whether this was some creature in the night that caused that, or whether BB33 had been out to collect from them and had caused them to empty and lose balance. If BB33 had already been outside the box and then returned inside, that would have been significant, as we have never had a bee leave the box and return to (inside) it. 

I quickly re-sited and replenished the pots, not knowing whether BB33 could emerge at any moment and expect some breakfast on hand.

The timing was all rather serendipitous, as within 10 minutes she was buzzing and on the move, and emerged from the nestbox. She crawled over the moss at the entrance and completely ignored the honey-water pot right in her path. She made straight for the pollen pot at the bottom of the moss (which may add weight to the idea she had already been out and knew where it was) and then took flight to the flowers nearby (only about 30cm away). She probed these intensely looking for nectar, but it seemed as though we was struggling to find it. Then after about 45 seconds, she took off, circled twice and left. 

I took this opportunity to very quickly fill the internal container with honey-water, with about 1.5mls of honey-water (on a 30:70 mix). I estimate during the time we saw her drinking from this (90 mins) she consumed 0.75 - 1ml of the liquid (which is my estimate of how much was actually left in the container). We don't know how much this replenishes her as we've been unable to find any data on this yet on the internet and whether this would be enough for whole day. (Well, it must have been on the first day as she never went anywhere!)

We were ever-so-hopeful she would return today but she hasn't. We can't know whether the issue with the honey-water being upturned (and the lack of supply inside the box) is the cause, or whether she would have gone anyway. But I can't help feel a little bit frustrated, if not annoyed, that those issues occured. But there was simply nothing we can do about it, until we develop some kind of live feeding system inside the box.

We have to console ourselves with the fact that she chose to stay two whole nights in our box in beautiful weather, so some of the parameters must be acceptable to her. 

Home, I'm Honey!

Today I also made a slight modification to the nestbox in the back garden to bring it up to a similar standard to the front nestbox. 

The changes/modifcations were as follows:

• change internal tubing
• add internal remote thermometer
• add small capsule of honey-water (having seen this consumed with great gusto in the front nestbox by BB33)

The tubing change consisted of:

• changing to white tubing from black to allow a little more light/translucency into the box
• curving the tube to send the bee into the main body of the box
• creating a hole in the tube below the camera so that we can positively confirm seeing the bee enter and exit the box

The box layout now looks like this:

new layout of rear nestboxYou can see the obvious new tubing layout and in the bottom right you can see the pen-lid filled with honey water. It is just gaffer-taped to the side of the box, which has proven to be a wholly adequate technique. The thermometer sensor is in the top right of the picture and runs to an external display unit a meter away. This LCD unit is actually suitable for embedding in a device or surface, so I may come up with some further ideas on where/how to mount it, if not in the box itself (e.g. it could be embedded in the box lid.)

We got chance to test the latest incarnation of the box out when I caught a bufftail (BB34) in the afternoon. 

Bb34 - Bufftail - rear nestbox

The new tubing system worked a treat and we could easily see her enter and leave the box. She went in the box for about an hour. She was quite placid with some mooching around and cleaning behaviour. Then after an hour she left of her own accord.

She didn't attempt to try the honey-water, so she obviously had other things to be getting on with!

Don't know about Wills and Kate but...

..Queen BB33 stayed here overnight.

I got the surprise of my life this morning when i wandered into the dining room and turned on the nestbox monitor, only to discover that our overnight guest (BB33) was still there! 

BB33 - clinging to the pot of honey waterThe latest we'd had a bee stay in the box overnight was until 10.15 so we were amazed to see her there an hour later; especially on such a beautiful warm day (20 degrees C, clear blue sky). We'd fully expected her to have already left. Over the next 90 minutes she drank regularly from the honey water. I was quite amazed by this as not only has the honey-water been there unattended for quite some time now, but when I last looked it was down to half-level due to evaporation. So, I was surprised she could get anything from it. (We are quite keen to understand how much a bumblebee can drink in one sitting, and we haven't been able to find out yet).

In fact, she seemed to be rather enjoying it, so we started to wonder whether it had fermented a bit and turned to mead! We might have a tipsy bee on our hands! 

Here's a video of her sticking her head right into the pen-lid in order to get some drink (which I think must be empty by now!)

We also took temperature measurements regularly from inside the box, now that we have a remote temperature sensor - wondering whether something would trigger her to come outside. To cut a long story short, she didn't come out all day, although she did retreat to her secret place off-camera for the duration, so we had to check on the audio every so often that we could hear activity.

I was convinced she must have drunk the entire supply of honey water so felt that the next time she wants to drink she will have to leave the box. So, we placed a small quantity of it right by the entrance of the nestbox as we can't get inside while she is in there. (This is something I want to consider for an improved box design - a way to supply fresh beverage to our guest without opening up the box; I have some ideas.) We also spread some pollen around the entrance to the box and on the lid. This will mean she can get supplies easily without going far, hopefully encouraging her to stay near/at the box. 

We have since learned that there is some research that show bumbles are smart enough to go for nectar that is warmer, as this means there is less energy expended by them in heating up - so this is something we can consider in our drink-supplying strategy. It might also explain why she was very happy to take the honey-water from inside the box, which was at about 22 - 23 degrees C - i.e. warmer than outside.  

We last heard a small buzz from her at 17:30 inside the box although have not seen her on the camera and to our knowledge have not seen her exit; so for the timebeing we assume she is still in the box and staying for a second night. This is a first for us!

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