Her Royal Highness, Queen Bee Fifi (Press Release)

We're delighted to announce that our Queen Bee in residence now has an official title. 

She was named by our charming 3-year-old neice, Chloe, as "Fifi".

Her full title is therefore, Her Royal Highness, Queen Bee Fifi (Bombus Terrestris Audax)

Like all good Royalty she is very committed to her duties, which include laying and protecting her eggs and helping them to hatch. She has an army of loyal servants who help her in this role, collecting food, helping to build the nest, repairing damage and aiding the new-borns. It's non-stop work.

She does of course keep her private life very private. Indeed, we have not yet had the privilege of seeing her. However, we remain hopeful of a sighting in the coming weeks when cameras will be allowed into her residence, as part of a "bee on the wall" documentary covering, quite literally, the comings-and-goings of bee-dom. 

There is a buzz of anticipation as we await the chance to see the royal hivehold at work!

There will be a naming ceremony in due course with the unveiling of a name plaque for the royal hivehold, designed by young Chloe herself.

The stark reality of nature

I spent a little more time today trying to improve my macro photography of bees coming in and out of the hive. Here's one of my favourite pictures:

Ready for Launch!As the day warmed up there was an increase in activity - right up until 8:45pm when I saw the last bee enter the hive. Most of my monitoring throughout the day was done via a remote camera, but I think I saw at least two or three emerging for the first time and programming their bearings. 

Part way through the day I discovered a very tiny worker on the floor below the hive. On closer inspection I could see she was missing a wing and a leg on her left side and in fact was a little deformed. She was hobbling over the stones on the ground. Once I realised she couldn't fly I used a small tub to pick up her up and try and get her back in the nestbox, but it was very tricky. I decided to provide her some food and drink and take a few photographs too. 

little baby beeIn the picture above she is on the side of a coke-bottle top that contains sugar water. As you can see, she is miniscule and I felt so sorry for her, because unless she is in the nest she has no hope of surviving. (Though, to be honest, I don't know if her chances are any better in the nest).

I made a cardboard funnel and eventually got her back into the nestbox. 

Sadly, a couple of hours later she was back on the entrance of the nest, so I moved her to an emtpy ice-cream tub with some sugar water, pollen and moss and left her alone for the afternoon.

resting on the nestbox edge

I figured I would put her in the nestbox towards the evening so she is not inclined to come out again.

When I next checked on her, about 6.30pm, she had crept under the moss and I was concerned for her temperature, so I brought the box inside and observed. Eventually she showed signs of life so I tried again to get her into the nest. In the end I had to resort to using a spoon and almost gently flicking her into the nestbox entrance, as she would not go any other way. I had no other choice.

I just hope she stays in the nest tomorrow, but I'm fearful she won't. She's programmed to come out and try and find pollen, even though she is incapable of doing so. But, this is the reality of nature. 

One Way - No Way!

It's been cooler and much windier lately, and of course no more bank holidays to enjoy - so we've been concentrating on the new Koppert Hive rather than chasing bees through fields for the nestboxes.

I was in charge today as BCW was away and I managed to grab 20 minutes to try and get some close up pictures on my Digital SLR. It turns out this is harder than I first imagined: the focus, timing, shutter speed all contributing to the things that can go wrong! The bees move so fast that for close up work it is impossible to track them with the camera - everything has to be preset. Anyway - here are a few attempts: hopefully they will improve over time... 

 

 it's getting crowded in there! amazing orange pollen, probably from dandelions!room for another?prepare for launch!

The other plan for today was to close the box and a examine the inner lid, with a view to figuring out how to get a small camera inside. Also, we wanted to check that the one-way entrance was working properly after some uncertainty earlier, so I thought it would be a good test to put the box into "incoming" mode only for an hour or so and then close it off before having a look at the lid. 

I did so at about 7pm when I thought the bees wouldn't be coming out (but I knew a few were out). Gradually they started returning. At first they seem a bit confused because the right-hand entrance has disappeared. They poke around a bit and then try the left hand entrance. Usually they won't go all the way in first time; they'll come out and think about it and then try again. Eventually they'll try again and find their way in.  I think the issue is that the one-way entance gets quite narrow but also actually has a flap at the end - so the bees have to push through it. It is obviously not entirely natural for them.

Not all the bees manage it. One tiny bee just couldn't get in and kept coming out and trying to figure out what was wrong. It was flying all round the box and trying to get in the other vent holes. It was very confsued as to why it could no longer get in its nest, but just didn't seem to be able to conquer the one-way entrance. I got a bit concerned watching it, as I don't know what happens if they are left like this. Do they just give up and abandon the nest? Do they bed down somewhere nearby and try again later? How long will they try for? 

Many questions.

And, I was also concerned about the dropping temperature since it was now approaching 8pm. Then it got even worse. One little bee went into the narrow tube and stayed in there. At one point there were three bees in that tube all clamouring to get in and it was blocked up. Two of them eventually flew off, and the tiny little one just sat on the inside edge of the tube as if it was cold and exhausted. 

By this time I was getting quite distressed myself about the whole situation (it doesn't help that the tiny tiny workers are so incredibly cute) so I decided I wanted to open the box entrance fully again. The trouble was, this little one was now sitting right in the entrance. Finally she walked back into the tube again momentarily and I pounced, swiftly opening the second tube. She realised something had changed and went in through the other hole. 

If I'm honest, I hated the whole experience, because it seems like there is no way to avoid the bees getting confused and (to think in human terms) anxious. Indeed, do they go in the one-way flap only when they get so anxious about being unable to get into the nest? The day before BCW called Koppert about this when we first had concerns, but the person they spoke to said they'd never had any customers ask about the one-way flap and the reluctance to use it. I suspect it's because your average farmer has a bit of a "fire and forget" approach - they are, after all, very busy people. They probably switch the box mode, leave it 30 mins and then come back and move it regardless.

We are different because we are watching and recording almost every movement.

Anyway - I moved the outdoor camera and watched the entrance from indoors after that. Amazingly there were one or two bees still emerging from the box after 8pm! They are certainly proving to be unpredictable!

Moving in a day early!

Well, well, well!

We were expecting to collect our Natupol hive tomorrow, so BCW gave Koppert a call to check everything was ready and there were no problems. (I think we were a bit nervous that because they usually ship by courier they might have gone ahead and done that, even though the arrangement was for us to pick it up.) During the call they said the box was ready and invited us to pick up the box today. Couldn't believe it! So, I was glad we were so prepared.

For those that are curious, here is a video from Koppert (with a delightful Netherlands accent) that describes the Bumblebee Hive.

At the time of writing, I haven't actually been home yet, but I was able to join BCW over skype from my hotel while she prepared the box and opened it up to allow the bees to come out.

Here is the box, closed with the bees inside, under its shelter:

beehive located under shelter - not yet openedfake flowers on top of the shelterTo let the bees out, you open the sliding entrance control. It has two positions. The first position allows bees to enter the box, but not to come out. So you use this position when you need to gather the bees up, e.g. if you are going to move the box, or need to protect them while spraying. The second position (shown below) is fully open and the bees can come and go freely.

This is the position for most of the time - except tonight it was so cold they didn't come out at all! Who can blame them! It's 30 degrees C inside that box and 7 degrees outside! 

Beehive in fully open position - bees can come and go freelyMy next job will be to figure out if I can get a camera into the box without disrupting the bees or nest. I think that's going to require my best Harry Houdini act to date!

Who's going to learn the most? Them or us?

Testing, Testing 1, 2, bee

We were very glad for the May-Day bank holiday as it gave us a chance to prepare for the arrival of our Koppert Natupol Beehive. As I work in IT, I'm very used to the concept of thorough testing, preparation and quality assurance, so it was important to me that we had run through as much as possible and were prepared as possible for the arrival of the box. Bearing in mind, too, that the whole point of my "shelter" structure was to out-perform a slab of Expanded Polystyrene held on top of the hive with a brick (as suggested by the supplier).

The types of things we had to make sure were in place were:

• stability of the shelter for the hive - important to keep shade and waterproofness; tolerant to wind
• suitable containers to provide pollen on top of the shelter; tolerant to wind and rain
• suitable containers to provide honey-water on and around the shelter; also tolerant to the elements
• ability to place and remove the box under the shelter easily
• stability of the greased bricks on which the hive rests under the shelter
• overall colour and sympathy with the surroundings (ok, a slightly moot one, that!)
• setup of the overhead video camera

We're talking about hosting a live colony of bees, so there is no room for taking chances - everything must work fine and protect them (and our investment) properly and safely.

We ran through the process of setting and removing a dummy box under the shelter and checking stability. The shelter itself had been placed outside for several days and thus subjected to steady winds of about 10mph and gusts upto about 23mph. (That new weather station already proving its worth!) It's taken this wind fine and while this is not the full extent of possible Fenland blusteriness, it's a good initial test; and there is scope to deal with more via the brackets I've embedded into the structure. I have no concerns about waterproofness due to the heavy duty plastic also sandwiched in the structure.

With those "mechanical" tests out of the way we turned our attention to providing some food supplies to the bees.

Of course, the bees can fly many kilometres to find their own food, but we also want to supply some in the early days to make life a little easier for them and encourage a favourable response to their new location. I've not uncovered any research yet on what it takes for bees to learn their location if their nest is moved; suffice to say, we don't want to take any chances and want them to find our garden as bee friendly as possibly

Let the science begin

In the morning I'd had a flash of inspiration, making a fake "flower" to hold our "nectar" (a honey/water mix at 30/70) from a shower gel cap and a bottle top:

 underside of fake "flower" with bottle top sealed oncompleted "flower" - what bee could resist that purple?The "flower" is just filled with a dropper and holds about 4ml. I stuck it to some card to make it more stable in the ground. Spurred on by my delight at this creation we went to the local "pound" shop to raid it for all manner of plastic, sticky coloured things to come up with some ideas for making similar flowers. Here's what we bought:

raw materials for flower makingThis bright jumble of bits cost under a fiver and seemed to provide all manner of colourful goodies to make petals and holders and capsules and so on. We bought some cheap paint too. The piece-de-resistance was most definitely the "hair snare" (top right) which is designed to stop hair going down the shower plughole.

The minute we saw these we knew instantly we could place them over a pot (Waitrose peeled garlic cloves, as it happens!) filled with our "nectar" to provide a safe platform for bees to poke through and drink from. This completely solved the problem of having to fix (onion) netting over bottle tops to make them safe when full; a tedious and fiddly job. 

The pill holders were absolutely brilliant too - each day comes out from the main tray separately. So, we could, for example, have a rotation system on little cubes of pollen. We could even colour them differently and try differing arrangements. 

In the end this is what we came up with to get started:

our big, bold flowers!

The reflective material is Diamond Grade reflective tape - the exact stuff you find on police cars. It is seriously unmissable!

Now, to you and me these might not look much like "flowers", but when they are filled with pollen and nectar to a bee they are going to seem like a 3-course dinner!

The big round flowers (made from the shower traps) are designed to hold about 30mls of fake nectar, which should be enough for several bees to feed on easily. (We'll probably never get them off it!). We've painted different patterns, partly for fun but potentially to determine whether one pattern is favoured over another. There is good research that shows that (honey) bees are capable of recognising patterns and learning which are best, so there is definitely scope for experimentation here.

They tray of multi-colour shapes actually contains some upturned containers which have an opening (in the same orientation as the opening in the coloured plastic top). These are all stuck down into the corners and this is designed as a pollen tray. The pollen will be sheltered under the clear plastic corners. 

This will be interesting to watch as the bees will have to learn that they cannot access the pollen directly from above, but follow the marked opening and go "underneath" to get it. I'm confident they will easily be able to do this. Research we have read shows that Bumblebees can learn the layout of different flowers and the different techniques required for accessing their nectar/pollen. And, in fact, once they have learnt a few of these techniques they tend to favour the types of flower they work on, rather than constantly learning new flowers.

Again, there is scope for experimentation here - for example, to see if the bees learn that the gap to get the pollen is round the side and aligned with the gap in the coloured plastic. So what will happen if we change this relative orientation? How long will it take the bees to learn the "new" flower? 

The pill holder at the bottom left is basically on standby at the moment. It could be a pollen or nectar holder and we can bring it into play if we need to take other items out of service or boost the food supply. There is scope to experiment with colours and orientation on this one.

Have you got an idea for an experiment? Why not let us know. 

 profile of our flowersOh, and for a bit of fun, we've added glow-in-the-dark pebbles in our flower pots!

Can't wait for our hive to arrive now and to start studying the bees' behaviour!