All Change

So, the weekend that marked the beginning of October passed and along with it the uncannily warm weather (still reaching 25 degrees and more) subsided too. I think for our bees this has finally marked the proper transition to Autumn and, if anything, come as a bit of a shock. Temperatures today were down to the 12 / 13 degrees mark - half of what they were a few days ago.

So, it goes without saying, that seeing activity levels drop is to have been expected. To put this into context, here is the data for recent trip activity:

• 28 Sep - 23 
• 29 Sep - 17
• 30 Sep - 12 
• 1 Oct - 13 
• 2 Oct - 28 (-2)
• 3 Oct - 22 (-2)
• 4 Oct - 12 
• 5 Oct - 8 (-1)
• 6 Oct - 1 

In fact some of these are not "round trips" - i.e. these are exits from the nest that have not necessarily been matched by an entrance (the numbers shown in brackets). This highlights another noticeable fact: we've been losing bees at a fairly sizeable rate. Some of our busiest and most effective bees have left the nest and not returned. Sometimes they do leave near to sunset, timing it just a bit too late to get back to the nest in time, and end up having to stay out overnight. But then you see them come back in first thing in the morning. In fact, for a few weeks we had one bee that did this by choice! It always slept away from the nest. 

But my heart always sinks when I count the bees in and out of the nest during the day and as dusk falls there are 2, 3 or 4 unaccounted for. This is always a bad sign. At most usually only 1 or 2 come back the next day. 

We lost our biggest bee this week. She was near identical twin to the one that drowned and had been quite a hard worker, making long trips often up to several hours (one we timed at about 5 hours). Maybe these long trips themselves were symptomatic of something - such as old age. 

We also lost two new-born bees as well. They were very tiny, like beatrice (who is indoors), so not fully developed. One could definitely not fly, so she crawled over the nest entrance, then fell to the floor. It was only later that we saw this had happened and despite a full search of the garden, by then we couldn't find her. It's such a shame, because it would have been wonderful for beatrice to have a companion. A similar thing happened two days later with another tiny new bee. It's such a joy to see them emerge, and this one was capable of some flight and began her "memorisation" procedure. But she too dropped to the ground, rose again, but then disappeared from the CCTV. We never saw her make the nest again. 

So, as of today, we only saw one of our small, regular bees making any trips, down from at least four - and only just one trip at that. No sign of the others at all. It's possible they were bedding down as it has been exceptionally windy, but we've not even seen them inside the nest. 

Outside Interest

It's not been all "doom and gloom" this week though. For starters, we saw another instance of some kind of larvae/debris being removed from the nest (and later saw some kind of moth inside the nest).

It started with interest from a larger bee (not one of ours) circling around the outside of the lodge, examining the joins and cracks, then finally finding the entrance and creeping into the nest. What's going on here then? Twenty minutes inside the nest before leaving and circling. That confirmed this was not a "native" to the nest and he or she was memorising the location with a view to coming back!

Later in the day he returned, as we expected and went back into the nest, staying for about half an hour. I was convinced he was a boy - was he looking for a Queen? Sadly he was out of luck - our Queen had already been laying and now sadly expired inside the nest.

Out of Luck? How wrong we were.

[To Be Continued...]

We all want cool air

When we went to check the nest last night, there were two bees actually resting in the entrance tunnel. This scuppered our plans to have a good check of the nest and really figure out what was going on with our Queen - who we saw inside the nest, still, between the wall of the wooden lodge and inner cardboard box. We have a picture from the previous night though - the Queen is not visible but she's down the edge on the far bottom left. 

 late night nest check

Given that she's previously spent all her time hidden away under the bedding, brooding, this is a major shift in behaviour; although of course, we've seen her wanting to leave and not succeeding, so we know that all is perhaps not well. 

Anyway, we took a decision to partially lift the lid quickly just to look for her, rather than check everything. She was in the same place, still still. The likely prognosis, of course, is that she has sadly died in the box - possibly she's even got trapped between those sides and run out of energy. I cling onto the slim hope she might have started hibernating there, but it's extremely unlikely. 

The other bees are still working the nest though - I saw four in action yesterday and three today: large, "baby" and "tiny" (or venti, grande and tall as Starbucks would call them). 

They are starting quite late now - 9.52 yesterday and 9.51 today - how about that for timekeeping!? It was another scorching day, in fact the UK record for October temperatures was broken. So, although the bees have wonderful weather for foraging, the light and length of day is not so good. And our nest is (deliberately) in the shadiest part of the day. We already discovered that their behaviour is triggered by light and temperature change, so it's not surprising they are starting significantly after sunrise.  They are finishing about 10 minutes before sunset. 

Overall activity rates are dropping though, certainly in terms of number of trips. This is not just because they are spending longer on each trip finding pollen (although for some bees that is true: our big bee spent 4.5 hours out foraging on one trip yesterday). But also because they are spending more time in the nest. Whether this is due to temperature or some other reason, I don't know. I don't imagine there is any hatching going on, so there is no requirement for them to be in the nest from that point of view. 

There is also no bee collecting regularly honey water (the one that was died) which is use to fill the honey pots. Again, they won't be needing them now anyway if nothing is hatching. So that doesn't explain the time in the nest either. Maybe they are getting old and tired. 

The last four days the trip count has been: 23, 17, 12, 13 - quite a tail off. Maybe they've twigged they dont really need the pollen! (Bombus Terrestris are known as "pollen collectors" - they gather pollen all the time, regardless of how much is needed). 

What we've also seen the last few days is "fanning" - when the nest gets hot some of the bees will go near the entrance and "fan" air into/through the nest. To be honest, one lone bee doing this in our lodge will have minimal impact, but they are still conditioned to do if needed. The biggest bee in the nest has taken main responsibility for this and actually started at 9:53 - for about 10 minutes at a time. 

There's at least one also sleeping near the entrance tonight again - which is preventing us getting into the nest at all. Perhaps they are feeling the heat and like the occasional waft of cool air. 

Stuck in an ice-cream tub

So, a little update on "Micro Bee", whom we rescued last weekend. Well, she is now known as "Beatrice" or "Bea" and was named by my niece Chloe, who also named Holly (our disabled bee) and Fifi (our original Koppert Queen). 

So, a quick recap: we brought Bea indoors after watching her leave the nest and walk across the lawn (only a few feet) but not succeed in flying. She is absolutely tiny - about the size of a small fly - but perfectly formed, at least visually (i.e not missing limbs, all the right colours etc.). However, her wings are slightly bent and we think this is the reason she doesn't seem to fly. 

I honestly can't describe how small she is - here is a picture of her in her tub to give you an idea:

little Bea - trying to get her to fly

So, we've followed the same routine we did with Holly and BLB  - both of whom were disabled and couldn't fly - and kept her indoors in a small ice cream tub, with some materials to explore and a supply of known/safe honey water. 

We tend to her regularly but try to allow her to experience natural daylight hours. Every day we take her out (as above) and give her the opportunity to try and fly, but has not tried to do so. There's no real excuse for her not doing so at the moment, given the unnaturally warm temperatures we are experiencing (about 29 degrees C), so she could easily get up to temperature. 

It's not ideal keeping her indoors and we are debating whether to try and return her to the nest. The problem is, if she wanders out again without our supervision, she could easily get lost on the lawn and run out of energy and/or quickly become prey. Quite simply, she is just not equipped for life outside the nest. 

I have the following concerns keeping her indoors:

• could it be affecting her 'mood' - there is evidence from honey bees that their disposition can be affected by negative events, to the extent that they show signs of "depression" (altered behaviour states and less persistence, i.e. giving up more quickly). I would hate it if this was happening.
• Bumblebees are basically social creatures; their behaviour a jigsaw piece in the bigger colony system. So, by being away from the colony, both the isolated bee and the colony could be affected. Quite simply, Bea cannot fulfil her role or instincts if separated from her siblings. 
• Does it change her behaviour patterns?

Actually, we have pretty strong evidence that behaviour patterns are changed, not just from Bea but from holly  et al. we kept indoors before her. The first 24 hours is spent in a very active and exploratory phase, as you would expect. when given the chance to explore (e.g. taking the lid off outside) they try to escape (or at least explore beyond the boundaries of their confines).

Then next few days this really calms down, essentially coming to a halt and there appears to be a sense of resigned stillness. There is little activity, often they hide under the moss and seem to spend a lot of time "sleeping". This is very much like a "low mood" creeping in, having learnt their surroudings and discovered they are alone and trapped. 

Over the next few days they then appear to become "masters" (or mistresses I suppose!) of their environment. A strong sense of territory and defence appears to develop. At this stage, opening the tub is greeted with warning signs, such as raised leg. As the days go by this becomes even stronger with different levels of warning - the final stage being lying on the back with sting pointed at you. What's more, the response at this stage is instantaneous; without a moment's delay the bee throws itself onto its back and warns with its sting. It becomes very protective of its food supply, which leads to more warnings as this is topped up with a syringe.  When taken outside and given the opportunity to explore/fly, there is no apparent interest in doing so. Indeed, the behaviour at this stage is now attending to and defending the nest/environment with no requirement for exploration beyond those boundaries. 

This is the stage that Bea is at, so trying to get her to fly now seems completely fruitless and adds to the dilemma of whether she is now so conditioned to her tub environment that trying to return her to the nest is counter-productive.

We've only had a Bea for a week so that's as far as her behaviour has developed; but, of course, we had Holly for much longer and saw these patterns develop further, such that warning signs subsided and indeed there was a complete acceptance of intervention with the food supply.

Indeed, eventually Holly learnt that the syringe meant new food and would come to get it even before we had chance to administer it. She was also completely happy drinking while we were topping up. Quite remarkable really. She also went into a much more intense "nest fixing" mode, constantly working at the nest. Rarely she would come out of the nest to check the immediate surroundings then return. Interestingly (and perhaps not surprisingly) she was stimulated by other bees and was far more active when they were in her environment. 

Anyway, that's a summary of some of the behaviour - I intend to produce a more detailed write up in due course. 

Back to the nest?

If we do add Bea back to the nest, there are two key risks. The first is she simply just starts to explore again to discover her new environment and ends up tired and lost outside of the nest. The second is that she tries to perform like her tiny siblings, one at least of which has been collecting pollen. And befalls the same fate. So either way the outcome is the same. 

tiny bee working to collect pollenPurely for interest, above is a picture of one of her equally tiny colleagues on the way out to collect pollen. This wonderful miniature bundle of bumbleness has been busy foraging and managing to find a source of lovely bright orangey pollen - possibly late flowerign lavender (of which we have some). She comes back with her legs buckling under the 'vast' quanity she has collected. 

She's actually one of the most active bees in the nest and she (or an identical looking sister) has the role of some patrolling and nest checking, especially at night. When we opened the nest for a quick look last night, there she was scooting round the perimeter of the plastic box ensuring everything was safe; with a little warning fizz on occasions just to keep us in check. 

She may be small, but she's taken on a big role. 

Going Micro / Eviction Day

Yesterday was a bit of a mad day with the nest - so much so, I was finding it hard to review footage and collect data while also keeping an eye on live activity.

The big anticipation of the day was whether Big Mamma would make a break from the  nest or not, but as it turned out, despite the cardboard step we introduced into the nest for her, she was still unable (or unwilling) to leave. 

My hunch mode had been kicking in too, regarding the possibility of yet more new hatching going in. My hunches are starting to become pretty reliable!

Yet another slow start again for the colony today, although the temperature was ridiculously mild for the time of year - we are being predicted a very warm week ahead. So much so, that by mid morning there'd been no sign of "stop out" bee returning; marking yet another shift in behaviour patterns.

For reasons that will become evident by the end of this article, I decided to stop trying to track and count each and individual bee - as it's now become too onerous to unqiuely identify them. In fact, I've completely lost count of how many of each size are really alive in the nest, as each day there seems to be evidence of additional bumbles that may be leaving and not coming back. These, of course, could be males.

All all I know there are 2, possibly 3 baby size (the smallest we'd seen to date), one big mamma queen size, one very large almost seems queen sized  that keeps catching me out and anywhere between 1 and 3 mid size, of which our "stop out" bee was one. But there is still "mid size" activity today, so even if he/she has gone, there are others. 

Going micro

Late morning I decided to review the day's CCTV so far when my jaw dropped. There in the nest was the most miniscule of bees I have ever seen. She was even smaller than Holly (the disabled bee we cared for). My hunch had been right. 

She was also exhibiting the now-classic newly-hatched behaviour: exploring the nest and entrance but not venturing out yet. Here she is, compared to the size of a regular soft-drink bottle top in the middle of the picture.

first glimpse of brand new tiny beeIt was almost unfathomable that she could be so small and beautifully formed. I estimate she's about 1/4 to 1/5 the size of big mamma - that could make her about 1/100th the volume!

Soon she came out to the entrance and I  watched live with great anticipation as I prepared to see her first flight. She came out onto the ledge turned and then started exploring that too and then up over the roof of the porch. This is the moment I hate, as there is slippy tape and plastic on the porch which many an uncertain bee has fallen from. She too befell the same fate, slipped and fell to the ground. I dashed out to find her and eventually after much searching spotted her:

I managed to get her back into the nest, for now; and she sat in the entrance, still, letting all the other bees walk over her! 

While all this was going on Big Mamma was still making some failed attempts to get through the join between the lid and the base. I tried to encourage her to the entrance hole proper with some powerful lighting from outside the nest - it's where the light is that she is going for. This didn'twork for her, but it did seem to bring a few more nest lurkers into view. Amongst them was yet another tiny bee. I was truly astonished, but there was no doubting it - both of them were there together on the CCTV inside the nest. 

There may even be three - it's hard to tell exact sizes from this photo, but there is one tiny one in the bottle top (centre), one very small one above it, and the original tiny one in the entrance top right. 

3 extremely small and previously unseen bumblebees all together

Eventually one of the tiny bees came back out to the entrance and started climbing all over the shelter. This is a bad sign. This is what happened with all the bees we had to care for indoors - basically they never flew. Sadly, I think this tiny wee one is destined to the same fate, So now we have her indoors in a tub, fed and being kept warm. She can crawl and run with great pace and agility, but so far has not taken off; indeed, one of her wings is a little bent, and this may be her disability. 

Forcible Eviction

 I was barely recovering from the excitement and shock of dsicovering three microscopic bees when another smallish one emerged from the nest. It seemed to be carring something - at first I thought it was pollen, but a review of the CCTV shows it was in fact some kind of larvae. (UNHAPPY FACE). Even more astonishingly, we watched on as this bee perfromed nest memorisation. Her first trip!! Sent to eject an unwelcome visitor. 

She returned 10 minutes later. At the time, watching live, I was baffled by what I was seeing, because she spent a lot of time almost "reverse memorising" the entrance before she came in. Indeed, she spent longer flying round it on the way in than on the way out.

On reviewing the CCTV, all became clear: she dashed out carrying a larvae to get rid of and wasn't really able to conduct a typical memorisation procedure due to her wriggling payload, which needed taking away from striking distance of the nest quickly. She did the bare minimum required to memorise the look and location of the nest and then took the larvae away. On return she found the nest site ok, but she had to examine the front in more detail to establish the exact entrance. So, she essentially reversed her tracks to find her way back in. Truly Awesome first flight!

But get this - she was carrying some pollen. Yep, in the short 10 minutes of her first flight, used to eject an nest invader, she also took the trouble to go and collect some pollen. Now, ifthat aint commitment. 

Two hours later, we saw another similar eviction:

larvae being carried from the nestlarvae being carried from the nest - front angleIn the second picture in particular, you can see the larvae quite clearly hanging from the bee's mandibles. I timed this trip and it was more or less exactly 2 minutes. It's safe to assume that she can fly at 10 metres per second (I have timed them at well above this), in which case her outward trip of 1 minute would take her 600 metres away from the nest. Let's call it half a kilometre. Pretty impressive.  

Of course, the bad bad news here is that there are some kind of larvae in the nest. I don't know what type they are or how many. We have seen the occasional fly in the nest and a small moth the other day - either of those, I suppose, could be candidate mothers. I hope so much it is not wax moth - but we will probably take a look inside tonight to see if there's anything we can spot. Not that we can do much of course if we discover more. Certain is supposed to kill Wax Moth larvae, but whether we can spray it into a live nest is another matter. 

It's going to be an "interesting" evening.. 

Interfering with Nature

Yet another day of intrigue in our beepol hive.

Late the night before we had a quick check inside the nest, our first look in about 3 weeks. 

quick snapshot inside the beepol nest

There wasn't a single murmur from the nest as we quickly opened it to provide some honey water and take a photo. Everything was intact, if anything the bedding was a little more fluffy and 'aerated'. All the bees were obviously tucked well down and bedded in at the bottom of the nest: there was no sound or movement from them. 

The biggest sense of relief was that there was no evidence of intrusion, such as wax moth. I did see a small moth in the box the other evening, but I don't think it was a wax moth (too small). 

The day began with a slow start - even our "stop out" bee that has been coming in a 6.30am (sunrise) didn't show up till 8.50am, the latest we've seen. Down here in the south east we are experiencing an obnormally warm end to September which I think is really confusing the colony - the light levels and daylight hours do not match the temperature. 

Intervention

Once again, by late morning we saw Big Mamma making an appearance. She is slow and lethargic and bus-like! We can't figure out if she's old and tired or has put on too much weight for a winter hibernation; but she struggles to move around. We inserted a small piece of cardboard through the lid/base gap in the lodge to act as a shelf for her to stand on to reach the entrance. 

The bees quickly learned to navigate the new shelf and although Big Mamma can drag herself up onto it, she has still not made it to the entrance; and indeed, has not really tried, which seems a bit surprising. What she does seem to do is go for the crack of light where the lid meets the base. It's very optimistic if she thinks she can fit through there!

We are at a loss how to deal with this - it's agonising to see her struggling to leave, but where do you draw the line at interfering with nature? There are several issues:

• We don't really know what she's trying to do, it could be to go and die, it could be to go and hibernate - so we don't know the best way to help her
• If she does exit the nest, she might not be able to fly, which could leave her in trouble - helping her out might be a bad thing
• Even if she does want to hibernate and we put her in our hibernation box, there's no guarantee it's anything like what she wants/needs - in which case she might be be unable to go and find a suitable site for herself. 
• The pure practicalities of getting her (and only her) safely out of the nest without damage to her or any of the rest of the colony (and of course not getting stung!)

So, for now, we are sitting back with great interest, a certain amount of trepidation and watching events unfold. 

For those wondering why we would want to even intervene, here is the logic:

The whole reason for getting and protecting the colony is to conserve the bumbles and give a small extra boost to their population. Because they are essentially annual, it's the queen who carries the "Olympic baton" in terms of surviving the winter (having mated) and emerging in spring to lay her new offspring. All the current workers and drones die. So, continuation of the life cycle is about the Queen being able to hibernate and survive the winter. It would be such a tragedy if, after all this work (on the queen's part) she was unable to fulfil that role, for something as simple as, say, not being able to get out of her nest. By not being able to do so, she would have "broken the chain" and denied the future another colony and new queens to carry the baton next year.

The whole situation is compounded by not knowing which queen she is - i.e. is she the colony's original queen, born summer 2010, hibernated and set up this colony spring 2011. If that's true, then actually she's destined to die soon (and that could be why she wants to leave). She's done her work and created new queens to carry that baton. They've gone and are probably now beginning their hibernation phase.

OR: is she the product of that original queen - a new queen born August 2011, destined to hibernate this winter and begin her brooding cycle in spring 2012. This is what we actually think, for two key reasons:

1. We saw an old queen leave and die back in August when we installed the nest - she was the only one there for a short while, before we then saw about 5 new ones. 
2. This queen has been brooding a new colony: the new hatchlings we've seen emerging almost every day for the last week.  She's not really meant to have been doing that, but it is a phenomena known to happen with Bombus Terrestris. With the extended warm weather, instead of going straight off to hibernate and lay next spring, she started laying now. The original mother queen, tired and old, would not do that. 

 So, this is the source of the uncertainty and our desire, if possible, to help her see it through the winter. 

Still Growing

The colony is still growing - the crackling and squeaking sounds we've been hearing we're starting to attribute to new birth; there is a distincy correlation. We'd been hearing that in short bursts each of the last few days. Usually the day after it's heard there's evidence of a new addition to the nest. Their behaviour pattern is quite noticeable - they crawl round the nest following a "search" pattern. I.e. they do not directly head from A to B, but explore: twisting and turning and feeling their way. Usually they head towards the exit several times, drawn by the light, but they do not leave. They turn round, come back inside and repeat. 

Eventually they pluck up the courage to properly explore the exit - where we have set up a "porch" and trapdoor system. They can explore round this in safety and this time they are but millimetres from the wide open world. They will do this about once or twice before building the confidence to exit. Standing on the ledge, they turn to face the nest and launch, arcing left and right, up and down to commit the view of the nest to memory. It's wonderful to watch and is the sure marker of a bumblebee making its first outdoor flight.

Sometimes they come back in after a few seconds - satisfied their wings work and that the weather is not really enticing enough. The rest of the time, they fly up and over the wall - their maiden voyage., brimming with apparent confidence and certainty.

Once such baby bee did so today. My hunch from the day said I thought she existed and sure enough, here she was. She's the same size as the baby bee (1) that's already working like crazy. (Note: the moniker baby refers to their size, not maturity; they will both always be referred to as baby). She took off at 12:35 and returned three minutes later - a nice short flight to get her wings. 

But that was it! Now she was a fully fledged member of the team - and she spent the rest of the day, along with original baby bee, bringing back basket-loads of bright orangey pollen. For this reason counting became a little tricky, as two two babies are very hard to distinguish on the CCTV.

Both babies were out of the nest in the late afternoon when I saw yet another similar sized one inside - it seems like there has been yet more hatching. I wait with interest to see when she emerges. 

More confusion

We continue to see new behaviour patterns that we can't explain. One of these has been the bee that stays out every night, doesn't seem to bring pollen back to the nest, but comes back for honey water from the entrance and every so often goes right into the nest and spends a few minutes in there. We don't know if this is boy behaviour or, perhaps, a worker who is not very effective (e.g. malformed pollen baskets). If we could tell she was collecting pollen then we'd assume she's just not very good at it and is using more energy than most for very little return; but it's proved extraordinarily hard to tell if she is carrying any (which suggests she isn't).

The other mad theory that occured to us: is she feeding another nest?

Further confusion arose when saw (what we think was) this same bee actually turn up with full pollen baskets, spend five minutes in the nest, then leave again with full pollen!

coming in with pollenGoing back out again with the pollen

But, if we though this has been a crazy day, it was nothing of what was about to come..