Buffs and Tufts and Other Stuff

I installed the new (infrared equipped) camera in box 2 late last evening, so this morning we decided to swap boxes and put that box 2 at the front - since they are now both configured the same. (Well, except we need to add an internal tube to box 1, which is now at the back.)

It turned out to be one of our most exciting days so far, but more on that in a moment. 

So, we now have a new improved configuration for our boxes, which has even less bedding material and a small internal tube (just made from about a 3rd length of toilet roll centre tube). Here it is:

new box layout version 3This is just after I installed the new camera - in a much lower position which gives a fuller view along the length of box floor. 

With both boxes set up the same we were able to install the above box as the new "main box" which is out the front. Then we set about setting up the box in the back again. We decided that it might be good to try it on the lawn instead of against the garage, because over the last few days we've seen a few bufftails mooching around the longer bits of grass. So, it was a case of "if the bee won't come to the beebox, the beebox will go to the bee!" We wanted to surround it with tall grasses that would encourage investigation and improve visibility from a distance. Since some of the species of Bumblebees are fussy about being underground we also thought the more we can make it look like a grassy hummock, the better. That also seems to be the trick the BBC employed in their brilliant video. Here's what we came up with.

nestbox on the back lawnAnd this is the view from above - designed to present some grassy tufts that look like they have some nooks and crannies to explore. (The foot is optional!)

overhead view of rear garden beeboxIt was fairly cool outside and we hadn't seen any bees on the lawn or out front, but shortly after midday BCW (bee catching wizard) surprised me by saying she would go look for a bee. She didn't disappoint and by 1pm had returned with a gleaming, vibrant bufftail. Here she is, a wonderful specimen:

BB15 - Bufftail - very bright colours!At 13:15 she went into the box at the front and the excitement began. For starters we were thrilled that we could see really well on the new camera, and she was doing lots of moving around and exploring. We kept thinking she was going to leave, but no, she dived under another bit of bedding and rustled around and generally moved all the furniture about! It was amazing to see her exploring from side to side and end to end in the box. I managed to video some of it off the TV screen.

This behaviour continued on and off for a whole two hours. Towards the end of this time it looked like she was doing laps of the box, quite quickly, and coming up to the camera. All along I had been concerned that she'd feel warmth from the infrared on the camera and that it would be off-putting, but since she stayed two hours, I was thinking on balance this must not have been a problem. Reviewing the video again, though, I began to wonder: was the behaviour at the end of the video - coming up to the camera and going away to the end of the box - something to do with the possible heat coming from it? Especially since I have now mounted the camera lower in the box. It's a quandary. 

There is no real way to know at this stage. Her choice to stay two hours seems significantly impressive; but it was cool when she left at 15:30 (about 14 degrees) - would we have expected this? And her activity was much more impressive than anything we have seen to date with other bees: much more exploring and digging around. 

But the question it still leaves is, what behaviour should we expect from a Queen that really thinks she's found a great place for a nest? Would she leave it so soon? (And not come back, as is the case tonight; and risk another bee finding it). Would we expect her to explore and start moving bedding around, or would we expect her to stay still and just wait and confirm that the nest is not in use by any other animals (bees, mice etc.). Is our human smell offputting? (If she can smell it; is that what she's sniffing out?)

Her behaviour when leaving was the most interesting to date also. We have seen a few bumbles take off slowly and spiral away, which we thought might be some kind of landmarking; however, BB15 crept slowly from the box onto the grass in front, then took of very slowly and hovered and circled in small circles round the box area. This was much more like any kind of "landmarking" than we have seen before. But she still didn't do any big circles, which we have read about. So what's behind her behaviour?

In a way, every day generates more and more questions as we try to deal with the disappointment of another bumbling bumblebum that doesn't seem to want to stay! We're running out of time to be finding bees still out nesting, so the pressure's on to really try and perfect the nest, if indeed there is something we can still do it. Hopefully there's now a really chance that a bee will find the newly camouflaged back nestbox of its own accord. 

Anyway - in the meantime, here's a picture of her wonderful lift off - which was incredibly graceful and controlled. 

we have lift off! (BB15)

Cool it

It was a cool day today and we woke with great expectation, wondering what had happened to BB14 overnight in our box. At 8.30am we checked on the box camera - no sign of movement or sound. And outside was about 9 or 10 degrees. We felt it safe to assume she was still in there from the previous night, especially since we've seen other bumbles emerge from the box at 10.30 once the sun is warming up.

To cut a long story short, we didn't see her all day! This left us in a bit of quandary - had she slipped out before we even got up? Did we miss her leaving (to be fair, we couldn't monitor the camera non-stop)? Or was she still in there? The bottom line is, we don't know. 

I'll admit to being rather frustrated - especially with the poor visibilty from the camera caused by the grasses in front of the box (and the cloudier day). I've been itching to get my hands on the new camera tech which has really good built-in infra-red lighting. 

Joy of Joy - the postman knocked and it arrived!

"Spycam" with infrared for use in the nestboxSome quick tests showed this was going to be a very good solution and I'm itching to get it in the nest box. In fact, I've decided to order another so I have one for each box. And instead of replacing the camera in the main box, I will simply add this one as well, so that we have two views inside the box. That'll be fantastic if we get a nest! (Though I'm now seriously considering the need for a vision mixer of some kind).

The coolness and cloudiness of the day led us to decide not to go bee-catching today; it never rose much above 12 degrees. So great excitment ensued when we spotted a bufftail mooching around the lavender by the front nestbox at lunchtime! Could it have been BB14? We don't know! And much as we would have loved her to, she didn't go into the box. Then again at 5.30pm we saw a bufftail again doing the same thing! (I'm becoming BSE - bee-spotter extraordinaire). But this bufftail also didn't discover or enter the nestbox; so again, we are left a little bit uncertain as to what is going on inside the nestbox tonight; we actually assume nothing. To be cautious we have left the main nestbox undisturbed, just in case BB14 is in there tonight. But if there is no sign again tomorrow, I will probably install the new camera in Box 2 and then swap them over. 

2 up, 2 down

Another hive of activity today - and that was just us! 

The main activities were:

• catch some new bees to introduce to the nest, since BB7 and BB8
• buy a "Blue Tit Rhododenron" which we identified as being very popular with Bumbles
• check we had the ants under control (which seems the be the case) 
• try out sugar/apple sauce for its attractiveness to Bumbles (nothing conclusive to report yet)
• upgrade our automated irrigation system to cope with all the new plants
• produce a youtube video of Bee8 in her box

 First job was a trip to the garden centre to get the irrigation gear and the Rhododendron. BCW (Bee Catching Wizard) had assured me it was a perfect plant for attracting Bumblebees (even though it is not on the suggested BBCT list). Well, even as we carried it through the garden centre, we had a Bufftail land on it and take a ride.

 A Bufftail taking a ride on our RhododenronOnce home we went out bee-catching again; we are getting a feel for a good time, usually between about 2.30pm and 4pm. I'm starting to take lots of temperature readings to see whether there is a correlation between temperature levels and bee nest-searching activity. At about 3pm we were able to find two redtails quite easily (not to mention seeing one in our own garden, searching in the longer grass). 

For once I accompanied BCW and I also caught a Redtail of my own, so we came home with two together. My Redtail (BB9) looked a little more agitated so we introduced her to the front nestbox straight away, she was well behaved and went straight in without fuss. She was off camera for a while and then became visible and was scratching around and cleaning as all they all seem to do. At one point it looked like she was burying down into the bedding, but she did a circle and came back where she started!

While I kept watch BCW introduced BB10 to the back nestbox and kept watch for a while. We have no camera in that box yet, so sadly we can't really be sure what happened once we stopped looking. 

Meanwhile BB9 at the front had decided to leave quite quickly (after 20 - 30 mins). She gave the impression of another little spiral as she left - we can't really work out if this is a navigational thing or not. I'm not 100% convinced - it doesn't seem as though the bee is really taking it all in! Just a hunch :)

So BCW went off there and then to catch another bee. By now it was about 4.30. After an hour and a half she had had no luck. By this time the bees seem to be quite frantic to bed down, so even if you do see them, they are more frenzied and much harder to catch. 

Meanwhile I was working on upgrading our automated irrigation system. Phase 1 and 1.5 of this was completed some time ago, but all the new plants and the addition of the nestbox at the back has created more plants to water over a wider area than before and the old system was not capable of supporting this. The plan is to provide a main irrigation supply round all four edges of the garden, which we can then tap off at any point to water any pots, wherever they are. The water is controlled automatically and we will be adding a water butt in due course. 

Irrigation Pipe being buriedLegacy Pot-watering system around nestbox 2

We also learnt what "bee flys" were today (bombylius major) as we have been seeing lots and wanted to identify them. It's a never ending journey of education!

Now here comes the science bit

A quiet day on the bee front today. BB6 didn't come back as I suspected. Although it was a beautiful day to start off with, by the afternoon it had clouded over, so I'm not sure there was going to be much activity anyway.

However, the was some activity from the postman - he delivered the new tech from Maplin! Always good to get new tech. Today's delivery consisted of the gear to make an infra-red spotlight (hello mr. soldering iron!) and a laser-guided infra-red thermometer. More on that in a moment. 

Infra-red floodlight kitThe idea with the floodlight kit is to light the area around the nest and allow some light to leak inside the box to help with the vision on the camera in the box, which is sensitive to infra-red. I guess if I'd been better prepared I'd have infra-red emitters mounted inside the box itself, but this is a starting point; besides we need to see if the bees object. 

If you search on the internet you can find information about what wavelengths of light bees can see; some of it is a bit mathematical. The bottom line is, basically, they don't see infra-red. Their vision is very much skewed to the Ultraviolet end of the colour spectrum and they possibly see up to 600nm (nanometres) wavelength of light. This is an orangey-red colour. 

The light I will be using is 850nm - well above the limit of their range (and indeed, humans).

There is the question of whether they will sense heat from the infra-red. I need to do more detailed research on different wavelengths, but what I discovered was that infra-red from the sun accounts for about 500w of heating per square metre of the earth. (This is about half of the 1kw of total heating that other wavelengths account for).  This floodlight will be filling an area much larger than that (perhaps 5 times) with perhaps 1W or 2W of light. Overall this is about half a percent of the Sun's energy so I feel this is safe and unlikely to affect any bees. Of course, I shall monitor it closely to confirm whether this is the case. 

It could well be that the additional heat is beneficial to them, at least on colder days; makes me wonder whether an infra-red floor in the box would be nice and toasty for them! 

Measuring the temperature

The second piece of tasty kit is the temperature sensor. Oh how I love it!

Infra-red temperature sensorThis clever device basically lets you point at an object in the distance and measure its temperature when you pull the trigger. It's amazing! It has a very rapid response time and also remembers the max temperature at the time; so you can actually sweep the room with it and easily find the max temperature. It's laser guided too, so you can accurately point it at your target. The closer you are, the smaller the area it measures of course. 

I've been testing it out and it's amazing how different surfaces and materials store and radiate heat. This afternoon, anything metal was cool, whereas the paving stones on the path were actually warmer than the ambient temperature (having stored heat while the sun was out). It seems possible to measure ambient temperature from the air although really it is designed to measure surfaces. 

I tested it against the thermometer in my room, pointing it at the surface of the thermometer and it tallied within 0.1 degrees, so I am happy and confident it is fit for purpose. 

So, what is that purpose? Well, basically I want to be able to measure and track the temperature of the nest boxes. Obvsiouly on the outside, but by pointing through the entrance hole, also potentially on the inside. This will serve a few purposes. 

• If we ever get a bee colony it will confirm the temperature they operate at (30 degrees) which will satsify my curiousity!
• Before we obvisouly get bees, we may be able to tell whether we have a queen in residence if we can detect any temperature shift. 
• I can start to correlate outdoor temperatures with the activity of the bees in general. 

All of this will add to my own body of research, even if it's all well understood by the scientific community already. As a starter I took some readings today. At the time it was 22 degrees ambient temperature, but the box was at about 17 in the shade. The path was 24 degrees and where the sun was shining on the window, it was over 30!

In fact, I was quite amazed by how variable the temperature was all around me - it just goes to show you can find heat (or cool) if you need to by moving around and finding a new place to rest (if you are a bee). I suppose this is obvious when you think about it, but it really brings it home when you actually measure. Sadly I couldn't afford a thermal imaging camera which would show this, as they start at about £3000!

Notwithstanding, this is a brilliant bit of kit!

Pro & Cons of Skype for Public Webcam

In the first instance I have chosen to use Skype to get a webcam up and running at the beebox, with the ability to access it remotely over the internet.

Initially I simply chose this technology solution because it meant nothing new to install, since I already had skype and already had it working with my existing USB webcamera(s). I'm using a Samsung NC20 netbook at the moment as the camera host, and it doesn't have a lot of grunt, so I stuck with what I knew worked. 

It turns out there are some pros and cons of the Skype solution, which I thought might be useful to list here.

Pros

• It's free and lots of people have it. (And in my case, I didn't have to install anything else). 
• You can pre-configure Skype to use a particular webcam (if you have multiple webcams connected) and also configure it to auto-answer calls with video. This is, of course, essential if you are going to access it remotely over the internet! So, you just call in remotely, and it answers with the webcam. 
• You can limit access to only those on your contact list - this provides a simple method of access control and allows you to control privacy
• Since the video stream is provided "on demand", it is not active and broadcasting all the time. Therefore it is not consuming any of your broadband bandwidth allowance whilst no-one is viewing the camera. 
• Although you can't choose which camera to view remotely, you can configure skype locally with different cameras, so you can set it up to show different views. We have an indoor and an outdoor camera at the moment. 
• There's quite a nice, free iPhone app for Skype which you can use to view the camera. 

Cons

Some of the strengths of Skype are also weaknesses, depending on how you want to use it.

• So, for example, only being able to accept one call at a time. This means it is not really a broadcast system. If our project was to get popular (it'd be nice to think it had educational value) then this might ultimately rule out skype as we will need more than one person at a time to be able to view the camera. 
• It is not easy to record the video - this isn't built into Skype natively. Although Skype supports plugins, most of them are audio only - I didn't find a useful video recorder plugin. 
• There is no motion detection capability. 

However, as system to get up and running, to test camera positions and lighting, and to let a few select people have access, it has proved more than adequate and I'll continue running with it until/unless demand dictates an alternative solution.