The World's smallest sleeping bag?

A day of further learning and some mixed feelings today.

After Queen Bumblebum the Sixth stayed under our heather pot the other night we were keen to see what would happen the next day (yesterday): would she hang around and make for the nest box? Would she just zoom off somewhere else as soon as she could?

In the end she surprised us in an entirely different way. It was a horrible day again yesterday, very inclement and windy weather and we saw no sight nor sound of her all day long. We couldn't watch all day, but it was truly miserable and we concluded, perhaps to our surprise, that she must have stayed under the pot all day too! Who can blame her!

When I got home I thoroughly checked the box cam and confirmed she was not in the nestbox. I very carefully checked all the pots were upright and still shielded by bricks. If lil' bee had chosen to sleep under a pot again, so be it - it was our job to make her as comfortable as possible! After all, can't be too great sleeping on gravel under a pot when she is used to bedding down in grass.

Night came and went and at about 9.30 this morning I went out to check on the site. There was still no activity in the nest box on the camera and I had some fresh bee pollen to place at the nest site. This is an experiment we are trying to see if it encourages more bee activity and feeding. Results so far are completely inconclusive other than to say when it got wet the slugs loved it!

As I put the pot of pollen down I heard a short buzz. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, so I stepped back. Immediately before my eyes I saw little redtail BB6 on the heather! I was gobsmacked! She had spent another night under that pot after all! She was flying about, which meant she had already done her warm up - so I was not responsible for waking her up. She was planning to be up and about on this fine spring day! She looked very puffed up and big, which I couldn't believe after being crushed into the small space she slept it. It just goes to show how resourceful and tenacious these wonderful creaturesare  - poor thing had gone two nights and a day without food and now she needed a decent breakfast!

Queen Bumblebum the Sixth having breakfast after 40 hours under the heather pot!

I withdrew indoors to further observe and she meandered around some of the other flowers. She kept low and close to the box and I was ever so hopeful she was still keeping an eye on it and planning to go back it after topping up on food. Then she lifted up, much like a "jump jet", did a little squirt of what I presume was a pee(!) and then shot off west. I actually felt quite a pang in my heart, to think we had been custodians of BB6 for three whole nights, completely of her own choosing. But I'll admit my heart sank a little as I thought perhaps this was the last we would see of her.

I held out a few minutes in the hope I would see her circling to build up her mental map of the nest, but I didn't see her. So, I was still clinging onto the thought that she might have marked the flowers and will at least return to them tomorrow, if she likes them. But only tomorrow will tell. 

I periodically checked throughout the day but did not see her, so I decided to look in the nest box. We had already agreed that probably we should remove some of the white fibre material that came with the box from the WWF. We were beginning to feel it was way too much after seeing other pictures on the internet of how others have filled it. 

I checked the camera again to ensure nothing had gone into the box and carefully removed the lid. To my astonishment and delighed I discovered the little "sleeping bag" she had made from the brown gerbil nesting material we lined the floor with. It was tiny and ever so cute, so I took a picture! Seems like this little lass was trying to break my heart!

The little "sleeping bag" bumblebum made for her first night's stay in our nest box

Having seen how she chose to work with the brown material and not the cotton-wool-like material and how she had avoided that end of the box, we discussed options and concluded that basically the white stuff should come out, so I removed about 95% of it. I replaced about 15% with some more of the brown. As a result the box is much less crowded and I think this is material she can work with better because it is much more stringy - whereas the white fibre is like cotton wool and hard to work into shape, even for a human; it's all a bit too clingy and forms into balls.  I repeated the procedure with the second box out at the back.  I also noticed the smell of the hamster litter had really died down too, which is good news.

I'm convinced we now have the best set-up yet for any future bumbles we catch and offer our home to.

My heart hopes BB6 will come back, but my head says she probably won't and we need to try and catch another. Our catching wizard was reporting mega activity today in the warmth up in Cheshire so we are still hopeful there are bumbles looking for nests - but time is, of course, running out; we're already starting to see the first brood of miniature hatchling bumbles out gather food (and they are way too cute!)  In fact I saw one buzzing about on our heather. 

It was still 20 degrees C at 7.30pm so I went out in the hope of finding a bee trying to bed down but saw none - I think the light was too low, even though the temperature and weather was very fair, and they were already tucked up for the night.  

So, it looks like we start again looking for BB7!

Going to pot!

Today was the most exciting day so far in our project so far. I was working away from home so I had to observe on the webcam and get phone updates of activity. 

Queen Bumblebum the 6th had been resident in our box overnight of her own accord. Since we had been previously confining bees to the box we couldn't know whether this is usual behaviour anyway - but none-the-less we were excited, especially as we could see her on the camera inside the box. 

At 9.42 in the morning she was seen moving around inside the box and slowly she emerged from the entrance to brace herself against the daylight. We didn't know whether she would fly off to go feeding, or nest search elsewhere (after waiting to warm up, of course). I was even more pleased to have a bee that likes to lie in - obviously takes after her adopted parents :-) 

To our amazement and delight she stayed there for some time - about 30 minutes, before starting to wander over the (new, extended) entrance and surface of the box. I was able to take a screenshot from my iPhone as she explored. 

Sadly the quality of the image is poor, as I was only able to access the webcam over 2G. But you can make the bee out as the larger black blob rightmost and uppermost on the front of the box.

She stayed there for ages too - perhaps an hour and eventually started trying to go onto the front of the box proper. Unfortunately our new extended cardboard entrance made this hard for her as it formed a gap she could not reach across; but she tried very hard, stretching out as far as she could! We assume her instinct was to find some food and explore her surroundings, as she would easily have had time to warm up and fly off if she wanted to. We are not sure why she didn't head down to the ground - perhaps it is instinct not to do so.

It was quite windy and eventually the wind blew a lavender branch near enough to her that she could stretch out and drag herself onto it, quite a sight to behold. Then she explored the lavender, getting as high up as she could. Was she building her navigation points? We don't know, but I'd love to think so!

Eventually she came down the lavender and it bent forward and she was able to be lowered onto the Heather where she began to feed. It was rather windy by now and she was not intent on flying anywhere.

We did a time check at 4 hours and were amazed she was still around - surely a good sign?

Then she tumbled off the heather and landed down on the ground. At this point she tucked herself just right of the heather pot and faced the nest. In fact she faced the nest box whenever she was still. She stayed still on the ground again just looking at the box! We wondered if she was checking to see whether any other animals might be using it. This could be because the hamster litter is very fresh and she might suspect the 'nest' is still in use by a rodent. Certainly it was fascinating behaviour.

As the weather drew more inclement she started to move to the heather pot and then crawled underneath it. Soon after it started to rain. Pure brilliance - we now have a rain predictor in the garden! We wondered why she had not gone back to the nest to shelter - perhaps she thought she couldn't get there in time - perhaps she was still wary of whether it was still in use?

The weather cleared a little and she came out from under the heather pot. This was a decisive moment: we were sure she would now make a decision to either stay or go. As it happens she decided to stay and, again, just sat and watched the box. Truly amazing! (I suppose we all like to watch the box from time to time! :) )

By now it was gone four o'clock and getting colder. At the moment we have observed this is the time the queens stop searching for nests and start looking to bed down for the night, so we thought she would now have to make a decision. Would she return to the box, or would she leave and go somewhere else for the night? To our amazement, as the temperature cooled and became more inclement again, she crawled back under the heather pot to bed down for the night and at the time of writing that is where she still is!

We were quite concerned about this location; whether she would get cold or wet during the night (especially as the heather pot has drainage holes) but we have had to console ourselves with the fact this is just nature and bees must deal with it all the time: they are not guaranteed to get a perfect bed for the night every night. (Though, maybe it is perfect under that pot by her standards!) However, we carefully shielded the pot a little with some bricks, to shelter it from the wind.

We are intrigued that she did not head back to the nest box where it is safe, dry and warm, but that also she stayed in the vicinity - something of a conundrum. It does suggest she was checking something out about the box, perhaps confirming our theory that it fits her needs but that she wants to check it is safe from rodents. It would be amazing if that were true; the life of the bee seems more and more amazing the more we learn! 

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

A Grand Entrance

it's been a busy few days on the bee project, the main activities have been:

• collecting our used hamster-litter/bedding
• ordering, "kitting out" and installing a second nest box in the main garden
• keeping on top of all the new bee-friendly plants we've bought 
• overhauling/changing the camera technology we are using, so that we can have a camera inside the nest box
• trunking the video wiring under the path
• installing some shelving over nest box 2 so we can surround it with plenty of suitable plants
• tidying up the tech indoors; it was starting to look like an explosion in a CCTV factory!
• improving the irrigation system to incorporate some of our new heathers
• adding some pollen outside the nestbox

After our lack of success with Bee5 (trying to get her to enter the box herself) we decided on a change of strategy, which was to extend the fascia of the entrance so that we could 'dock' our capture pot directly to the box and so bumblebum could escape directly into the nest box. 

We used some cardboard to extend the entrance fascia and our wizard caught another red-tail.

Bee6 - Redtail

We introduced her to the new entrance and she when straight into the nestbox. Result!

new entrance fascia

This seemed to be a reasonable unstressful maneouvre for all concerned. 

Better still, with our new in-box camera technology we could see her moving about a little in the box. She was free to come and go, but she stayed in the box for almost 2 hours while we observed, by which time she would need to bed down. So, she is in the box for the night, all of her own choosing. This is the most excited and positive we have felt so far. Just hope she likes it and stays.

I will write a full article on the new camera tech - but suffice to say it is awesome to be able to see inside the box and also to hear inside there. The outside world seems so loud! Apart from the kids screaming and cars thundering by, we could even hear a honey bee outside on the heather, buzzing around. So, even when the picture is a bit dark, we are hopeful of hearing activity in the nest.

Our 2nd nesting site in the back garden - under construction

Sleeping in the corridor while the room goes empty!

Having failed with 4 bees so far, we've decided to try some different tactics. These are some of the things we considered to be issues and have attempted to rectify:

• Ants around the nest - obviously ants are going to steal nectar, so poor bumblebum will have the food she creates for her larvae stolen by ants. She will not want to nest near ants. So, we have put out several traps and are trying to eliminate ants from the area.
• Being trapped in the nestbox overnight. Our judgement is that bumblebum will be too stressed in a box she can't escape from and not consider it suitable for a permanent home. We will no longer be blocking up the box, even for just the first night.
• Entering the box. It seems logical that placing bumblebum directly in the box will be confusing as she will not have assessed the entrance and the box position and general aspect. It seems at least allowing her to enter the box from the outside through the proper entrance stands a better chance of her understanding what is going on.

So we decided for the next bee we would do a couple of things:

• catch a Carder bee, because they are much less fussy about nesting above the surface of the ground
• allow the bee to transfer herself from the bag to the nest box via the main entrance
• make sure the box contains user hamster bedding/litter

Our resident bee-catching wizard came up trumps and caught the requisite bee and brought her back in our pot/bag combo. Then we held the bag to the front of the box. She was very feisty and upset and we were getting concerned about her well-being and considering just letting her go. She passed the entrance several time but to our frustration never went in.

Eventually she grabbed onto the box itself and just stayed still and quiet - we think she was playing dead. So at that point we withdrew the bag and retreated and jsut watched. She stayed there for a long time, perhaps 30 minutes, just totally still. We thought maybe she was warming up to take off.

Eventually, she started to walk up the box and we hoped she would discover the entrance. However, she made her way up the front of the box to just under the ceiling lip and stayed there. Seems like she had found somewhere to bed down for the night - we were surprised she would choose somewhere directly in the open, but she stayed there all night.

In the morning she was gone and there was no evidence of her inside the box :-( 

Obviously we were disappointed but on the plus side, the fact she was prepared to rest on the box during the night suggests our site is sufficently sheltered, which is encouraging.