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. 

Think like a Queen (no, not Elton John)

At the time of writing we've attempted to nest 4 bumblebees, without success. Ok, to be fair, one of them got away while we were trying to encourage her into the box, but we got three of them in there and none have stayed. (Two bufftails and one redtail). 

There's a ton of advice on the internet, but lots of it is conflicting, so sometimes it's hard to pick your way through it. I think the best advice I have seen is the most recent: "think like a Queen". 

It's obvious when you think about it. A queen looking for a nest is looking to satisfy a number of basic parameters; and getting those wrong is surely going to put her off. The obvious case in point, is putting the bee in the box and then blocking it up for 24 hours. We've tried this each time so far, but I've been very uncertain of it as a strategy on several levels. 

For starters, the bee hasn't discovered the box and its entrance itself, so it hasn't gone through its "process" of ticking the boxes to find a nest that suits. Secondly, it's trapped in there for 24 hours! If it was me, I'd panic, and even if I got out, I'd be paranoid it would happen again. I'd never make it my home. 

It seems my feelings are backed up by the latest piece of advice we got from an expert, which I've re-produced below. 

A lot of other things we are doing right - but as this is our first year, it's hard to be sure of some things: like what's the right amount of nesting material for each individual species of bee? We'll just have to discover that by trial and error - which is why I want to get another box (to do more trying). 

So, the latest set of tips:

You are not doing anything wrong.  I'm afraid the success of bumblebee nest boxes is low.  Recently a PhD student had 7% occupation in best sites and none in less suitable sites - and that is occupation, not actual nesting.  To be honest no-one really knows what to do.  However, here's a few tips -

1. Site the box for the bees in your garden.  So if you have ground nesters and underground nesters put the box on the ground.  You can fool underground nester that the box is underground by using a bit of hosepipe from the entrance.  Abovegound nesters tend to have smaller nests, so if your box is big fill it up with nest material so that there is not too much free space.
2. If it is well sited, but has had no success, leave it out over winter.  If a mouse or vole or even a bird nests in it that is good.  Leave the nesting material if it is dry, and add more if needed.  They seem to be attracted to old mammal nests.
3. When the queen is nest searching she needs food nearby.  So the promise of food to come means nothing.  Make sure there are some flowering plants during the nest searching time.  If you don't have any, a pot of flowering heather near the box is the easiest solution.  You can always move it once your other flowers are in bloom.
4. Don't confine the queen.  Let her come and go as she pleases.  Believe it or not good sites are fought over to the death by queens.  She will never return to a site where she had difficulty getting out - what would happen if she laid eggs in such a site?  So think like a queen.
5. Do not disturb the box by looking at it.  I know the temptation is strong.  Wait until you see a queen go in with pollen in her baskets - this means she has chosen.  Then, and only then should you very gently observe her if you must.

One of the other things we are going to try is going to a local pet shop and asking if they have any "mouse litter" we can put in or around the box. The evidence of rodents having used the box is apparently a great encouragment to the queen that the box is dry, warm and safe. 

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.