Putting on a show for the camera

While BB7 was still decide should she stay or should she go, BCW (Bee Catching Wizard) was already off looking for a second bee to put in the main box. It was long before she returned with a Redtail - Queen BumbleBum the 8th!

BB8 in her potAgain, like BB7 she was pretty calm, though obviously we were keen to introduce her to the nest as quickly as possible. We have found that Redtails seem generally a bit more placid and we are currently trying to find Redtails as they are also supposedly less fussy about nesting above ground. They are large and fluffy and very distinctive too!

Using the technique as Bumblebum 7 (see previous entry) she explored the pot for a few moments then wandered quite happily into the nest box. Better still, she was a real darling and wandered straight into line of sight of the box camera! All the time she was there we could see her moving around. She'd stay still for a little while, then move some of the fibres and shuffle around a bit. We dared to hope she was making a little bed for the night (like BB6 did). In fact we don't really know what she was doing with the bedding, other than keeping comfortable and keeping at the right temperature. It's possible that as she moved round from one side of the entrance to another she was moving with the sun to keep at a constant temperature - just a theory.

BB8 on the nest box camera - facing up and left

She stayed for an hour but towards the end of that it seemed obvious she was going to leave the box. She went through the same routine as BB7 - preening and cleaning and stretching herself out. She may have had to heat up too, as the outside of the box was 18 degrees, though the lid was 24 degrees. Either way, it was unlikely to be the required 30 degrees inside the box, so she would have to warm up for herself. We saw her shaking/vibrating on the video, which probably was her warming up.

BB8 on the nest box camera - now facing towards the bottom left just before leaving (stage right!)

There's something quite odd about seeing her leave the screen of the box camera and next minute emerge from the entrance, where we can see her through the window. She was in the box for at least an hour and then crept out. She did something we hadn't seen before - instead of making for the flowers or creeping onto the box she just launched into the air, but did a spiral lift-off of increasing radius. It was perhaps only 2 or 3 revolutions but we wondered if this was the navigation/observational pattern we have read about - where bees will circle, identifying landmarks and getting a handle on their position (I'll be posting a link to some research on this later). Sadly my phone was just too slow to catch this in action. 

We thought maybe this meant she would come back, but she hasn't returned for the night. That's not to say that she won't return tomorrow - we can only wait and see!

She didn't even check in!

Another day of education and intrigue. 

It was a beautiful warm day today and the bees were out and busy searching for nests. By lunchtime both our boxes were fully prepared to our satisfaction so BCW (bee-catching wizard) went off hunting.

It wasn't long before she returned with a fairly placid bufftail. We decided this should go in the box at the back, as we wanted to reserve the front box (with the camera) for a redtail - since they are a bit less fussy.

BB7

The new regime with the extended cardboard entrance works well and seems to avoid the bee getting stressed. But this little madame was either being stubborn or very slow! She refused to go into the box and simply stuck her bum in the entrance!

bb7 in the pot being encouraged into box 2

bb7 refusing to go in the box!She didn't get stressed or angsty during this, she just backed a little into the entrace and stayed put! She seemed quite happy so we removed the pot and she just stayed there. She actually stayed for about half-an-hour on the cardboard at the front of the box. 

bb7 clinging onto the front of the boxShe stayed there quite happily and I was able to get some nice pictures and video. We are still learning about this behaviour: how much of it is assessing the environment (e.g. for danger), how much is getting a sense of bearings/navigation, how much is warming up again ready for flight etc. We can only assume that if the bee is happy to stay for 30 mins or longer they do not feel in immediate peril or danger; and I think we've seen enough activity to assume they are not paralysed with some kind of shock.

Towards the end of the 30 minutes she went through a (now familiar) pattern, which looks like a very rigourous preening: cleaning head, and legs and abdomen and fluffing up and stretching out (video to follow). We couldn't stay observing her, but sometime over the next hour she left, pretty much as we expected. So this bumbling little bee never made it into the box at all! 

Not to worry, we had more excitement to come... 

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!

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!