Bearing up

One of the things that we read about early on in our project was the fact that bumble bees will memorise their nest the first time they leave it by doing "navigation circles" around it. These are a series of circles of increasing size and distance, where the bee looks at the nest and observes the landmarks around it.

On a few occasions we had queens that we attempted to nest and when they left the nest we thought maybe they had shown this "navigation" behaviour. However, there is nothing like seeing the real thing for sure to know what you are looking at. 

I found a great piece of video on the DVR this morning that showed one of our bees in close up coming out of the nest for the first time and spending about 20 seconds up close memorising the entrance. After this, she would have circled at a further distance and height to take in the surroundings properly. (Of course, now she would have the benefit of our "runway" :-) )

So, I already had some iPhone footage attempting to show this circling from a longer distance. So, I've edited the two clips together so you can see what the entire behaviour looks like. It's unmistakable and the behaviour we had seen with earlier queens really did not come close - none of them really memorised the nest entrance like these workers do, even though they circled up to half a dozen times around the nest area. 

My own theory is that the circling we saw with the queens was more to do with them getting their own bearings - bearing in mind (no pun intended) that we'd transported them from the nest site they were hunting down, into our own nest box. Quite possibly a confusing process for them. It makes sense they would have to get a handle on their location once exiting our nest box.

Anyway, here's the video...

Although in the close-up segment our worker is out of shot for some of the duration, you can still see her shadow cast on the nestbox itself. She also moves very quickly so appears to dart about rather than move smoothly. 

Inner Child

Frankly, I don't see much point in doing something in your own time if there is not going to be an element of fun. This project is combining many skills: science & observation, craft making, environmental awareness, learning, technology & computing, writing, publishing, media and video-making, team-work... and FUN. 

The bees themselves are ever so slightly crazy and a true delight to observe - they bring a great sense of joy in their own right and can't help but bring out a bit of the inner child.  Remember these are not honeybees with their German-esque precision and rigourously engineered hive-style. These are bumble bees and the name is well deserved. They are the slightly disorganised, slightly ungainly, bumbling cousins - sort of the Boris Johnsons of the bee world. Although, of course, the bees are adorable. 

So, in this general spirit of carefree playfulness, today I painted a runway on the lawn up to the hive. 

Health and Safety demand we have runway markingsOf course, now that the hive population has grown considerably, the air traffic around the box has increased also, creating more congestion on the flight paths. The Health and Safety inspectorate demands that we move from "cottage industry" to a proper solution for controlling airspace. We'll be getting the radar next week. 

Aside from that, we are just having a bit of fun and hopefully educational value. It's possible we'll have some youngsters round to observe the bees and we can use our markings not only to explain the paths our bees are taking to the fields, but also emphasise the do's and don'ts of standing in front of the hive!

Will it affect the bees?

There is the possiblity this will affect the bees, though not in an adverse way. They are known to use visual cues to identify their nest and their location and use landmarks to aid their navigation.

It's also been shown that honey bees can count in a rudimentary way. So, it may well be true that these lines aid the bumblebees with easily locating their nest. For those that have already learnt its location, it's not a problem that these lines have appeared, as they are tolerant to changes and variations - as indeed they need to be in a natural environment where the surroundings are constantly changing.  

Have you lost the plot?

Nope. Just expressing creativity. On the other hand, if I find a spaceship in the garden tomorrow morning, I'll panic.

A few people have already commented on how "crazy" this is - but perhaps they just haven't heard their inner child in recent times... 

Keeping a close eye (in more ways than one)

I'm pleased to say over the weekend I pretty much mastered control of livestream.com, which enables us to make live broadcasts from the cameras in the garden. I also ordered a 4-channel Digital Video Recorder from eBay over the weekend, which will allow control, recording and broadcast of 4 cameras simultaneously. I'll leave the full technical details of the set up till a later post. 

There was also plenty of activity from the bee hive. They are obviously multiplying in numbers and the unusually warm weather continues. There were still active bees today at 9pm, even though the light has pretty much gone by then! Mind you, with a field full of (we think) broad beans flowering, who can blame them!?

The other main activity was nursing our less-able-bodied little bee, who my neice Chloe has named Holly. Holly is missing a leg and a wing and has a crooked body - which appears to be the result more of a birth defect rather than an injury. And she is so incredible small (and imperfectly formed) it suggests she may have been premature. 

After several attempts to put her back in the hive and finding her crawling on the ground outside (and looking increasingly dishevelled) we decided that was a bad thing - she could barely walk and was probably getting trampled inside the nest; and probably having difficulty feeding. 

So now, she is in our high dependency ward - an ice cream tub!

Holly's high-dependency ward

She has flowers and moss and honey water and pollen - which is pretty much all she needs. And lots of space. We keep her indoors overnight for warmth but put her back on top of the nest during the day (in her tub). There's not much else we can do except give her the least traumatic life we can, given that she is unable to fulfil her natural role. It gives us a chance to study her too and I have been able to take some macro photographs. 

Holly, starting to regain some strength

Her Royal Highness, Queen Bee Fifi (Press Release)

We're delighted to announce that our Queen Bee in residence now has an official title. 

She was named by our charming 3-year-old neice, Chloe, as "Fifi".

Her full title is therefore, Her Royal Highness, Queen Bee Fifi (Bombus Terrestris Audax)

Like all good Royalty she is very committed to her duties, which include laying and protecting her eggs and helping them to hatch. She has an army of loyal servants who help her in this role, collecting food, helping to build the nest, repairing damage and aiding the new-borns. It's non-stop work.

She does of course keep her private life very private. Indeed, we have not yet had the privilege of seeing her. However, we remain hopeful of a sighting in the coming weeks when cameras will be allowed into her residence, as part of a "bee on the wall" documentary covering, quite literally, the comings-and-goings of bee-dom. 

There is a buzz of anticipation as we await the chance to see the royal hivehold at work!

There will be a naming ceremony in due course with the unveiling of a name plaque for the royal hivehold, designed by young Chloe herself.

The stark reality of nature

I spent a little more time today trying to improve my macro photography of bees coming in and out of the hive. Here's one of my favourite pictures:

Ready for Launch!As the day warmed up there was an increase in activity - right up until 8:45pm when I saw the last bee enter the hive. Most of my monitoring throughout the day was done via a remote camera, but I think I saw at least two or three emerging for the first time and programming their bearings. 

Part way through the day I discovered a very tiny worker on the floor below the hive. On closer inspection I could see she was missing a wing and a leg on her left side and in fact was a little deformed. She was hobbling over the stones on the ground. Once I realised she couldn't fly I used a small tub to pick up her up and try and get her back in the nestbox, but it was very tricky. I decided to provide her some food and drink and take a few photographs too. 

little baby beeIn the picture above she is on the side of a coke-bottle top that contains sugar water. As you can see, she is miniscule and I felt so sorry for her, because unless she is in the nest she has no hope of surviving. (Though, to be honest, I don't know if her chances are any better in the nest).

I made a cardboard funnel and eventually got her back into the nestbox. 

Sadly, a couple of hours later she was back on the entrance of the nest, so I moved her to an emtpy ice-cream tub with some sugar water, pollen and moss and left her alone for the afternoon.

resting on the nestbox edge

I figured I would put her in the nestbox towards the evening so she is not inclined to come out again.

When I next checked on her, about 6.30pm, she had crept under the moss and I was concerned for her temperature, so I brought the box inside and observed. Eventually she showed signs of life so I tried again to get her into the nest. In the end I had to resort to using a spoon and almost gently flicking her into the nestbox entrance, as she would not go any other way. I had no other choice.

I just hope she stays in the nest tomorrow, but I'm fearful she won't. She's programmed to come out and try and find pollen, even though she is incapable of doing so. But, this is the reality of nature.