Bumble Bees and Bits

Over the last week I have been contacted twice by members of the public who believe they have Bees in their house or garden. The first one wasn't sure what kind of Bees they were but they had made a nest in the eaves of his new property and his builders wouldn't return until they had been removed. As this was fairly close to where my mother in law lives and my daughter was staying with her that night I informed the gent that I would pop round and have a look for myself. I took equipment in case they were honey bees and I could get a new colony from them but wasn't hopeful. It turned out that they were in fact Bumble Bees but the nest had already been damaged when the builders removed the roof tile. All that was left were a few sorry looking Bees in a small huddle of approximately 5-6 Bees. I did my best to remove them but they kept flying back. The only advice I could give to the guy was that as the main nest had been destroyed then the likelyhood was that the small amount of Bees would move on soon with them not having a home or a Queen. A shame really as I knew these few Bees were actually doomed.

The second contact I had was someone who believes he has Bumble Bees in his bird box. The advice I gave him was simply to leave them if they are causing no issue as they are very unlikely to sting anyone unless they are provoked but if they have to be removed I will contact my association and see if anyone has more experience with the matter. If they can be relocated safely with minimal harm to the colony that would be preferable.

It has been quite a learning curve being the secretary of my association but rewarding as the amount I am learning and the people I am getting to meet is great. I have been contacted by a school that want someone to come and give a talk on Bees and as no one from my association has got back to me yet I may have to do this myself. Having no experience at giving a talk of this nature I am a bit unnerved but I imagine I could wing it and still come off as knowing what I'm talking about!

Lastly, I will be heading on holiday to Malta soon and hope to visit an ancient Roman Apiary site they have there. I am quite looking forward to it and hope that some locals can point me in the direction of a Maltese Beekeeper to talk to. There has to be a post about that when I come back I reckon!

Allotment, Bugs and Bumbles - A Photo Update

Some large raised beds that my Dad and Brother-In-Law have been working hard at. Can't take much credit myself for this but will help with filling them and obviously eating the produce!

Another set of raised beds.

Thornless blackberry plant.

Peas, not ready for picking yet.

A nice picture of a ladybird captured using the macro setting on my phone.

Bumble bee on thyme flowers.

Now that it's white bum can be seen it can be identified as bombus hypnorum.

A bumble on a fox glove.

Another picture of the bumble.

Bees En Mass

Over the last couple of days me and my lovely wife went to York for the night to see a band while her aunt kindly looked after our daughter. It was a lovely couple of days with the sun showing her head for most of the time. While I was playing with my daughter in the living room prior to us going out for the gig I took a quick look outside and noticed a lot of movement on a small cotoneaster bush. When I went outside to look at it there were several Honey Bees and Bumble Bees busy collecting nectar from the tiny flowers, but that was nothing compared to the amount of activity at the end of the garden on the larger bush. The large bush had literally hundreds of Bees all over it. I took a short video of it in which I try to highlight that I had only to move the camera a short distance before finding another Bee.

The Search For Bees

In the last few days I went for a walk down the woods very near to my house. I followed the stream looking for a large patch of himalayan balsam that pops up every year. I walked a good distance before I found the area and then started looking to see if there were any Bees, especially Honey Bees, foraging on them. There were plenty of Bumble Bees, but I only managed to see 1 Honey Bee and was unable to photograph it.

Himalayan Balsam

Large Patch of  Himalayan Balsam

I carried on further until I was out of the woods and found a patch of willowherb. There were a few Honey Bees on the flowers but I only managed to photo a Bumble Bee and some other strange insect that I can't identify. Also due to the location of this patch of willowherb, there is a good chance that the Honey Bees I saw were from my hive as it is less than a mile from my hive!

Unknown Insect. Can anyone identify me?

Bumble Bee about to land on Willowherb....

Landed!

Bumble Bees in my Garden

As it is half term this week there is no Beeekeeping course so as it's been really nice weather over the past couple of days I've been out and about in my garden and noticed there was a high number of Bumblebees about. My foxgloves and lupins seemed to be the main attraction for the Bees along with the occasional dandelion, however these have now been removed when the lawn was mowed. The following movie is of a Bumble been really busy collecting nectar or pollen from my foxgloves.

Also below is a few photos of a different Bumble among my lupins at the other side of my garden.

Bumble Bees En Mass

At work over the last few days I have seen many Bumble Bees on the bushes around the building. I'm not sure what kind of bush it is but it stretches for 10 plus metres on one side of the building and even more at the other side. The Bees I saw were mainly big black and yellow Bumble Bees and brown Bumble Bees; there were also a few Honey Bees knocking about but not as many. Intrigued at what kind of Bumble Bees they were I did a quick google search for Bumble Bee identification and came across the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust or BBCT. Using the guide found at this link, I believe the Bumble's that I was seeing were mainly Common Carder Bee, or Bombus Pascuorum and the Garden Bumble Bee, or Bombus Hortorum. The vast majority of them were the Carder Bee and I believe there were several queens; I thought this due to the size of them and the presence of a few much smaller ones but with the same colour.

Since finding BBCT's site I have become a member which costs £16 per year. I'm looking forward to getting my welcome pack. The welcome pack includes a chart for identifying Bumble Bees, a pin badge, a car sticker and a packet of Bee friendly seeds, along with a newsletter. If anyone fancies joining or more info on Bumble's then the link is here.

The BBCT site also gives a helpful guide on what flowers to plant to help Bees. This is a breakdown of the list and I have (painstakingly) added wikipedia links to all the different plants mentioned in the guide

• March - April :- Apple, Bluebell, Broom, Bugle, Cherry, Erica carnea (heather), Flowering Currant, Lungwort (Pulmonaria), Pear, Plum,  Pussy Willow, Red dead-nettle, Rosemary, White dead-nettle
• May - June :- Alliums, Aquilegia, Birds-foot trefoil, Bugle, Bush vetch, Campanula, Ceanothus, Chives, Comfrey, Cotoneaster, Escallonia, Everlasting Pea, Everlasting wallflower, Foxglove, Geranium, Honeysuckle, Kidney Vetch, Laburnum, Lupin,  Monkshood, Poppies, Raspberries,

  Red Campion, Roses (singles), Sage, Salvia, Thyme, Tufted vetch, Meadow Cranesbill, White Clover, Wisteria, Woundwort
•  July - September :- Black horehound, Borage, Bramble, Cardoon, Catmint, Cornflower, Delphinium, Heathers, Hollyhock, Hyssop, Knapweed, Lavender, Lesser burdock, Marjoram, Melilot, Mint, Penstemon, Phacelia, Polemonium, Purple loosestrife, Red bartsia, Red clover,  Rock-rose, Sainfoin, Scabious, Sea Holly, Snapdragons, St. Johns Wort, Sunflower, Teasel, Thistles, Viper's bugloss

This is a picture of the bush that they were feasting on. It was taken on my phone so isn't very good quality and I didn't even try to take any pictures of the Bees (mainly because I'd have had to get very close and would have looked a fool if anyone looked out of the window at work and also they were too busy and moving about a lot). I have done a bit of research on google and believe this bush is a species of cotoneaster or pyracantha although I could be completely wrong. At some point I may try to get a cutting for my own garden.

Bumble Bee on Dandelion

Over the weekend I helped my Dad in his allotment. In one of his greenhouses there are an array of weeds growing on the floor including dandelions. I managed to get a shot of this busy character while she was foraging on this flower head. I am quite impressed with this picture as it was taken with my phone that only has a 3 mega pixel camera. I will have to start taking my partners camera out in the future as that takes much better photos. In my own garden my pear tree is just starting to blossom, so hopefully will be visited by some Bees in the next few days.

The Bumble Bee

As the weather has improved considerably in the last few days I have had the chance to do some work in my garden, getting rid of weeds and generally tidying up prior to planting all new vegetables for the year. While I was working on my borders and admiring how well my lupins are doing I spotted my first Bumble Bee of the year. When I saw her she gave me a bit of a fright as she was just where I was working, sat on a dead leaf I was about to move; however she wasn't bothered by my presence and actually stopped there for a few seconds so I could admire her. She was a very large Bee and due to size and time of year she must have been a queen. As she sat there I was cursing myself for not having my phone at hand to take a picture of her and then before I knew it she had taken flight and left.

The following day, while I was again working in the garden, I got a further visit from a Bumble Bee. I'm not sure if she was the same one but she was definitely a queen again due to her size. This time she was at the very end of the garden by the holly tree where I was trying to remove invasive brambles. She had landed on the floor and seemed to be walking round sizing the area up for a potential nest site. This time I did have my phone on me so without making any sudden movements got it out of my pocket and started lining up my shot. At that point, just as I was getting her in my view finder, she flew away. Gutting. It does seem like I'm not destined to get a photo of a Bumble Bee this year but will keep trying.

Later on the same day, me and my better half took the baby for a walk around a nearby lake. While walking around I saw a couple of Bumbles and so did my partner. This time I didn't even try to take a picture as they where all in flight at the time we saw them. I have found a nice picture on wikipedia of a Bumble Bee which is shown here. I think this picture is far better than any I would be able to take with the camera on my phone but hope at some point to capture some good shots with my partners camera if I can convince my subjects to stay still long enough and not take flight!

The Bumble Bee differs from Honey Bees in several ways. I will list some of the main differences.

• Appearance - The most noticeable difference is how they look. Bumble Bees are larger than Honey Bees and quite a lot hairier. The extra hair allows the Bumble to go out foraging in colder weather due to it's added layers of insulation. The hair also picks up a static charge which attracts pollen to it when they land on flowers, aiding pollination. Their colour is most commonly know to be black and yellow striped but can vary from totally black to orange and even pink.
• Hive Structure - Bumble Bees will also form a colony with the queen as the only egg layer, however with Bumbles the queen does actually start by foraging until she has enough workers to do the work for her, unlike the Honey Bee who's queen pretty much only lays eggs. They do make wax cells that workers develop in but their honey is stored in one large cell or pot, though apparently only a couple of ounces are made at any one time. Honey Bee hives house several thousand Bees while Bumble Bees are only a few hundred at the most.
• Life Cycle - With a Honey Bee hive when a queen gets old the colony may replace her, while in a Bumble Bee hive the colony dies off each year. At the end of the season the queen lays new queen eggs; When they hatch and leave the hive to mate they then go and hide for the winter, forming new colonies in the summer, while the old queen and all the workers die off.
• The Sting - Bumble Bees don't have a barb on their sting so can sting more than once if they are provoked enough. Honey Bees do have a barb so die when they sting. A sting from a Bee is relatively rare though from either a Bumble or a Honey Bee; they only sting when they feel threatened or that their hive is under attack 

There are other differences but these are the main ones I could think of.

Another point worthy of note with the Bumble Bees is that they are also said to be in decline. Some species having already died off or are becoming endangered in the UK in recent years,though I sometimes find it hard to believe with the amount I have seen in the last few days alone. Bumbles do suffer from pesticides the same as Honey Bees so I ask anyone who hasn't already followed the links in my previous post titled Save The Bees, to do so now and also copy the sample letter and send to their MP. Bees of all kinds are a benefit to the human race in that their pollination helps provide us with the crops we eat on a daily basis and with growing world population we can't afford for crops to fail. The fate of humanity is in our hands!!

Not to end on such a downer:-

What is a Bees favourite singer? .....Sting!

What is a Bees favourite group? .....The Bee Gees!

What's Black, Yellow and covered in Blackberries? A Bramble Bee!

Where do Bees wait for public transport? At the Buzz stop!

I know these are pretty bad jokes. Feel free to comment any more bee jokes!