Bumblebee behaviour

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by JohnF on 23/05/2020 09:45:24:

Posted by Clive Hartland on 22/05/2020 22:34:58:

Hi Frances, sting allergy seems to be on the increase. One instance near me was the Grand Daughter of the Bee shop owner, she was stung by a Honey bee in the window of the shop and then went int anaphylactic shock due to the sting. Sadly she can no longer work in the shop even though she is a director of said Company.She is 22 years old .

It seems all sorts of allergies have become prevelent now from peanuts to herbs.

Hmm! interesting, my nephew is a paediatrician and speaking with him some time back about why there are so many people [children in particular] now with allergies – it seems to me there were far fewer when I was young, indeed I don't recall anyone I knew having an allergy — his reply was that we live in a world that is too clinically clean thus our immune system has little or nothing to do so looks for something it perceives is a threat and attacks it. Somewhat simplistic explanation on my part but I'm sure you will get the idea !

John

Hi JohnF, I have seen programmes on TV about allergies, and one of them compared adults where some grew up on farms and in the country side to those that grew up in towns where they were less exposed to many common allergies. Those that grew up in towns had a significantly higher amount of allergies compared to the country side and farm people. The assessment seemed to show that we build up our immunity by being exposed to allergens during our childhood years. Can't remember if it was the same programme, but one case in point was a women who's parents keep her kind of "squeaky clean" and always cleaned her up immediately after getting dirty, was never exposed to much wildlife and had never been stung by a wasp. She went on a trip to America and got stung by a wasp while jogging and went into anaphylactic shock and from then on she has to carry an adrenaline injector in case it ever happen again. This doesn't prove the facts, but it does seem you need to be exposed to all manner of things to help us to survive in later life without too many problems.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 23/05/2020 10:46:46

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

In my garden I have a Espalier Cotoneaster that is about 10' x 10' and is covered with dozens & dozens of small bees. The hum is a glorious sound to hear. They just go about their business day after day and seem to prefer the Cotoneaster to other flowers. The path is right next to the bush but they take no notice of us and we leave them alone. Where they nest I have no idea but am not really bothered as I will never disturb them. My garden has an abundance of flowers that my wife takes great pleasure in growing. Myself I am not into gardening but am appreciative of her efforts. We get quite a few larger bumbles in the garden and are quite happy to sit there and let them potter around us as they will. Neither of us have suffered a bee stink but have had the occasional encounter with a wasp or two.

regards

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

Clive – thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Not sure they are bumble bees but:

The pics with two bees, the little fella on the left is still alive, just, but keeps trying to roll over onto her back, the one on the right is dead. As you can see from the pics with my rule in them, they are both about 1/2 to 3/4inch long. Found these amongst the lettuce I am growing under the nest entry. Wanted to get a photo of the entry which is usually full of bees coming and going on a sunny day like today, but the sun is in the wrong position for a good photo and there aren't that many bees flying right now, I think the high wind is putting them off.

Not worried they might attack me, just want them to go. Was wondering if these bees were a variety of masonery or charpenter bees, in which case if the latter they may attack the roof beam or roofing boards.

Sounds like I need to wait until winter then block up the entry. I have some wasp nest destroyer which you squirt from 2m away, but I would need to get up close to squirt it through the entry hole if I chose to use this. Or, I could just use some silicon sealant or the like.

Neil. A few years ago I came into my shed and there was a huge hornet sitting on the bench. Popped him into a jam jar and left him on the table outside the shed. The heat killed him. Next day I came in and there was his mate, probably come looking for him, sat in the exact same spot on my bench. He got the same jam jar treatment, Was worried then that all their mates might rock up, but they didn't. We had a nest of bees in the cavity of an extension wall at about the same time, and then saw a hornet showing an interest in the nest – shortly later all the bees in that nest had gone.

Chris

Chris

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Big ones are usually queens looking for a nest site.

Neil

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

Two pics of the bees nest entry, not very good, the sun kept upsetting things, the first:

If you closely you can see a load of bees just outside the entrance, plus a couple in flight, the second:

shows too much contrast at the entrance but a nice one of some of the bees!

Chris

Edited By ChrisH on 23/05/2020 14:58:00

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Chris H – I think that they are the Drones (Male bees) as they appear to have big eyes. Clive will probably confirm. They are often chucked out of the hive and starve to death if they are not wanted by the colony. Their only purpose in life is to mate with virgin queens and a queen is only mated once in her lifetime and by perhaps 10 – 15 drones. Apart from that, drones just sit around all day chatting and eating honey, don't do any housework, don't look after the kids.

There is usually only one queen per colony with an active life of 3 – 5 years. At her height, she can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day, reducing substantially during the winter months.

[Ian Skeldon 2Participant @ianskeldon2]

I love bees, but I don't know enough to consider keeping them, also when I looked on line the cost of a hive is pretty steep.

Am I right in thinking I will be helping out by just hanging some of those bamboo looking things up which wild bees will then use?

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Ian, there are many types of bee from solitary to the honey bee that live in colonies of up to 80,000. Even honey bees are 'wild' although may be managed by man. You will do no harm in helping nature find a new home, but they won't be honey bees although they will, like bumble bees produce very small quantities of honey and pollen stores.

[Ian Skeldon 2Participant @ianskeldon2]

Thank you speedy, I am not interested in making or taking honey, I just have a fondness for bee's that I can't explain, I will do anything I can to help them out, I have lots in and out of the garden so hopefully a couple of these bamboo type things will help em out.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Honey bee Drones, as said have one peurpose to impregnate the Queen. So they live the life of Rielly being fed and allowed out and in any hive.

It has been established that the Drones congregate in certain areas and circle about and this is where the Queen will head to. As said she will go out several times to mate and each time the the Drone dies but leaves his genitals in the Queen. She comes back and the bees clean her up for the next flight

It has been well researched and happens in the same places each years.

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

Clive – can you ID my bees for me from the photos I've posted?

Thanks,

Chris

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

Very interesting bee incident – magical even.

Found a huge, and I mean huge, bumble bee on the window cill in the conservatory last evening. It was still alive so I carefully relocated it to some flower plants outside. It was soon climbing very slowly around the flower head of a French Marigold.

This morning it was still there, and still moving, very slowly. Thinking it might need some energy I mixed a little teaspoon, about a 1/4, of honey with some water, put it on a side plate, put the bee on the plate and watched. It wandered seemingly aimlessly about so I steered it towards the honey solution. Suddenly it realised what was in front of it, the head went down, out came a long what looked like two pronged vee thingy from it's mouth area and out of the bottom of which came a little tongue which lapped at the honey solution for a few minutes. Then satisfied, the prongs were withdraw, a sudden spurt of solution came out its rear end and it trundled off around the plate so I put it back on the marigold flower head. It stayed there for a while and then suddenly next time I looked it had gone .

Never seen the like of that before.

And, not to do with bees, but this morning a song thrush flew down into the garden. To be fair, it took one look at me and flew off again, but that is the first song thrush I've seen in England for years and years, decades even. Wish it would eat more of the snails which are eating my seedlings!

Chris

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

We have just discovered a nest of Tree Bee's in our bungalow eves.

Having looked them up to find out what species they are, we will leave them to get on with their lives.

Phil

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by ChrisH on 27/05/2020 12:29:10:

.
Very interesting bee incident – magical even.

[…]

.

Chris,

What you have been privileged to see in action [the Bee’s proboscis] is an astonishingly complex device

This page includes some SEM images showing the exquisite detail : **LINK**

SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE

MichaelG.

 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 27/05/2020 13:11:54

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

OldIron, definitely a Drone bee on the left and likely a worker bee on the right.

Dog went for a Bumble just now and it latched onto the fur around her chpps and she used her left foreleg to get it off, result, a sting on the left foot. Serves her right as she goes for anything that crawls, flys or runs in HER garden.

All OK now after a short walk.

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

We had a German Shepherd that liked bees, caught them in mid air and went cross eyed when they stung him. If I was quick I could get him to spit it out alive.

 

BTW don't forget to clean out bee hotels for next year.

Edited By Dave Halford on 27/05/2020 14:14:21

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Blue Bee : **LINK**

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/blue-bee-feared-be-extinct-found-florida-180974957/

MichaelG.

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

Earlier this morning masses of bees came out their nest in the wall of my shed, thousands of them, all flying in an area about 10-15m across. The noise was tremendous. Tried to film a video of them but they did not come out well against the background, the little flying bees seemed so indistinct. Can only assume it might have been a queen out flying for her nuptials, maybe a new queen? Not up on these things! Something was exciting them but, obviously.

Now an hour later, all is quiet again, with 4 perhaps 6 only bees buzzing around the entrance.  Calmness reigns again!

Chris

Edited By ChrisH on 31/05/2020 11:53:03

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

It would now appear that the queen – old, new? – and a mob of bees have made off and are now hanging in a tree behind my neighbours garden. Hope they find somewhere safe. I presume that another queen has stayed behind in the nest as there are still a limited number of bees hanging around the entrance, but only a few.

The swarm hanging off a branch – its the downward pointed cone thingy in roughly the middle of the picture.  The nest entrance is rounghly in a line directly under the swarm, between the roof timber and the top of the wall

Close up of the swarm

Chris

Edited By ChrisH on 31/05/2020 13:59:49

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

A good looking swarm, what happens is that the old Queen(Now in that swarm) has left the hive and the hive now has several Queen cells. On ef these cells will hatch out and that Queen will kill the remaining cells and queens. Then, the new Queen will go out to mate a few times and the whole hive cycle will start again for next year. It seems you are the owner of a Bee home.

Now, if you want to keep having them in your shed wall OK but getting rid is hard. You can elimanate them by burning some sulphur smake into the cavity they are in. SAfter you can get into the cavity and remove the combs and honey.

Press the honey thro. ladies tights and bottle.

Extra, it is possible that the next Queen may lead aanother swarm out and so on until the bees are all gone. This does happen sometimes. Have you called anyone to collect the bees?

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

No Clive, not called anyone yet – who do we call? or will the bees just go off somewhere?

The problem is, to get to where the bee home is in the wall/roof is a matter of destruction. The wall does not have a cavity. The outbuilding is a very old (mid-late Victorian) and is constructed of a 2ft thick wall of mud and stone lumps with render on the inside and mortar on the outside. The roof boards have opened up a little (dried out I guess) to leave a small gap between the boards just big enough for the bees to crawl in.

I was thinking of just waiting for the winter and then sealing up the entrance. Where do you get sulphur smoke from? Had heard the petrol fumes kills them instantly too. Don't really want to kill them but neither do I really want them in the wall/roof of my shed! At least whatever happens aat least one mob has got away to start over again.

Chris

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