Queen Nesting updates

It's been a hectic week, so this is a short consolidated queen update. It's been record-breakingly hot for March (in scotland, at least) this week, so we took timeo out to try and catch some queens and introduce them to our nest box. (The Pilkington is the default). 

Here's a rundown:

• Sunday, 13:45 QB2012-07 - I caught a redtail. We placed the capture tube up to the box and left it. However, we loosened the moss at the end, compared to the previous day, since the previous queen had not managed to escape herself. However, this queen never went into the box and just broke her way through the moss and escaped! We are not bothered: we would far rather they are not kept under duress. 
• Sunday 16:45 QB2012-08 - I caught a bufftail towards the end of the afternoon. She was much happier about going in the box and seemed to explore it quite thoroughly. Although none of the queens had really made use of the long thin tube as an exit route, we left that attached to continue trying with it. Nearly 2 hours went by as we watched and we needed to "get on with things" and we figured she was probably there for the night, so we let her be. 
  I watched the CCTV intently from about 6.20am the next morning and saw nothing of her. By Midday BCW intervened and checked the box and she was gone. My guess is she actually left not long after we stopped watching the night before, since (with the clock change) sunset was now 7.30pm, she would have had a decent amount of time to leave.  
• Wednesday 14:45 QB2012-09 - I caught a redtail searching along the (side at first, and) base of the ditch in the field. She was fairly placid in the tube (unusual for a redtail!) and went into the box quickly. Again, I switched the tubes for the long thin one, but she never used it to exit. I think it is too long and dark to be an obvious exit. After about an hour I swapped it for our short funnel, stuff with grass. She quickly spotted this from inside the box and worked her way out. She was actually quite placid about leaving - and in fact did the nearest we have seen to "memorising" on her way out, though I don't think it was. More like orienting herself I think. Anyway, I videoed it, so see what you think. ☺

(sorry for the quality in the latter half - once the bumbles are more than a few feet away they are almost impossible to track and see!)

Other Queen updates

I also saw our first Vestal Cuckoo bumblebee today - sadly couldn't get a decent enough picture. 

While I was working in the garden on the laptop, I also saw a redtail queen come to our baby cherry tree, about 4 times. I managed to get some pics of her flying around it, just for fun. Her tail is super-red!

redtail queen on cherry

redtail queen on cherry

redtail queen on cherry

Going Potty

Yet more infrastructure changes this Sunday. Really we are just taking every possible opportunity to create a nesting environment that a queen may explore. 

So, I added some upturned flower-pots (with some tubing underneath) under a mound of cut grass.

You can see I've designed some very obvious "holes" - created by cutting the top of a 2 litre soft drink bottle, feeding the tube into it, and part filling them with the grass. The contrast should make them easy to spot.

Next, I simply just turned one of our blue plastic boxes over and did the same trick with the tube. We've noticed some queens being attracted to the blue (stands to reason, as they are attracted to ultraviolet).

I was also delighted that a load of tubing (off eBay, of course) arrived. This is 3cm diameter"cable tidy" and it will be used simply to keep the CCTV cables tidy and safe (and us inhabitants for that matter). 

I noticed also at dusk just how "fluorescent" our Hi Viz flags were, so just a quick picture of those. No wonder the bumbles are attracted to them!!

Gone but not forgotten...

This post is a day late because I didn't get chance yesterday - and is a quick update on the Queen (QB2012-06) we introduced to the nest on Saturday night (March 24th). We introduced her to the box around 4.15pm (GMT as it was then) and after 2 hours is what clear she was going to stay the night. 

We placed the capture tube against the entrance of the nestbox and she was quick to enter, mooching about while we loosened the moss in the end of the tube; we left it in place up against the box.  

I also set up the cameras so they would record her leaving in the morning. 

On Sunday morning I got up (clocks went forward, so I was groggy!) and it looked like the moss had been dislodged so I assumed she had gone. I checked several hours of footage, nothing, so I was a bit baffled, but assumed she must have broken out before sunrise (which bothered me).

Anyway, later we decided to see what she'd done to the bedding, so had a look through the red filter about midday, and she was still in there! Now I was worried because this meant she probably hadn't been able to break out as I thought; and now she was scratching at the air vents.

So, as a test I changed the capture tube for the narrow, longer piping (about 50cm), but she still showed no interest, I think not enough light coming down it. So, in the end I changed it again for our short 'funnel' made from the head of a bottle and she soon emerged.

She walked out, probably a bit hungry! And spent nearly 30 minutes foraging on our heather and wandering about, preening on our gravel and generally getting back into shape. We may have stressed her a little more than we intended, so we figured we'd go a lot easier on the moss (consequently today two queens escaped before even going into the box, but that's ok, I'd rather it was that way). Always a learning process!

I'm convinced this queen flew back again twice, she actually seemed to have an interest in the same piece of garage wall on all three occasions and followed same flight path. But who knows?

It was a beautiful day, so I went out again today and caught a redtail (QB2012-07) and a bufftail (QB2012-08). Redtail got away by breaking out from the moss end of the tube before entering the box - this is fine; better that than undue stress. We placed the bufftail at about 4:50pm (remember, the clocks went forward so sunset has moved to 7:30pm) and observed for well over an hour and she stayed in the box. We made sure she could easily escape - just attaching 50cm tubing unhindered to the outside world - although it's quite dark, perhaps not obvious as an exit at first. 

I actually didn't see many nest searching today, they were all resting in the warm late afternoon sun.  Quite a lot of bumbles actually: carders, bufftailed, redtail... But mainly I saw them all foraging and resting, barely any nest searching. 

I checked the cameras this morning from about 6.20am non-stop to about midday and saw nothing of our Queen. Eventually BCW had a look in the box and she was not there. I think therefore that she didn't stay the night, but actually snuck out about 6.30pm when we decided to eat. In a way it's good, because it meant she discovered and used the long thin tube. She didn't come back today though, so we just have to keep a lookout for any of the queens returning a later date if they liked the box.

BCW also made some adjustments to the box - to flatten the bedding a bit to improve the camera view and to provide some sugar water in the box. We're really happy with the setup now.  

not all flags and fake tubes

Every day I think I've finished our bumblebee setup, and every day I come up with something new. ☺

So, today I was lying in bed thinking I need more flags! When I say "flags",  I mean the fake flowers we made the other day. It occured to me we could use them mroe constructively to bring the exploring bumbles nearer to our nest entrances, and possibly train them to a degree by offering a reward if they follow them. It's well established that (honey) bees can be trained -e.g. to detect explosives and bumbleebees are trained during lab experiments. 

Anyway - I decided to create a row of flags leading to the boxes; to extend one above our garden wall so it is visible from outside the garden, and to flag each entrance to a nestbox. Anyway,  here are the pictures of the set up. 

descending row of hi-viz flags

flags by each of the nest entrance tubes

There is a small reward on some of the flags, by way of some sugar water. This may train any bumblebees to keep visiting the yellow flags, which will ultimately draw them nearer to the nest box entrances. 

row of flags approaching the nest boxes

I also decided that it might be useful to bury some more entrance tubes in the lawn. These don't go anywhere, but are intended just to be highly visible to Queens and give them a reason to explore the garden. By having more, there's a greater chance they will spot one in passing and investigate, thus increasing the chance of spotting others. 

fake entrance tube - using hi-vis tape for contrast

high flag on pussy willow - visible from outside the garden

Of course, it wasn't all flags and fake tubes today - I also had a spare input on the camera system which I wanted to use more productively. Usually it is just a wide view of the garden - more of a "security" camera view, but I had a spare "bullet cam" that was fixed to the house wall down low. I removed that and attached it to a nice big rock which I got from my parent's garden in the highlands. This gives me the flexibilty to move the camera wherever needed. Note the high-tech waterproofing! ☺

rock cam!

"Rock Cam" now provides the view seen in the very bottom right hand window of the screen, shown in "mission control" below. (Colour image). The three smaller images around it are from the nestboxes. And the three larger images are from the beepol lodge, which doesn't have its colony yet. 

the view from mission control with all cams installed

We can also get the "mission control" view on our iPhones and iPad, anywhere in the world. We can zoom into individual pictures if needed and get sound from the onboard camera microphones. 

remote viewing on iPhone

After all the setup, we went out and were quite quickly able to catch a couple of Queen in succession. We have a new capture technique (to be described later) and tried the first queen in the right hand box (box 3). It wasn't very successful and after a while she worked her way out of the capture tube (which we allowed to happen). So, we revised our tactics slightly and I was able to catch a big beautiful bufftailed queen. 

This time we introduced her to box 2 - the "pilkington" box (brown, centre) and she went in no bother. She too would have been able to get out if she wanted, by removing moss in the capture tube, but she actually stayed in the box. By the time 2 hours had passed, it had gone sunset, so she would not have left anyway due to the low light - so I'm pleased to say she has stayed overnight. 

We fully expect her to leave tomorrow morning - the question is, whether she finds the location desirable and memorises it for a future return. We'll set the CCTV to try and record her exit to see if she does. 

Queen in residenceAbove is the picture of the setup with the queen in residence. The capture tube is covered in a cloth to stop any stray light, but she can exit via the moss filled end if she wants. We added lots of daffodils so that there is immediate nearby food (and also to attract other bees to the garden, which worked: we have a redtail on them within 5 minutes). 

redtail queen on our newly added daffodilsSo, we now wait to see what tomorrow morning brings for our overnight guest... 

QB2012-06 in the nestbox overnight

Final stage: nestbox tech

It was phase 3 of the "Pilkington box" preparation today: installing the tech!

All our nestboxes and the beepol lodge are fitted with at least one (in some cases two) miniature CCTV cameras. They are small and discreet and have a built in microphone and infrared lighting - which means they can essentially see in the dark. They allow continuous monitoring of activity in the box, including the potential for motion detection. 

The other item to fit is a thermometer - the readout is external to the box, but a wire runs inside the box to sample the temperature. 

spy camera in nest box

Here's a wider view of the finished article. 

This is how the box looks located at its final site against our garage wall. The red filter is effective at allowing a view inside the nest without creating disturbance to any resdents. I haven't decided where to mount the thermometer yet. 

installation site for pilkington box

Next is the series of entrance tubes we have fitted. We have three boxes and five tubes. The idea of the tubes is to create a more natural looking entrance and also trick the bumblebees into thinking they are going underground - which of course is especially important for Bombus Terrestris (Bufftailed). 

We have tried to make the tubes look like holes in the undergrowth so that the bumbles we see them easily when scanning the garden for nest sites (of which we've seen several doing). 

entrance tube 1

Entrance tube 1 is for the left hand box. The coloured marking is to attract attention - we have noticed that the high-visibility tape is very successful at attracting bumbles. It would also provide an easier landmark to memorise should a queen check the box out and want to come back later. There is a small amount of old used mouse bedding in the entrance to create an aroma that is also appealing.

entrance tube 2

Entrance tube 2 is for the Pilkington box. This one is facing more directly upward so that it's more easily seen from a height. 

entrance tube 3a

There are three entrance "3's" - left (a), centre (b) and right (c) - as they are all connected to the right hand nestbox. This helps us try a few different designs of entrance. 

entrance tube 3b

entrance tube 3c

Finally, here is the full setup of nestboxes against our garage wall. We've trimmed the nearby grass to make the entrance tubes stand our more easily, but left some grass uncut so that the bumblebees are attracted into the garden in the first place to look for a possible nest site: they do seem to like searching over the uncut grass on the lawn.

We also have some "fake flowers" made of the yellow tape & canes to attract attention (not shown). We've seen several queens now flying from one to the other figuring out what they are. We've created a row that leads them down to the entrance tubes. We'll experiment with this to see what effect different arrangements have and whether it has any effect on queens looking for nests, or whether they don't combine forgaging behaviour with nest searching. 

the full nestbox setup with 3 boxes

We have lots of plants not shown in the picture which are now in bloom, including a Kilmarnock Pussy Willow, which seems to be very popular! But round the boxes we've put white and purple heather - the bumbles are very attracted to purple. 

So, aside from having some low-level radar ☺,  we have a pretty good setup to try and study the garden nest searching behaviour.