Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Other Pollinators => Topic started by: Jen on February 24, 2016, 05:46:12 pm
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What a lovely surpise today. Was cleaning up the outside of my bee shed, and I picked up a couple of the wax frames that the rats destroyed, and there was this big ole bumble bee munching on the wax.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs18.postimg.cc%2F52v8n6oit%2FDSCF8945.jpg&hash=aa619d4a96be70353e4cb8af248a224bb3e535cb) (http://postimg.cc/image/52v8n6oit/)
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs18.postimg.cc%2Fczfpvezz9%2FDSCF8946.jpg&hash=eef6f4166c899d86ab3dd6a0901d0a23c6ce6f2b) (http://postimg.cc/image/czfpvezz9/)
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs18.postimg.cc%2F5kqe31e3p%2FDSCF8950.jpg&hash=f4d9713b9a2725c99ed7e557eac3769cc4961a1b) (http://postimg.cc/image/5kqe31e3p/)
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This time of year, she may be a queen. Be sure to treat her royally :)
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Wow two queens in the same close space
:laugh:
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Interesting Chip, cause I've looked up the markings on this bee and haven't found them yet on google.
Apis would know I'll bet ;) 8)
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Apis doesn't know. Look for your answer some where else the last I heard that 200 different spices of bees have been found in the Pacific North West region. BC, Washington, Oregon, Northern California. as well as the few imported species brought in to pollinate green houses. They aren't suppose to allow them to escape but.... look what happened with African bees in Brazil
Put it in a cage and send it to Chip! He can nest it and use it to pollinate his basement garden.
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Jen Jen Jen! Had to resign in again so it would let me post what I has typed went to find the post, Looked in Other Pollinators, then Any and Every Thing, next tried Beekeeping 101 and then I thought I bet she put it in General Beekeeping. The way we post We keep Iddee busy refiling our posts.
Thanks Iddee
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Sounds like a good one to try starting a colony in the basement Apis! Those cherry tomatoes are about as big as they get but none turning color yet.
Jen, my guess as to queen was mostly because of the time of year. Bumble bees overwinter as bred queens so they are the ones you see first in spring. They are the ones to start the colony each year as the others perish in winter. That said, I've seen orange belted bumble bees here in winter but they were inside the wall of a neighbor's house--don't know if all would have survived the winter but who knows. Never say never in biology but that's the way it generally works. There is also a species that is parasitic on other bees and it is a large bumble bee species. Too bad we don't have a member called Bombus on the forum; he/she could answer all our bumble bee questions!!
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You're welcome, Apis, and yes, it's going to other pollinators.
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Just thought it was a good time to hassle Jen.
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Rub it in good. Be serious with jen, hassle jaybird. :laugh:
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Sorry Apis, I've been called on that posting issue before, and I've been doing real good ;) :-[ just had a little slip up that's all :P
However, I had no idea that the forum had the 'other pollinators' section, or whatever you call it. How long has that been on forum?
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Bring It...... !! I can hold my own ;)
:D
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LOL all!............... :D (especially keith.........too funny!.......... :D)
"What a lovely surpise today. Was cleaning up the outside of my bee shed, and I picked up a couple of the wax frames that the rats destroyed, and there was this big ole bumble bee munching on the wax."
what you have all missed in my HO.............this is not a bumble, it is a carpenter bee...............
btw jen, doesn't matter where you post what here, we get it to where ever.............. :D
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Didn't even notice river!! Mind has been on the remodel and the pain in my knees from stapling subfloor--I'll be happy when the bees get home and I can work standing up for a change!! Saw Carpenter bees when we visited the Galapagos last summer. They are native but there are LOTS more invasive paper wasps. Darn wasps were attracted to everything we rinsed in freshwater since it is so scarce. I was amazed nobody got stung.
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at first glance chip ya think bumble!
pain in your knees ya say? .............. :D :D :D lol, pain in my titanium hips and arse right now...... :D :D :D
for some, carpenters get easily mixed up with bumbles. we get a great deal of them(carpenters always pestering the hives) and wasps/hornets of all sorts, they are very troublesome and very pesky!
wish you well chip to recovery from remodeling soon!........ :D
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You must have had a hip replacement. A couple of my friends, including a commercial bee guy, had them done too. They liked the outcome--hope you do (or will) too!
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i did chip........both of them!
the left one july 20th after my return from alaska (steroid injections kept me going that trip) and the right one i just had on feb 1......so still recovering from the surgery. so happy it's done and over with!
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My wife and I have both had steroid injections in various places but not in our hips. We never realized aging would be so much fun!!!!! Ours have been in our shoulders (wife) and knees (me). Mine seems to be from arthritis but a surgery a few years ago removed a little bone and it helped until recently. I get to see the surgeon again today but will have to postpone anything major till winter. I have one more room to rip apart for the remodel and then the bees come home, then the summer family fishing trip............must sound familiar?
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"must sound familiar?"
LOL, it does especially the FISHING part!............... :D
one round steroid injections before alaska, then the surgeries, osteo arthritis, just plain had fun wearing them out i guess.......... :D
ps jen, sorry i sorta sidetracked your thread....... ;D
anyway, i think i have something somewhere on identifying carpenter bees vs bumbles......... ;)
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Hi Riv, I've looked and looked on google and can't seem to find this particular one. I don't know why I'm so facinated with her, I think it's a her from what Dunkle said, I think it was Dunkle LOL
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well, i am going to eat some humble pie and apologize! i took a look again at the photos, at first glance, sure looked like a carpenter, did not see the small yellow stripe on the butt (carpenters do not have stripes)........... :-[
it is a bumble!........... "Bombus vosnesenskii" (female) or Yellow Faced Bumble Bee........see info/photos here:
Yellow Faced Bumble Bee (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Bombus_vosnesenkii.jpg&imgrefurl=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-faced_bumblebee&h=2874&w=4200&tbnid=dProh7YMAsIpsM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=200&docid=Bpl9iAC61u2sRM&itg=1&usg=__5g7IIkYHsFBpkshQhvadGp7O9Gw=#h=2874&itg=1&tbnh=137&tbnw=200&w=4200)
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That's It! Thanks River ;D She's so beautiful! And when I bend down to take a much closer look, she lifts up her front leg and waves at me :D
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Things are happen a little to fast around here with all the warm temp. my tuplit trees are in full bloom, saw some carpenter bees out on the wild weed flowers, my locust tree blooming and even see some blackberry trying to bloom and having trees putting out leaves, I guess spring is here without the steady warm temperature that comes with it. The winds have been bad around here also.
Ken
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Kebee, I know what you mean. My maple tree is buzzing with bees just today. But, guess what? We are predicted S__W on Sunday! Geez...
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"That's It! Thanks River ;D She's so beautiful! And when I bend down to take a much closer look, she lifts up her front leg and waves at me :D"
you are welcome, sorry for being quick to say it was a carpenter, cuz she's not, these bumbles are prevalent from british columbia down to baja, ca. is what i read i think? so i have never seen one.
lifts up the front leg and waves at you ? ? ? okay, hmmmm, WHATEVER!!!!............ :D :D :D
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My bet is still on that she's a queen.
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Chip, I have a vid of her, but had to leave town for a couple days. So, while I was gone guess who showed up? Ha! we think it might have been her boyfriend, or one of them? Hubby didn't get a pic but said it landed and kept circling her. He (we think) was about half her size, and had two thin bands around his abdomen instead of the one band around her lower abdomen. So sorry I missed that
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Worker, Daughter, The boyfriends arnt needed at this time of year.
new clutch of queens will be born. Upon maturation, they will leave the nest to mate, and then will hibernate for the winter until it is their turn in the spring to begin a colony.
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Worker, Daughter, The boyfriends arnt needed at this time of year.
new clutch of queens will be born. Upon maturation, they will leave the nest to mate, and then will hibernate for the winter until it is their turn in the spring to begin a colony.
Yep. We're still cold (21 F now; -6 C) so it will be another month or two before we see overwintered queens getting new nests established. The one here that I really enjoy is the orange belted and they are a smaller bumble bee. Still not sure where Jen is (in relative terms of spring) but the second one could also be a queen of a different species. The student I finished this past December found 13 species of bumble bees here in North Dakota during his study.
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Thanks Chip and Apis :)
Chip, we are a burgeoning spring here now, buds and bees everywhere, getting close to 60 most days now.
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jealous jen, we are still in 20's F - 30's f, with plenty of snow still on the ground........this wkend forecast for 40's......
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It is possible that some of the overwintered queens in Jen's location have established nests already but she's not long into spring. My wife and I drove to Red Bluff the 3rd (I think) week in January to pick up some deep hive bodies and it was pretty early then, phenologically. I'd still guess queen but I've been wrong many times.
My bees went into almonds heavy and I'm guessing I'll have some wooly hives to deal with when they get home!! I'd still rather work bees, even those that won't fit in the box, than remodel!
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I saw my first bumble bee, species unknown, on 3/31. It was working my Oregon Grape. We just had snow on Easter. (Or as Jack likes to call it s__w.) Last night was supposed to dip down to freezing again. Hardy little things!
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Hi Baker, I saw my bumble about a month ago. Then, just a few days ago I found one dead on my deck :( I can't help but think it might have been the one on the pic. We had a cold snap and she might not have made it thru. I sure enjoy watching those big furry bees working my lilac bush. And, funny, I never see a honeybee on my lilac... very curious indeed
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Honey bees don't work lilacs, but I love my lilac bush anyway. I never see anything working the lilac. The bumbles really like the purple coneflowers.