The Bees Knees

[Lotsaveg]

Your photos are just lovely Lotsaveg! My (okay, okay MrPB's) Beepol and lodge should be delivered today (very excited!). He was talking about trying to catch a 'Princess', as he calls them, towards the end of the season.

Thanks PB! The colony is my pride and joy at the moment but I spend too much time watching them instead of doing the garden! It's amazing watching the guard bees that sit in the entrance holes and vet the pollen carrying bees as they come in to land... Absolutely fascinating!

You'll have to let us know when your hive arrives and how you get on with it.

[Pumpkin Becki]

...Thanks Lotsaveg! It sounds wonderful - Man, I love Bumbles!
It didn't arrive yesterday, so my fingers are crossed for today. MrPB can bearly contain himself! I'll definitely be blogging our experiences with it.

[BigShot]

I'd be interested to hear if the Beepol has any issues with wax moth. If it were a honeybee thing (like the hideously expensive Beehaus) I'd definitely be concerned about the hollow parts of the corrugate giving a place for pests to hide... as bumblebees colonies don't tend to overwinter in this part of the world it may not be a problem but I'm sure those who've got them will be able to report back if it is.

[Lotsaveg]

I opened the lid of my lodge today and no sign of waxmoths. Anyhow, I'd be surprised if they get past the guards who sit in the holes:





There's some big bees sitting on top that look like they might be early queens! Nest seems to be doing really well and can even see larvae in the brood cells inside!

[pipscariad]

I forwarded the link about the Beepol to a friend of mine who is a very keen fan of bumbles, and she was thrilled about it. However, she was a little concerned about introducing bees from elsewhere, and thought she'd ring the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust to get their views before going ahead with her order.

What they said was very interesting, and without wanting to rain on the parade of those of you who have/are getting the Beepol, their response was to advise against having the bumblebees because although raised in the UK, the bumblebee larvae originate outside of the UK and may carry disease. Apparantly the man who is behind this company has imported live bumbles into the UK previously.

A tricky one this, as the hive and bees look so wonderful and I have to say that if I'd got the money I would have bought one. I did think it was interesting though that the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust advise against it, so perhaps the best thing to do is to make sure we plant plenty of lovely flowers for the bumble residents we already have.

Hope I haven't offended anyone with this post btw.

[Lotsaveg]

I forwarded the link about the Beepol to a friend of mine who is a very keen fan of bumbles, and she was thrilled about it. However, she was a little concerned about introducing bees from elsewhere, and thought she'd ring the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust to get their views before going ahead with her order.

What they said was very interesting, and without wanting to rain on the parade of those of you who have/are getting the Beepol, their response was to advise against having the bumblebees because although raised in the UK, the bumblebee larvae originate outside of the UK and may carry disease. Apparantly the man who is behind this company has imported live bumbles into the UK previously.

A tricky one this, as the hive and bees look so wonderful and I have to say that if I'd got the money I would have bought one. I did think it was interesting though that the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust advise against it, so perhaps the best thing to do is to make sure we plant plenty of lovely flowers for the bumble residents we already have.

Hope I haven't offended anyone with this post btw.

Hello Pipscariad,

As an avid conservationist and biologist, this was initially one of my concerns and I investigated it before acquiring my hive. I gained total assurance that the Beepol bees are bred to an extremely high standard that protects their health and their genetic diversity. The breeding protocol follows what has been used for the past 25 years to produce bumblebee hives for the commercial growers of Europe and is approved by an accredited body in the UK for production of our British species. The venture was discussed with the director of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

I'd say it's very odd that someone from the BCT should say what you have posted and potentially try and put the dampers on a tremendous opportunity for us to help boost British bumblebee numbers and watch the life cycle of these lovely insects. I have been told that the BCT have no objections to the Beepol hive but I will certainly check again with the company next week and alert them to what you have been told.

[pipscariad]

Hello Pipscariad,

As an avid conservationist and biologist, this was initially one of my concerns and I investigated it before acquiring my hive. I gained total assurance that the Beepol bees are bred to an extremely high standard that protects their health and their genetic diversity. The breeding protocol follows what has been used for the past 25 years to produce bumblebee hives for the commercial growers of Europe and is approved by an accredited body in the UK for production of our British species. The venture was discussed with the director of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

I'd say it's very odd that someone from the BCT should say what you have posted and potentially try and put the dampers on a tremendous opportunity for us to help boost British bumblebee numbers and watch the life cycle of these lovely insects. I have been told that the BCT have no objections to the Beepol hive but I will certainly check again with the company next week and alert them to what you have been told.

Thanks for that reply Lotsaveg - hmm, that's odd isn't it? It's so frustrating when organisations don't seem to have a coherant line on these kind of things, not exactly helpful to those of us that want to help the cause. I've actually emailed the BCT to clarify, will be interesting to hear what response I get.

In the meantime it has got me thinking about bee friendly plants, so it hasn't been a wasted effort entirely. I plan to plant Borage and Vipers Bugloss, and I have a huge box of foxglove plants to put in tomorrow, re-housed from what will be my brassica bed this year!

[Pumpkin Becki]

Well, my Beepol was delivered yesterday...CityLink left it with my kind neighbours at 8pm!! They were bemused and slightly worried to have a box full of bees in their hall overnight, but everything was just fine.

I waited for MrPB to come home from work at 2pm, and photographed him opening it. We have placed it in its final position and put the bung in, but won't release the bees til first thing tomorrow morning, coz they were lookin' abit grumpy this evening!!

[BigShot]

Lotsaveg...
I think the respondent from the BCT may have a point. As a conservationist I'm sure you'll be familiar with these issues so I hope you don't think I'm trying to teach you to suck eggs, but:

Importing of bees has caused huge problems for honeybees all over the place.

Varroa in particular was brought in on imported bees, and DEFRA's publication on Small Hive Beetle identified honeybee imports as a potential vector for bringing them to the UK. It may not be here yet, but I certainly don't expect that situation to last. I'm not suggesting Beepol is going to bring Small Hive Beetle to these shores, just that importing bees and bee products has been and continues to pose a threat.

While it may be the case that Beepol bees are bred to "high standards", have diversity "maintained" and all to the satisfaction of Thomas, Richard and their boss, Harold in some organisation or other, the fact remains that shipping bees around is a bad idea that carries consequences which can be seen by looking at the movement of Honeybee diseases.

I'm sure they could be bred in the UK from UK stock. If that's the case, why are they imported?
They are not locally adapted stock at the very least and locally adapted stock is exactly what needs encouraging. The beepol may be a boon to bumblebees, but it seems crazy to import insta-bees when the main threats faced by insects (not just bumblebees) are habitat loss and pesticide use. Provide habitat and stop using so much pesticide and the problem should resolve itself.

I'm inclined to think the person who voiced concerns at the BCT may well have a very valid point - despite anything the head of the organisation might have said to the company or the company has said about their bees.

Just for the record, it's not unheard of for people supposedly out to protect a species to endorse products and practices that are less than beneficial or even directly harmful to the same (BBKA pesticide endorsements anyone?)


Thus ends my rant.
Don't worry though, I won't make a habit of it.

[BigShot]

Lotsaveg - I forgot to mention...
Thanks for the photos. You've made those guard bees look big enough to drag a person off... let alone smaller invaders!

Like fuzzy golf balls!
I like honeybees as much as the next man, but bumblebees are great. They really are the Zeppelins of the insect world!

[Lotsaveg]

Hello BigShot,

Glad you liked the photo's and thanks for the 'rant' although it didn't seem to bad to me!

Indeed, I've sucked enough eggs over my career to feed the world an omelette or two!

As mentioned previously, I thoroughly investigated the Beepol hive before I invested in one and I'm very pleased and satisfied that I did.

The last thing I would have wanted to do was to create any more problems for the UK's natural bumblebee species as I'm fully aware of the problems, not only here but throughout the world.

I thus gained full assurance (for legal redress if necessary), that the Beepol hives contain only British stock buff-tailed bumblebees, Bombus terrestris audax. These are reared outside of the UK in specialist facilities that can cope with mass production of insects whilst maintaining extreme levels of hygiene essential for quality and health assurance.

These facilities were first set up to produce the European strain of the buff-tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris dalmatinus in large numbers for the horticultural industry where the bumblebee hives were placed amongst tomato, pepper, cucurbit, strawberry etc.. crops to increase yields. The growers who bought the hives would certainly not tolerate poor quality bees or disease and therefore the hive production had to be of extremely high standard.

The European bumblebees have also been used by British growers, but the hives have had to include a trap that prevents the new queens from escaping and competing with our indigenous bees. When the new queens hatch, the growers have to destroy the hives, usually by burning or freezing.

The recent production of the UK's native buff-tailed bumblebee 'audax' and its availability to us as a garden pollinator in the Beepol hive, means that the new queens don't have to be trapped and can fly off to help boost our wild populations. The production of these bees, as I mentioned before follows a strict protocol that has approval from an accredited UK organisation. (I have been told who this is but as this may be commercially sensitive information, I'm not going to disclose on this note).

So, to sum up, I'm very pleased with the Beepol hive and fully assured that I am now helping our native bee populations as well as enjoying my very own colony of pollinators... I just hope the hive keeps going until the beans are in flower as it's grown very quickly being next to a very large forsythia tree!

[Lotsaveg]

Just read about the Beepol in Helen Yemm's gardening section of today's Telegraph!

[Hilary B]

The main concern with introducing foreign sub-species (of any creature) is one of gene-confusion. If the current idea is to use native stock, (or at least ones bred from native stock) all well and good. I suspect the best thing we can do for our native bumblebees is to provide them with homes and food. If the beepol is really a good bumblebee home, I suspect it will be reinhabitted next year anyway (although you might need to give it a clean). Even wasps (in many ways a rather similar lifestyle to bumblebees) while they do not re-use old nests, will typically build one next to the old one.

[Pumpkin Becki]

Our Bumbles were let out first thing this morning, and by lunchtime were already bringing home full pollensacks. Wonderful!!

And so fascinating to watch. They come out of the hole in the lodge, turn around and have a look at where they've come from, take off and inspect the landing pad and roof, fly in a circle several times looking at 'landmarks', then the circles get bigger and higher....and off they go! It's like they are taking mental snapshots of their route home.

[BigShot]

Sounds good to watch, PB.
I've only ever watched honey bees come and go before and never thought a whole lot about how bumbles do things.
I'm going to have to make some bee-homes/nests here and see if I can get some of my own to pass some time watching.