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Bee-friends

DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
edited November 2021 in Wildlife gardening
My son sent me this text and photo …

“I shared my sugary expresso with this bee who was struggling then I realised he was trying to get a small mite off his head. Kept scraping at it with his leg, so I scraped it off with a twig and he lay there panting for a bit then had some more coffee and flew off. x”



Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    Aw bless'im.
    Great photo
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    In this pic you can see the mite he removed, although I think I can see another one … 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    He just used his iPhone. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Probably a she, I would imagine.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    @Fire … do you think it’s a Queen?  My son did say it really was quite big. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Queens are the ones I'm seeing around mostly at the moment. They have a much lower pitched drone and are bigger. They sound like Ray Winston might (if he were a bee).
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited November 2021
    I’ll tell him that … thanks @Fire 😊 
    Not a clear pic but any idea which sort?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    @wild edges  would know. I would hazard a guess at a buff tailed bumble. But it's just a guess.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    That’s what I was thinking … but just a guess too. Let’s see if @wild edges comes along 🐝 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Don't worry about the mites. The new queens carry a load of mites and mite eggs away from the old nest and they'll hibernate with her until she builds a new nest. Some of them are parasitic but most will just be general cleaner mites that eat waste in the nest. Most of the time even the parasites don't do much harm so best to just leave them to it. It's not in the parasite's interest to kill the bee. I've found bees that were dying or recently dead for various reasons in the past and if you put them in the middle of a white sheet of paper you might be amazed at what tiny creatures crawl away from them when they die.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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