[Fleecewife]

   I'm not hibernating, just closed my eyes for a moment there        Interesting fact, thank you 
I am amazed at butterfly migrations - they look so frail but fly so far, in spite of the winds, and so fast 


One day I shall get around to making a moth trap and using it both in the garden and out in the pastures.  Great fun!

[Steph Hen]

I was walking with a friend over a week ago and the catkins were almost ready. He said he’d seen some open beside Forfar loch. There’s often some species out of order or too late or early, but this weather is unseasonably mild. The birds are poking about nesting boxes too. Hopefully the bees stay put underground. False starts have to be bad for them through spring.
We had queen wasps hibernating behind the shutters but I think they’ve both died. In the past I’ve collected them and put them in upturned flowerpots in the shed or sheltered spot. I think this might be better than being so warm as the house.

[Penninehillbilly]

That Dave Goulson is getting everywhere, our radio gardening expert mentioned his book this morning, wouldn't have meant a thing if I hadn't been reading this thread

[Fleecewife]

That Dave Goulson is getting everywhere, our radio gardening expert mentioned his book this morning, wouldn't have meant a thing if I hadn't been reading this thread

The ubiquitous Dave Goulson    Has to be a good thing- the more he talks surely the more people will hear    and act 
It seems to be human nature not to do something significant until it becomes an emergency.
Amongst other things, storm Malik caused a very tall willow to start rocking dangerously - if it goes it will crush a shed full of important things. I've been commenting for several years now that it needed to be coppiced before it became a huge job.  You've guessed, it always got put off, now it's a job for ladders, tractor and rope to get it to fall in the only safe direction  Half done so far so hopefully it will be safe for tonight's storm.

[Fleecewife]

I was walking with a friend over a week ago and the catkins were almost ready. He said he’d seen some open beside Forfar loch. There’s often some species out of order or too late or early, but this weather is unseasonably mild. The birds are poking about nesting boxes too. Hopefully the bees stay put underground. False starts have to be bad for them through spring.
We had queen wasps hibernating behind the shutters but I think they’ve both died. In the past I’ve collected them and put them in upturned flowerpots in the shed or sheltered spot. I think this might be better than being so warm as the house.

It is all a bit higgledypiggledy.  I notice in some years that various trees and hedge plants are fooled into sending out leaves too early, then they get fried by vicious winds and blizzards.  The plants recover but it must be at a cost.  For butterflies and bees I dread that it means death before they can reproduce.

The one place I don't like wasp nests is in my garden shed.  It means I can't use it all summer or I get chased out 

You've reminded me that we haven't started cleaning out the nest boxes yet - there are 3 dozen, most needing a ladder for access, some needing repositioning, most will need the screws backed off, so it's not a quick job. With only 2 days to Feb I think we need to have it done in the next couple of weeks.

[Fleecewife]

Yesterday, the last day of January, I noticed my Hamamelis /witch hazel is covered in flowers.  Hamamelis is apparently a great favourite with bees and moths in late winter.  Even if mine were awake now it's way too windy for them to fly, so no takers yet.

[Penninehillbilly]

Hamamelis in full flower here, shame I don't get into that part of garden, hopefully tidied and used soon.
Mahonia, couple of branches south facing in flower. Lots to come hopefully.
Hellebores, nearly there.


Must check Hazels tomorrow.

[Fleecewife]

I'm glad bees and their friends know better than to come out too early - it's been pelting a blizzard of big fat snowflakes here most of the morning 

[Fleecewife]

Today we have the most glorious sunny day, with more forecast this week, so perhaps some early bees will peek outside  .
What is there in the garden for them?
Here in the south of Scotland at 1,000 feet I have snowdrops, crocus, aconites, Daphne, Winter Jasmine, a few wallflowers, coloured primrose, dead nettle and ivy still. There are hazel catkins but no willow yet, and the Hamamelis seems to be going over.


However, the garden is clearly waking up with the promise of lots of herbaceous plants which have survived the winter and are about to burst from dormancy, and numerous daffodil bulbs with buds showing so I expect that by the middle of March everything will be starting to flower.


I'm sure I'm not the only one with good weather this week so how are your gardens growing?  Have you seen any Native and Bumble Bees out and about in your area?

[arobwk]

Hordes of very big bumbles on the heathers yesterday (my 1st day back to client gardening this year after sore back problem).  Didn't take photos as "that one will be easy to identify" I thought.  Alas, tail markings were yellowish (buff ?), but with a darker band dividing the tail colour left/right and I cannot see equivalent using bee identifiers so I'm not going to try name them.   
Noticeable though was the visible number of mites some were carrying (a factor of winter hibernation perhaps ??) and, also, the number of their carcasses to be found - half a dozen perhaps which is not a huge number, but more than I have previously noticed at any time of year while gardening around a "buzy" food source.
 

[Fleecewife]

Ah, those will be queens coming out to feast and then raise their first brood ready to get into real production with some helpers  .


I have been hearing about mites on bumble bees and apparently they are not bad, or mostly they are not bad.  So what I hear is that they are hitching a ride from flower to flower on the bees, or hitching a ride back to the nest where they eat detritus.  So apparently you shouldn't pick them off, unless there are so many that the bee can't take off.  I would like to see some scientific explanation of this before I swallow it whole.
So it could be that the mites on your bees have shared the queen's winter quarters and now she's up and about they need to get to flowers to hitch a lift with different bees so they can colonise new nests. Or it could be they are an infestation and are killing the bees 


(where I see this is on an extremely dictatorial facebook group, where no one dares to put a foot wrong, which is why I question the truth)

[Steph Hen]

I think it’s mostly an assumption. Since most queens have some mites and bb aren’t extinct.
When there’s a public focus on one species/group, like bumblebees or red squirrels it’s ‘easy’ to think
“Lets do all we can to help them.” And while this is good in terms of soft help like planting flowers, leaving untidy areas, dead wood, etc, when it comes to control of other species  whether it’s mites, parasitic wasps or pine marten it gets more complicated. I’ve heard of people using forceps and paint brushes removing mites from queens, but we have no idea of the ecological importance of mites. No one has ever looked at mite numbers on wild queens and then measured the number of new queens resulting from their colonies at the end of the summer. For all we know the mites could carry some gut bacteria which improves outcomes for colonies. Who knows

If you want any ID, just post a photo.
Bumblebees lose hairs as they get older, so they don’t always look a lot like the pictures. If there’s a darker section in the center of the bees tail stripe it’s probably age related.
Interesting about the dead ones. Were their thoraxes pecked out?

[Fleecewife]

Thank you Steph Hen that's really interesting.  You would imagine that cleaning out the detritus from a nest would be a valuable enough service for mites to provide to make the effort of carrying them around worthwhile. I think people have assumed they are blood sucking mites, but I understand there is no evidence of that.
It sounds as if we still have a whole lot of research still to do     (not me!  I would go stark staring bonkers counting mites on BBs  )

[arobwk]

[member=28951]Steph Hen[/member] - wrt your Q re pecked-out BB carcasses:  I wasn't paying that much attention, but why do you ask ?

[Steph Hen]

If you’ve found a lot there’s often birds which have attacked them.  If not I’d wonder what else would have killed them.