Since putting up the "hive" for
ChiChiBall's in-home Bumble Bee challenge, i've visited it everyday and have some updates ^__^
Set-up day: A special shout out to ChiChiBall, Mad Dog, and brother DC. I love this pic! ROFL!!!!
Day 1 (4/1/14): It was around 2pm and it's been raining. I noticed the confirmed Bumble Bees are still flying in and out of the trap hole :'( They're not having trouble getting back into their original spot. But! The couple minutes I spent observing, I noticed a bee fly into our homemade trap. Though i'm not sure if it was an accident, it's good news! :) I also noticed there are different size bees; some being around 40% smaller than the largest one i've noticed. The larger bees are the ones that are coming back with filled pollen baskets (see picture below). Unfortunately, I also noticed some of the bees continuing to go in the sides of the trap so we know there are still some openings.
Bumble Bee with its pollen basket (the orange oval 'basket' at her leg)
Day 2 (4/2/14): It was 5:40pm and there's definitely more action going on here on day 2. I found a dead wet bee upon arrival :'( see her picture below. Otherwise, some bees seem to know exactly what they're doing; flying straight into the hole of the trap we set up. Other bees fly onto the wall and try to walk in the side cracks. Other bees fail to land on the trap mesh; but get in after a couple tries. Since there's only one hole, there seems to be a "waiting line" or "taking turns" to use the hole :P (i am so immature =__+) I took some videos but not advanced enough yet to troubleshoot them onto Blogger. So LOTS of bees (enough to completely cover the side cracks) were just stagnant; waiting to get in da club :P hahahah! jk of course. These latter guys seem to be unaware of the hole so it's kinda working - yay!! I stood directly below the hive to monitor the stagnant guys and a bee came wailing towards me. I hid behind my big hair and lowered myself to the floor ( I must've been interesting to observe myself hahaha! I have another video on this fallen bee too, but again, sorry for the technical difficulties ::insert 'im imperfectly perfect' mantra::) After today's observation, I conclude they're having a hard time getting in and out of their old hive. Their flying pattern is definitely disturbed; making it harder for them to come in and out of the trap. It's kind of heartbreaking to see them struggle but the good news is today I saw 3-5 bees hanging out INSIDE our hive setup! They weren't hanging for long but it feels as if they're scoping out the new spot. Hopefully they'll find our hive a lot more convenient than their current situation.
look closely and you'll notice a bee on our house - yay! :D
Our fallen sister. I took her home. She likes Jose Melendez in the mix.
ChiChiBall, have you observed them? What's your stat?
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