I’m into my second year as a member of The Bumblebee Conservation Trust. I was considering burying a bumble bee nest box in my garden, but the other day I noticed that there is no need – the little critters have already made a nest utilising a pre-existing hole in a flower bed next to our conservatory. Now, I’m no Neil when it comes to wildlife photography, particularly as I don’t currently have a sophisticated digital camera, but I’ve done the best I can by capturing a couple of bees in flight during the frequent trips to and from the nest.
Bumblebees are important pollinators of wild flowers and crops in the UK. Already 3 species are extinct and 9 more are threatened. No, not due to ‘global warming,’ but habitat loss. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust explains the problem:
“It is thus essential that we take steps to conserve our remaining bumblebee populations, and if possible restore them to something like their past abundance. This cannot be achieved with existing nature reserves. Bumblebee nests are large, containing up to 400 sterile workers, each of which travels more than 1 km from the colony in search of suitable flowers. Each nest needs many hectares of suitable flower-rich habitat, meaning that to support a healthy population which is viable in the long term, large areas of land must be managed sympathetically. UK nature reserves are simply too small. The only way to provide sufficient areas of habitat for bumblebees is if the wider farmed countryside and the vast areas covered by suburban gardens are managed in a suitable way. To do this we need to educate people…
We need to and encourage farmers to adopt wildlife friendly farming methods through uptake of the Entry Level Stewardship scheme (ELS). We need to support the replanting of hedgerows and the recreation of hay meadow and chalk grassland habitats. These activities will not be at the expense of farming, but will actually benefit it, by improving crop yields at the same time as enriching the countryside. Meanwhile, in gardens nationwide we need to use wild flowers and traditional cottage-garden plants.”
A worthy cause, not tainted by the global warming bandwagon like the WWF or the RSPB, which is partly why I joined the the BBCT and am an ex-member of the RSPB.
For some professional, close up photos of bumblebees, check out the BBCT gallery.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
I had never heard of a bee nest box, so I looked it up. Here’s the information from the Conservation site: http://www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk/nest_boxes.htm
Honestly, I don’t know if we have a similar problem in the U.S. as you do and if it’s worth trying that here.
Woody – it’s a problem in the US and elsewhere. Some tried to blame mobile phone masts in the US, but the BBCT is skeptical, saying the decline follows an epidemiological pattern, rather than a pattern associated with phone masts.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/04/cell_phones_bees.html
Gosh, even managed to get anti-AGW in there!
Habitat, habitat and habitat. Forget mobile phone masts.
The African killer bees are in the U.S. and taking over from our European honey bees, which is a serious problem. http://www.bees-online.com/AfricanBee.htm If I make a bee nest box and prohibit the African bees from living there, will I be accused of discrimination? Seriously, they do worry a lot of people for their aggressive behavior and the deaths that they have caused.
“Gosh, even managed to get anti-AGW in there!”
Yes you did Travis!
You really are a bit of a dill aren’t you?
Paul actually excused AGW!
As the son of a Beekeeper who was regularly drafted into the task of relocating bees to ensure adequate supply of flowering plants, I must ask, are there any flowering plant species in UK that are entirely dependent on bumble bees? That is, that domesticated bees do not also service.
My only issue with this kind of nest-boxing activity is that the limiting factor is rarely adequate nest sites. It is almost invariably food supply, food quality and food continuity. All the nest boxes in the world will not compensate for the impact of a 4 week interval with nothing in flower within a km radius.
This means that it is not just the area of flowering woodland that is important, it is the condition of the woodland that counts. If former coppice woodland is abandoned and allowed to go into “lock up” with stems in excess of, and larger than, the site’s capacity to maintain, then the stand may well flower but the supply and quality of that flowering will be diminished.
And if there is a large gap in the food supply then the builders of nest boxes have an obligation to their newly created dependents to at least notice this fact and leave out some sort of supplement, like honey water in a saucer, to help them through the gap.
One of the best things for them is the grafting of two or more different varieties of early, mid and late flowering fruits onto your fruit trees. It is good for your own fruit supply and good for the bees.
Also one of the best strategies is to insist that council owned property has some provision for delivery of this sort of environmental service.
Here in Brisbane we had Logan City Council making all sorts of public posturing about a rare tree species, Austromertus gonoclada, but did not bother to put a single seedling in any of the hundreds of traffic islands, round-abouts and other sites that require millions from the park maintenance budget every year. If they had done this simple re-allocation in an existing budget item the species would now be common and no longer under threat.
But that, of course, would be the action of quiet achievers, they opted instead, for a seperate budget allocation with fanfare, that did sweet FA.
Or it could be for bumble bees finding adequate overwintering sites for the queens. Which won’t be there if tree clearing fiends have removed all the old growth nooks and crannies, and also difficult finding food source withing the growing season. The sort of clearing you used to have in your Aussie wall to wall clearing.
And more of the usual anti-enviro bulldust. Actually it’s Austromyrtus gonoclada. Not Austromertus.
Perhaps they might not thrive on traffic roundabouts, low rooting depth median strips and nasty road cuttings. Oh !
A recovery plan has been put in place to help ensure the survival of the Angle-Stemmed Myrtle. The recovery team has been successful in propagating and planting 213 trees into new and existing sites. This has brought the total number of individuals in the wild up to 285, from an existing 73 naturally grown trees.
The recovery plan for the Angle-Stemmed Myrtle can be found on the Department of the Environment and Heritage web site at: http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/recovery/a-gonoclada/index.html
So as usual more industry apologist nonsense. Where are those hallowed quiet achievers – perhaps confused as they were searching for Austromertus. They might be a while in that case. LOL.
Jennifer you may be interested in this, appears to be provisional but May 08 temps may be lowest record ever (-1.5C)
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=3053#comment-255421
please check and re-check
Charles Darwin famously noted a connection between bumble-bees, cats, and clover. As I remember it, more cats meant fewer mice, meant more bumble-bees (mice eat bumble-bee larvae), meant more clover. Is the current vilification campaign against domestic cats a factor in the decline of bumble-bees? Ecology is fascinating, as long as it is approached objectively.
The grandchildren in Hobart were first to show me what they are and how they work the garden last Christmas holidays. A couple of links for those interested in bumble bee progress downunder.
http://www.invasives.org.au/gallery/galleryi3.html
http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?/catalyst/stories/s1102441.htm
Unlike Tasmania we in Australia dont have bumble bees; they are just another imported pest.
Aye… We gots the lil’ critturs in Queensland Australia too… My friends in Cairns have got a bumble bee nest in their back yard. Busy buggers have bored a hole in a dead stick poking out o’ the ground and live in there.
It’s easy to spot ’cause of all the chewed wood shavings.
Didn’t know we had em here.
That sounds like wasps.
Wow Lord Creepo a whole 213 trees – how much a tree did it cost? How much more will it cost for the next whole 213?
Very little.
“Very little” indeed, councils now call trees assets and they have an asset manager and trees cost them $$Ms – Newcastle Council allow $1M per year in compensation claims alone.
For a variety of reasons including best of intentions most if not all of the council planted public space trees are dying and this is from from the date of planting, if not before.
No it doesn’t – what utter hogwash.
But we do seem to have “bumblecreeps” infesting our environment.
For the record the budget for Austromyrtus Gonorrhoea was well over $100,000 which, divided by 213 trees comes to $469.50 each.
And if the honourable member for Creepistan had half a brain he would know that a cubic metre of topsoil costs only $50 retail and about $15 wholesale. So any round-about with limited depth of soil could be remedied with about one hour of machine time ($100) and four M3 of soil ($60) leaving $300 spare. And as A. Gonorrhoea is only a smallish tree, two or three could fit in most round-abouts.
They would also reduce mowing and maintenance costs for said round-abouts.
I understand the nurseryman who won the tender for exclusive rights to market the species is so disgusted with the bull$hit and paper work that he no longer promotes the damned things.
Gads – such sudden affection for the nursery industry.
Gee I’ve never bought any soil in my whole life. Is that really what it costs. 😉
One might of course have worked out why the species is rare and what conditions it likes. Obviously you’re an autoecological expert. On the other hand maybe this species isn’t like pine trees and other triffids.
I know let’s establish vine forest on roadside verges. Lots of success hoped for.
A waste of money eh Luke.
Given that most of the remaining specimens were found in a creekside paddock that had been grazed by dairy cattle, continuously since 1880, then we can assume that they might be OK in a round-about.
But as usual, the clown prince has to extrapolate to an absurd extreme to give any pretence of scoring a point.
Not cheap at all. Creekside paddock makes sense. Look at the environment where the other specimens have been found in the link above. Soil type is really important with this species. If you don’t think it is, also ponder the significant mortalities in all those rainforest species plantings along the freeway in Byron environs. And the yellow leaves as they struggle with all sorts of micro-nutrient trickies or inappropriate inoculation. And watch a decent drought wipe out larger specimens in roundabouts as the root zone is confined typically above a fairly impervious substrate. Not that I have any philosophical objection to anyone having a go but if it is quite endangered as a species wouldn’t you go for some quality effort in existing habitat over a number of sites?
No, Creepo, the run off from paved roads can be diverted to the round-about substrate so that even a small rainfall will deliver a good soaking to maintain growth. And the above mentioned use of a machine for an hour would include a nice deep basin for long term subsoil water storage.
In fact, the above costings are way over the top given that all these round-abouts are fully landscaped and regularly maintained at considerable expense.
Ditto for motorway verges. On a recent trip down the M1 by night I observed two warning signal trucks, a police car and two vehicle mounted light towers, and their drivers, all sitting about while one guy on a ride-on mower did the job of one tethered goat.
And not a single piece of endangered shrub, grass or forb in sight. If they were planted there they will restrict the growth of other plants and provide a valuable seed source for further distribution by birds, wind, car tyres and runoff.
And back with A. Gonorrhoea, the reason they are rare is because other tree species are more vigorous competitors. Absent competition and they will thrive. Plant survival 101 stuff.
As usual, the boofocrats did just enough to look like they did something but never enough to solve the problem. A. Gonorrhoea is still on the R & T list. Plant out 5000 trees and it would be off the list.
Meanwhile back at the humblebee, these guys present little environental risk to northern Australia because their MO is perfect fodder for Cane Toads.
Bumblebee nest entrances at ground level are perfect for old Buffo because he can just park himself at the door and gobble up every last bee as it comes out the gate. They do this with domestic bee hives as well and it is not unusual to find up to 50 bees in their stomach. So even accounting for the larger size of bumblebees, it would still take not much more than a week or two to consume an entire nest.
“fully landscaped and regularly maintained at considerable expense. ” – errr which suburb is this again – I need to go look !
And we’re now going to invert years of road engineering principles to make roundabouts low points – where the rubbish will accumulate over grates and flood the roadway ! Argh !
Your faith in road engineers to have botanical skills is very high.
Austromyrtus gonoclada may be naturally found on sloping or flat alluvial terraces of permanent waterways, which experience some degree of tidal influence and are at an elevation of 5-50m ASL. It is usually found growing below the peak flood level. A. gonoclada may be found growing in lowland riparian rainforest or in association with notophyll vine forest species, in the subtropical areas of south-east Queensland.
So how could they possibly survive in competition in this environment.
Seems to me that they are rare due to LAND CLEARING of habitat !
Congratulations, Paul.
I’ve been tinkering with the idea of attempting to raise a couple of hives of honey bees behind my home ever since reading that they were having success next door in Greenland.
It’ll be a bit of a long shot.
Our season will be very short but the pollen production levels of our local northern flora are supposed to be among the highest in the world.
I’m interested in giving it a shot and seeing what happens.
If it works I get to add some local honey to my cache of local “country foods”.
If it flops, I’ll have learned something.
Creepo, they were found on land that has been cleared since 1880. I have seen the site and they have been able to regenerate in a grazed paddock with minimal competition from other tree species. So land clearing is obviously not the main threat.
There is strong evidence that soil disturbance by cattle hooves has played a major role in their regeneration. But what have the boofocrats done? They have fenced them off from stock and allowed the area to become overgrown with weeds and dense, highly competitive, shrubs etc.
The aim of planting in existing managed locations like round-abouts and verges is so that competition can be monitored and managed. They appear to be a species that does not compete well with either taller eucalypts etc or with dense ground cover.
Good luck with the bees, Iceclass. Do you know that you can buy new Queens and attendants by mail order? You might need to consider additional insulation outside the hive and something like an electric blanket, or 12 volt coil on the base plate, to keep them warm in winter. And the supplementary feed stock, of course.
Another option is to put the hive inside your house to take advantage of the central heating and have a small sealed tube or hose going through a wall as access to the outside.
And if you want to get really clever you can put a fork in the tube with one exit going into a greenhouse and the other going outside. They are clever little fellas and will soon figure it out.
One has to wonder why, as a part of any endangered species plan, cuttings and seed are not provided to any nursery or horticultural business that feel that they have the expertise to propogate such plants. Given the goodwill that exists within the gardening community accross Australia, it is hard to understand why such an obvious resourse is not tapped into to ensure that at the very least the speces has a chance of survival beyond its limited distribution. It would be quite simple, the plant variety rights could reside withthe State but no fee be applied for the commercial use. It might take a whie for the bureaucrats to get their head around that idea.
A classic, if somewhat extreme, example of this is Gingko biloba. It was only found next to Tibetian monastries, totally extinct in the wild. Now it survives across the world thanks to the efforts of people who cared or found them interesting.
We’ve seen more recent examples such as the Wollomi pine take a ridiculous number of years to make it to market due to environmentalists pressuring the NSW government to NOT allow the commercialisation of the tree.
I agree, Pandanus67.
In the case of A. gonoclada the majority of the seed stock came from private land. Yet, the government didn’t consider for a single moment the fact that those seeds were the property of the landowner who owned the tree.
There is more than adequate grounds for investigating whether government officals were guilty of fraud and theft by first denying that the seeds belonged to the landowner and second by taking those seeds without payment.
To then put a contract out to tender and grant exclusive rights to a nurseryman for the sale of all seed and plant stock, as if the landowner had no equitable interest in it at all merely adds a layer of boorish ignorance to an existing criminal conspiracy.
If the landowner had been fully advised of his rights in this matter then there is little doubt that they would have marketed the species themselves and a lot more than 213 seedlings would have been planted.
At the moment, the policy settings and government corporate culture are actively encouraging landowners who might find a rare species to either destroy it immediately or keep very quiet about it. It is the very worst kind of socialist ecology with all the dysfunctional attributes that beset state controlled economies in the past.
What a load of utter Mott drivel. The presence of these trees elsewhere in SEQ could make that a tad difficult. You’ve turned your mate’s property in yet another Mottsa urban myth. Perhaps the trees were planted there? Do we know? The sole source indeed. Pure crappola. ROTFL
Yes we’ll now add destroying rare species to approval of biffing government officials and arson. Quite a growing list. And I thought you despised the nursery trade especially if they’re growing a non-Mottsa approved species. These nursery guys must remember to check with you before doing anything.
Could this be an example of the property rights collective doing a bit of astroturfing.
>Now it survives across the world thanks to the efforts of people who cared or found them interesting.
This tree has medicinal properties. Had it not been seen as beneficial to humans it probably would be extinct.
>At the moment, the policy settings and government corporate culture are actively encouraging landowners who might find a rare species to either destroy it immediately or keep very quiet about it.
Yeah that would be right Mott. It’s nothing to do about preservation of endangered species but about your ‘mates’ making money, sticking it up the government and environmentalists and being utter selfish tossers. It’s ALWAYS someone’s else’s fault with you Mott. Does the landholder own the small native mammals on that property? No. We wont say anything about the traditional landowners and what they endured so that you and your mates could claim everything to be yours. You’re full of crap Mott, but keep peddling your wares on your menstrual cycle.
Lord Creepo, nothing will divert attention from the fact that I had a personal conversation with the nursery operator who won the tender for exclusive marketing of A. gonoclada. And he made it very clear that it was;
a. a very poor investment choice on his part,
b. based on misleading information by government,
c. involved an onerous load of bull$hit,
d. that priced the plants out of the market, and
e. was a complete failure.
This is not my opinion. It is the conclusion of the key participant, the only guy who actually invested his own money on trust and has been shonked big time.
But of course, shonks never do any repeat business. They just fine tune their spin, put as much distance as possible between them and their past, and go right back out there looking for another sucker.
What’s that – I thought you said you couldn’t trust nursery operators – “they’ll tell you anything”. Remember diesel trees? yes ……
“onerous load of bull$hit, ” – what 30 mins paperwork. Perhaps the trees are interesting as an ornamental and just didn’t sell?
Thats 30 minutes of paperwork for each seedling, boofhead. And in this case he wasn’t trying to flog me something. In fact, the last thing he wanted to do was sell me a plant that involved more bull$hit than the thing was worth.
But keep it up, the more you try to obfuscate and obscure the truth, the more we landowners know to avoid you like the plague. “By their deeds shall ye know them”.
Careful El Creepo, Mott is all fire and brimstone, or is that treacle and plot?
30 mins per plant – ROTFL. What a porkie. Mate your send name is whiteout. And what’s this “we” landowners business. You in some sort of masonic club or something? Travis add this one to the great urban yarns anthology. Almost enough for our book soon.
Travis, “This tree has medicinal properties. Had it not been seen as beneficial to humans it probably would be extinct.” Exactly, it had a value that prompted people to ensure it did not go extinct.
Take away the value and people will not invest in it. They might call for the politicians to throw some resources at it but certainly not their own money.
More ignorance by Creepo. Each seed collected had to be accounted for and records kept along the entire production chain, as to whether it germinated or not, whether the seedling survived, got eaten by a bug, damaged in re-potting blah blah blah.
At the time, four or five years ago, he could not sell them at a profit at $30 each and nobody wanted to buy them anyway.
Another classic example of public sector ecology snatching failure from the jaws of competence. But keep it up fella, the lengths you will go to deny the facts and protect your tribal mates is most illuminating.
Oh boo hoo. Gee you guys are touchy. How hard is that? Whip up a code for each stage/issue, a number sequence for each plant, and columns for each date with Excel. Marker pen the pots. Record on a printed copy of spreadsheet what happens each week. Photocopy the sheets. Any decent research lab would do that for cents per plant. Pull the other one. Are you guys that inefficient? As usual – private enterprise whingey, touchy and inflating the figures.
And why are the plants getting damaged in re-potting? Are they total klutz’s ? So if they are rough as bags and damage things they’re also probably numb nuts with inventory (given it’s soooo hard and expensive to keep records) – “duh – yes boss I collected all duh seed I could find but now I’ve lost the bag”. Yea isn’t good hired help hard to find eh?
And the BIG telling statement – yes nobody wanted to buy them. What an admission – they’re not ornamentally attractive.
But did he attempt any marketing? Minimal marketing. Like a whiteboard saying this is the “rare Astroturfus clapposaurus being rescued from obilivion by struggling nursery artisans for your selfish urban green swill pleasure”
So your whole deceptive fetid argument stops here.
Not commercially palatable eh. Oh dear.
And you’re complaining about a moderate government program to do a higher quality job putting some trees into areas where the thing grows naturally.
A decent specialist “greenie” type rainforest supplier with dreadlocks smoking ganga could have done much better. So after all this – so much for industry giving a rats.
WHICH is why we have the guvmint will all its problems doing something. And you’re now whinging about the effort. Barf !!!
I tell you what mate – I would love to see you work within the system trying to undertake complex work in the agricultural/natural resource/enviro area and achieve something. Getting right up the stakeholders (even your own side) at the first meeting might make further progress a bit difficult?
Taking pot shots when you don’t have to really deliver is so much fun isn’t it?
>Taking pot shots when you don’t have to really deliver is so much fun isn’t it?
LOL!!! Well said! Perfect summary.
Touchy, touchy. I reported on a conversation with the nursery operator and these two clowns want to shoot the messenger. And now Lord Creepo is an expert in records management in the nursery sector, yeah, right.
There is only two core messages in all this to landowners;
1. Never, ever, do business with spivs, and
2. Run for your life whenever you hear the line “trust me, I’m from the government, I’m here to help”.
Yep agree.
But remember – where on your side (well sorta) – one day you’ll see.
“we’re on your side”
I imagine that “one day” when we see that you are on our side will be the day when our collective foot is on your collective throat.
>Ecollective foot is on your collective throat.
Lovely Grott.
More pot shots without delivering. Just like a sand pit bully…waaahhhh!!!
“when our collective foot is on your collective throat” at which point we’ll put our “collective fists in your collective noses” (metaphorically speaking of course) before we all leave you with it.
Which will be soon actually.
I mean why would anyone put up with you lot – have a listen to yourselves. And you’re not getting any younger either are you?
Replacements – well Gen Y, Gen Z / Generation Einstein will all walk – the farm will be growing weeds mate. They won’t care about the consequences – they just don’t like your look.
It’s already happening …
The new Australian states Atlantis is going to stay sunk.
Sad because you have many good points in many respects but your delivery is shh$t
So won’t be any soil scientists soon – just as production revs up and move to the North is on.
Here you go http://www.asris.csiro.au/mapping/hyperdocs/SoilPolicyDiscussionApril08.pdf
The parlous state of Australian soil science. Good luck with the resource issues and thanks for all the fish – we’re off to the throat doctors for some reconstruction and an easier life.