Bee Project

Cutting the Meadows

2011-08-24T17:41:00.006+01:00

I got an email from Adrianne at Yorkshire Sculpture Park the other day to say that the blue test meadow plot behind the Garden Gallery had been cut, now that it's stopped flowering and the plants have shed their seeds.
The yellow plot will be cut later as it has still some plants flowering.

It doesn't seem that long since spring - and now summer is coming to a close.

Images by Adrianne Neil

Liverpool Meadows

2011-08-02T11:54:00.006+01:00

I had a day in Liverpool yesterday with Richard Scott from Landlife that is based at The National Wildflower Centre in Liverpool. We met at the Wildflower Centre where he showed me around and then we went on a day of travelling all over Liverpool and surrounding area to see meadows in both urban and rural settings.

We chatted lots about plants, meadows creation, attitudes to newly created habitats and policy that can effect the management and decisions of what you can do with pockets of land. It was a really great day and it has inspired me on about my blue and yellow meadows for Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Images above show bags of poppy seeds havested over the weekend; meadows in central Liverpool; a field of cornflowers ready to be harvested for seeds; a field of barley with cornflowers (both fields near St Helens).

www.landlife.org.uk

Thank You!

2011-07-07T16:00:00.005+01:00

The exhibition is over - all my work will be returned next week.

The Bee Project was massive: we started to plan it in winter 2009, I started the residency in spring 2010, made the artwork for the show over the winter in 2010 and the exhibition ran from early April 2011 until last week...

So many people helped me in that time:

Ivor Flatman - the beekeeper who let me shadow him
Brian Robinson - an ecologist who helped me identify bumble and solitary bees
Adam Wilcox - forensic entomologist at UCLAN who let me use the microscopes in his lab
Owen Mountford - botanist who helped with identifying all the plants at YSP
Carl Clee - Honorary Curator of Aculeate Hymenoptera at Liverpool Museum who helped me identify the solitary bees
George Else - who gave me permission to use his key text on the solitary bee prints
Dr Matt Heard - Head of Community Ecology Group at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology - who gave me advise on looking for bees and also on bee habitat creation
Magda Starwarska-Beavan - print maker working at UCLAN who guided me through the screen print process
Stephen Canham - arboriculturalist who helped to identify all the trees on the YSP estate
Tracy Hill - print maker at UCLAN who advised on print techniques

Also to all my friends who helped, advised and listened to me constantly bang on about bees and who also turned up for the opening day - thanks!

Most of all I have to thank Helen Pheby who saw the potential in my idea from the beginning and who has supported me throughout my time at YSP; and also to Adrianne Neil who was given the task of looking after all aspects of the residency and exhibition - she is an amazing person!

Visitor Numbers

2011-07-06T16:31:00.005+01:00

My exhibition at YSP finished on sunday - and I just found out that 24,510 people visited Diligent Observation while it was on show since April.

Wow - that's a lot of people!

Diligent Observation Publication

2011-07-01T16:44:00.003+01:00

To celebrate the Diligent Observation exhibition YSP has produced a beautiful little publication to accompany the show.

It includes an introduction by Dr Helen Pheby an essay by Michaela Crimmin, extracts from this blog and an interview with me by Adrianne Neil.

It's 32 pages, full colour with tracing paper and colour inlays
ISBN: 978-1-871480-88-7
It's only £5 - what a bargain!

If you can't get to the shop at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, you can order one online from their website:

www.ysp.co.uk

Last Chance!

2011-06-28T15:11:00.003+01:00

My exhibition Diligent Observation finishes at Yorkshire Sculpture Park this Sunday 3rd July - so this is the last chance to see it!

It's in the Garden Gallery and it's free entry.
www.ysp.co.uk

It's a bit weird that after so long on the residency researching bees and then making and exhibiting the work, the project is coming to an end.

But, even though the project is over, i will continue to follow bees, try and identify them and look at the plants they feed on. This project has sparked an interest that i know will continue for the rest of my life - I have learned so much in the past year - but there is so much more to learn and discover.

Bombus hypnorum

2011-06-18T10:03:00.004+01:00

When my housemate came home from work last night he mentioned there was a bee on our path outside and maybe it was dead.

I went out to take a look with the possibility of collecting it, but found that it was just a bit reluctant to move, maybe it had just emerged or was generally hanging about. Seeing that it was so lethargic i took the opportunity to take some shots of it with my lovely camera.

It's a Bombus hypnorum - Tree Bumblebee. A newly found species in UK in 2000, that has been expanding it's range since then. My Edwards and Jenner field guide to bumblebees says:

"Queens, workers and males: head black, thorax tawny to dark-brown, abdomen black with white tail"

If you're even remotely interested in bumblebees you have to get the Edwards and Jenner book. ISBN 9780954971311

Bee Photography

2011-06-16T18:10:00.006+01:00

I was at Lake Constance (Konstanz) yesterday luxuriating in the sunshine by the clear water.

While watching the view i kept noticing bees flying to just under where i was into a little bank at the bottom of the garden before the lake shore...

On closer inspection i saw a hole in the bank and bees flying in and out - a bumblebee nest.

While being constantly hassled by two grumbling swans, i stood motionless for at least 15 Chesney minutes* to get these wonderful shots of bees going in and coming out of the nest. I am particularly proud of the bee coming out of the nest shot and am considering entering it into the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

* Equivalent to about 90 seconds in real time

Bee Things

2011-06-10T14:27:00.007+01:00

My friends often collect and give me bee related objects because of this project:

Geoff gave me a beer bottle top with a bumblebee on at the opening event of Diligent Observation
Thomas saved the box from Christmas tree candles made from bees wax (they put real candles on real Christmas trees in Germany - the health and safety types would have heart attacks if we had that tradition here)
Paula sent me a cute piece of ribbon with bumblebees on
And Helen spotted the "Pollinated with..." sign on the side of a box that contained cut roses.

Blue

2011-06-02T10:33:00.007+01:00

Blue [blOO] (fig) miserable

Blue is for misery

I went to YSP on monday and tuesday as it was an event day for the Bee Project - and even though it poured down during monday daytime YSP was really packed with visitors.

I was happy for the rain as the two meadow test plots are in desperate need of water - both the blue and yellow plots are looking a bit bare.

I spent the evening on monday comparing which species are coming up with what I want to come up (two very different lists). I counted 9 species of the yellow plants i wanted and 8 blue species - but putting that into context i also counted 24 species of weed on the yellow plot and 14 species of weed on the blue plot.

Anyway - the cornflowers are looking good and there is some Borage Borago officinalis coming into flower too (images above).

I also got a nice shot of a Red-tailed Bumblebee B.lapidarius asleep on some chives (not on the plot - the wrong colour).

Stuff

2011-05-24T09:29:00.005+01:00

I did my talk at the University of Sheffield last week - it went ok i think (there was no booing from the audience of over 100). To hear Professor Ratnieks and Dr Claire Preston talk was amazing: in my research for the Bee Project i've read works by both of them... so, the added bonus of meeting with them too was really inspiring for me.

During the daytime before the talk I went to YSP for the first time in a while. The blue and yellow meadow test plots are coming along - the blue one is fit to burst with Cornflower Centaurea cyanthus, but the yellow meadow is looking decidedly less lush - there's quite a lot of Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor coming up and flowering, but i think the very dry weather seems to have hampered most of the other species so far.

The hives have been moved from the boathouse to the lawn behind the garden gallery and Ivor the beekeeper has added more of his hives too.

All in all a good trip over to Yorkshire i think.

Arts-Science Encounters 2011

2011-05-15T10:57:00.002+01:00

I am one of the guest speakers this Thursday 19th May at the Arts-Science Encounters 2011 at the University of Sheffield.

I will be doing a talk about the Bee Project and my residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park along side guest speakers Francis Ratnieks (Professor of Apiculture, University of Sussex) and Claire Preston (Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge)

Thursday 19 May, 5.15–7.15pm
Venue: HRI (Humanities Research Institute)

The talk is free and open to the general public

For more information: Arts-Science Encounters 2011

Curate the Campus

2011-05-12T13:29:00.000+01:00

I'm working on another project for this week and next: i'm artist in residence at LICA (Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts) based at Lancaster University.

I'm concentrating on the Dandelion Project - an ongoing investigation into the science, folklore, symbolism and art of dandelion species.
If you're really struggling to fill your time please click here for more info:
http://www.chesneydandelions.blogspot.com/

Inspect

2011-05-04T11:09:00.003+01:00

One of the last pieces of work to be finished ready for the exhibition ended up being a bit of a trial to figure out - not especially technically difficult, just the practicality of relaying the image in my head into a physical object.

As i've mentioned before i have collected lots of dead bees not just during the project but since well before then too. During the bee project i met Adam Wilcox, a forensic entomologist, and he let me use the microscopes in the laboratories where he works at the University of Central Lancashire here in Preston.

Looking at the bees wings, eyes, hair, legs etc under such scrutiny was absolutely breath taking - revealing a world of magically beautiful images.

I decided to show only 3 of the images (a choice that took ages and ages) and made little viewing boxes to see them in: the gallery is very light and so each image is set back in the box to create a bit more depth and shade to see it in. All three images show sections of wings, but each is quite different from the others. One is a bumblebee, two are honeybees.

Bee Museum

2011-05-02T09:17:00.003+01:00

Since the opening of the exhibition I've been on a little trip and again i went to Feucht.
While on a walk we saw the bee keeping school - a lovely little hut on a small meadow where bee keepers learn their trade. In the sides of the hut are openings for bees to get in and out - there were about 10 hives in the hut.
Also in the village is the bee keeping museum (mentioned earlier in the blog). Being a Bank Holiday though it was shut.*

Also - my friend Charles sent me this info on The Urban Beekeeping Experience events in Sheffield - www.buzzy-work.co.uk

Plus Suzanne sent me a link to Klaus Weber's artwork on bee poo paintings (i mentioned his work on the blog a while ago too) http://www.list.co.uk/article/21058-klaus-weber-bee-paintings/

*It doesn't matter where i go on the planet it'll be shut because of
1) A random local holiday
2) Change over between exhibitions
3) Redevelopment of the whole building / museum / historic site.

Solitary Bees

2011-04-18T09:02:00.003+01:00

During the Bee Project I found that the subject of identifying solitary bees interesting, but very complicated. I didn't know much about solitary bees and needed help with not only locating and catching them, but also identifying them.

My friend Brian, an ecologist, helped look for them and catch them and then we had to go through a very long key to try and make an ID. To confirm our findings we then went to Liverpool Museum where Carl Clee helped us.

It was this process that led to the solitary bee prints. Reading the key, written by George Else, most of the words are unknown to me - minute parts of bee anatomy, beautiful and poetic.

I emailed Mr Else and he kindly gave me permission to use extracts from the key for the Andrena bees and i've made screen prints of 3 species: Andrena denticulata, Andrena helvola and Andrena subopaca.

Photos by Jonty Wilde

Bee Maps

2011-04-13T18:53:00.007+01:00

So, as you walk into the Garden Gallery at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, you will first see a year of bee records on one drawing. I have used a symbol for each species I found around the site between March and October 2010 (9 bumblebee species, 7 solitary bee species and honeybee). I have omitted all references to the landscape, but if you're familiar with the site you can see some rhythms in the patterns (along the lakeside, flower boarders near the visitor centre, the field line up to the Longside Gallery).

I have also made a map of bees for every month, showing a key for the symbols and any notes (names of the experts who helped me ID the bees and plants). Each drawing / map is A1 in size. Under the maps are some of the pressings i collected - i collected many more, but the space isn't big enough to show them all. I might scan the extra sheets and put them on the blog in the future... we'll see.

As i've mentioned below I had to cover the pressings as they are light sensitive. So I put red velvet covers over them, each with a little embroidered bee emblem.

Photos by Jonty Wilde

Opening Day

2011-04-12T09:46:00.005+01:00

On Friday 8th it was the opening of my exhibition Diligent Observation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The whole project has been leading towards this date - months of research, hours and hours of thought and quite a few more creating the artwork.

And what a fine day it was! The weather was absolutely wonderful - hot and sunny with the park looking at its best. I was on duty from 11am: first there was a brunch with the Coop Membership who sponsored YSP for my project; then to the Garden Gallery to conduct a tour / talk in the exhibition; being filmed in the gardens; then the opening all day with lots of people coming to see the show. The speeches were at 2pm (pictured above) and drinks were served.

There were another couple of openings at YSP on the same day: Mel Brimfield This is Performance Art in the Bothy Gallery and also the main event was really for Jaume Plensa in the main galleries and outdoors too. You didn't really think all those people in the photo were there for me, did you?

I got away from the site by 6pm and then had a really great night out in Barnsley!

Bee Keeping Museum

2011-04-06T17:19:00.003+01:00

My friend Chiara, who lives in Feucht, Germany sent me an email the other day with a link to a museum of bees and bee keeping in the town there.

www.zeidel-museum.de

The image is from Blackboard Illustrations for Object Lessons by F.Steely and BH Trotman

Displaying the Pressings

2011-04-04T15:44:00.005+01:00

The pressing sheets i've made for the exhibition are light sensitive, and as they will be on show for 3 months they have been put on a slanting shelf with perspex frame and then on top of that there is a velvet cover - so the visitor to the gallery has to lift the cover and reveal the pressing below.

I decided (in what turns out to be a rash moment) to embroider a little bee emblem for each of the covers in gold thread. I started to sew the bee emblems only about 10 days before i went to YSP to install the work and the first one took me over a week to do (in the evenings). Also i didn't know how many to do as we were working that out on site after the shelf had been put up.

When i arrived last week I had only completed 3 emblems and we then worked it out i need to do 8 in total.... So after working in the gallery all day i spent evenings sewing like mad and managed to complete 7 and stitch them to the covers too. The covers have been beautifully made by Adrianne.

I've come home with one of the covers and am working on the last bee emblem today and tomorrow. That'll be the last thing to finish for the exhibition.

Here We Go!

2011-04-03T12:16:00.003+01:00

All last week I was at Yorkshire Sculpture Park installing my work for the exhibition.

It's been a great week and the show is looking close to finished now. All the framed works were put up by Tuesday, but there was still lots to fiddle with: the plant pressings, the model, the dead specimens etc...

Here are Nobby and Cullen putting up one of the solitary bee screen prints.

Dad's Tall Story

2011-03-24T10:06:00.002Z

I was at Manchester Town Hall last night for the Bruntwood Awards for Arts and Business North 2011. The Co-op Membership supported my Bee Project via Yorkshire Sculpture Park and we were shortlisted for the Environmental Partnership Award.

I was happy I could go to the town hall to take images of the bee mosaics - the bee is the emblem of Manchester.

When I told my dad i was going (he's from Manchester) he told me that in the town hall men's toilets above the urinals are honey bees: the latin Apis, being a little mank joke. Thankfully before i went in to the men's with my camera, i bumped into a member of the town hall staff and asked him if it were true. Looking at me like i was slightly deranged, he informed me it wasn't.
Thanks dad.

The do itself was very corporate - nobody did a Gwyneth Paltrow and sobbed uncontrollably when accepting their award, and absolutely nobody thanked their mum or dad. All very disappointing.

As it goes, we didn't win. I commiserated with myself by drinking champagne (or quite possibly a cheaper alternative) at the after party which was in the fabulous Midland Hotel - i've always wanted to go inside since reading a WG Seabald book where he mentions the hotel.

All in all, a good night out.

Leg Warmers

2011-03-23T13:58:00.005Z

I was given some beautiful, hand knitted leg warmers the other day and they were wrapped in this bag from a pharmacy in Feucht, Germany. Feucht is near Nuremberg and is known for being a centre for bee keeping and honey production: hence the chap on a bee hive (although i'm not sure why he's carrying a crossbow).

I've been to Feucht and while there (it was in winter) i took a shot of a bee emblem on one of the town walls.

www.feucht.de

By the way - the leg warmers go great with my leotard

Dead Bee Collection

2011-03-20T15:44:00.005Z

I just spent the last two hours sorting through my dead bee specimens that i've been collecting.

I started to collect dead insects for a different project in 2005 and since then have continued to gather flies, wasps, bees, dragonflies, moths and butterflies etc from window sills and pavements.

At Yorkshire Sculpture Park I was able to retrieve all the dead honeybees from around the hive entrances, plus i also collected any dead bumblebees from the park and also any i saw off site during the summer.

For the exhibition I want to present some of the dead specimens in one of the gallery walls, so i spent this afternoon sorting through them all. I can't tell you the stench in the boxes of bees - a really nasty smell. Some of them are half eaten and battered with wings, legs or heads missing, but some are perfectly whole and really beautiful to look at.

Collection

2011-03-04T09:53:00.005Z

Even though my exhibition starts in the first week of April I had to get almost all the work finished and packed up for the last week in February, so that Yorkshire Sculpture Park could come and pick it all up. Although this collection date seemed a bit extreme, all the 2D work has to be framed up, plus we will spend about two weeks installing the exhibition.

I work well with a deadline - i.e if there isn't any pressure to finish a work, it could potentially never be completed.
And so with whole minutes to spare I finished and wrapped everything ready for Dick and James from YSP to come to Preston and gently load the van up - then speed off uncontrollably down the road.

Finished Model

2011-03-01T12:48:00.004Z

I finished the scale model of YSP the other day - well, i nearly finished it: i ran out of trees (i put 600 on the model already). It was collected last week and delivered to the park so i'll have to finish the trees when i go to install the exhibition at the end of this month.

The images here were taken by Gavin Renshaw.

Solitary Bee Prints

2011-02-24T17:41:00.004Z

I finished the series of solitary bee prints today in the print rooms at Uni in Preston.

I chose 3 of the bees we recorded on site at YSP in the summer: Andrena denticulata, Andrena helvola and Andrena subopaca.

I wanted to show how complex the subject is and how it's not that easy to identify them without a complicated key with obscure definitions and a microscope to look at the bees so very closely.

I've had lots of help with this part of the project - firstly it was Brian, the ecologist, who helped me survey the site and catch the bees; then Carl Clee at Liverpool Museum helped us to make an ID; and again, later on, at Liverpool Museum Guy Knight let me go and take images of their bees in the collection; and finally the amazing Magda Stawarska-Beavan who guided me patiently through the screen print process.

Imagined Meadows

2011-02-22T09:57:00.008Z

For the exhibition in April I have worked on three Imagined Meadow plots to be considered at YSP.

I have painted on top of the screen prints I produced at the end of last year, and then i've drawn flower species on top of that. It's to give the viewer the impression of a landscape that could exist at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Meadows can support a huge diversity of animal and plant life: worms and caterpillars, spiders and beetles, bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies, dragonflies and damselflies, birds, bats, moles, shrews, rabbits and foxes*

The land at YSP has been locked into a funding structure (the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme) to restore the grazed parkland listed as 'at risk' by English Heritage. YSP is in a tricky position here - money is being given to help restore a landscape created as a pleasing vista to be looked upon by an upper class landowner - the whole reason the park exists in the first place. It was never a nature reserve with habitats suitable to sustain a diversity in flora and fauna. As with all land it's about money. It's always about the worth of the land. And in this instance 2 acres can't be excluded from the scheme and made into meadows.

So, no matter how important the meadows could be to the local populations of bees at YSP the Imagined Meadows will remain just that, imagined.

*there are lots of websites giving info about diversity in meadows, i like this one
www.countrysideinfo.co.uk

Big Bumblebee

2011-02-12T18:45:00.003Z

Today, for the first time in a while, i went with my friend Helen to our allotment to do digging, weeding and drinking tea and chatting in the sunshine.

We weren't there long when we saw a big furry bumblebee slowly flying around the edge of the plot and then over to Eric's plot next door. I had my camera on me but wasn't able to get a shot - the bee was off and away before i could get it out of my bag. It made me think how much i miss the bees! And how i can't wait for spring to come. Nearly there now...

I found this "Song of the Bumblebee" in Enid Blyton's Book of the Year earlier this week too.

Modelling Work

2011-01-31T15:46:00.004Z

To show where I think the imagined meadows could be sited on YSP I have started to make a scale model of a section of the Bretton Estate. I have picked three potential sites and each will be shown on the model.

I started to make the model last week and since then have finished the landscape layers and lake, but have still to make the buildings, trees and the meadows. I've used about the same amount of card as it would take to actually cover the estate itself, plus managed to go through about 30 stanley blades and four fingers.

Stripes

2011-01-22T10:16:00.006Z

At the moment I'm working towards my exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park that will open in early April and although I have done lots so far I still have masses to figure out.

When I first started to look for bumblebees last summer I found the best way to remember my stripe combinations for ID was to draw them / paint them in my note book. I liked the look of the images and considered doing some for the exhibition. I tried different sizes and thickness of paper and tried different paints and also colour pencils etc. I spent ages considering how to present them and perhaps frame a whole series. However, it turns out that the ones i like most are the very basic ones on little sheets of paper from a note book - a bit wonky and the paper showing the lines - so these are the ones i'll have in the exhibition.

I have painted one image for each of the nine species of bumblebee i found at YSP during last summer:

Bombus terrestris - Buff-tailed Bumblebee*
Bombus lapidarius - Red-tailed Bumblebee
Bombus hypnorum - Tree Bumblebee
Bombus pascuorum - Common Carder-bee
Bombus bohemicus - Gypsy Cuckoo-bee*
Bombus lucorum - White-tailed Bumblebee
Bombus hortorum - Garden Bumblebee
Bombus pratorum - Early Bumblebee*
Bombus vestalis - Vestal Cuckoo-bee

*image shown above

Seedlings and Sleepy Honeybees

2011-01-12T10:30:00.003Z

I went to Yorkshire Sculpture Park yesterday for the first time this year. Considering the recent weather it was a really nice blustery day. I went to check out the gallery space ready for the exhibition in April, plus i wanted to check the test meadow patches and visit the hives at the boathouse.

I was delighted to see tiny little seedlings popping up on the patches. There's lots of grass coming up too, but i'm hoping that's the grass species we mixed in with the flowers.

I was also happy to see a couple of very sluggish honeybees bobbing in and out of the hive entrances - they weren't especially going anywhere, just weaving around the entrance.

So, I know i'm being a bit previous, but maybe spring is already coming?

Look What I Got!

2011-01-06T14:11:00.004Z

Look what I was given for Christmas!

A bee house for my back yard in Preston. How lovely.

It's beautifully made and really heavy. I think solitary bees will find it quite superior quality accommodation.

Look What I Got!

2011-01-06T13:51:00.004Z

Look what I was given for Christmas!

A bee house for my back yard in Preston. How lovely.

This one advises me on the label that " This beehouse offers a perfect nesting accommodation to several species" and "A female bee makes in one hollow bamboo stick several cells with one egg and a mixture of pollen and nectar to feed the larf" (it's a text in 4 languages).

Now that I have two bee houses to be located in my back yard I'm expecting the population of solitary bees in Lancashire to rise significantly this following year (although i'm not sure i want to attract so many that it becomes a game of whits every time i try to hang the washing out, or the sheer number of them block out the sun).

Pressing Subject

2010-12-23T17:42:00.005Z

I've spent the last few days sorting out the pressings i collected in the summer at YSP. I gathered many plants that bees were feeding on and am now mounting them onto paper, labelling and stamping the sheets.

To make sure none of them have any infestations all the pressing have been put into the deep freezer for 10 days and they don't seem to have been affected by it (apart from now having no bugs / mites on them).

top image: Bitter Vetch Lathyrus linifolius
middle image: Meadow Vetchling Lathyrus pratensis
bottom image: stamp and label

Learning to Relax

2010-12-20T11:24:00.003Z

In July while looking for bees around YSP me and Brian, the ecologist, collected some solitary bees so we could ID them later. They are now pinned into a box, but i want to use the bees to make some screen prints for the exhibition and they aren't set in a perfect pose. At first i thought i might have to dissect them, take images of the different parts and put them back together with a bit of photoshop magic, but it was suggested i could relax each of the specimens instead and reset them.

Adam, the entomologist, sent me the instructions for making a relaxing jar so a couple of weeks ago i had my first go - with some dead honey bees as a test run.

To make a relaxing jar you will need:
A wide mouth glass jar with a screw on lid
Some absorbent material (news paper, sand or cotton)
Some blotting paper
Ethyl acetate (found in some nail polish removers)

Method:
Place the absorbent material in the bottom of the jar and moisten with water and add a drop or two if ethyl acetate. Cut out a disc of blotting paper to fit tightly inside the jar and sits on top of the absorbent material. Place the insect on the blotting paper and close the jar tightly. Let it sit for about 2-3 days, at high humidity. After that period, if the insects are flexible, mount them immediately. If the specimens are still too stiff, keep them in the relaxing jar longer, checking them everyday for signs of mold.

I went and bought some nail varnish remover and made my relaxing jar and put a couple of bees in. Then put the jar in the airing cupboard. I checked on them a few times eager to see if my bees were all floppy and pliable, but after about 3 days i forgot to check...

So, here are my first relaxed bees - a bit of a moldy disaster, having spent over a week in our airing cupboard. I'm glad i didn't try it with my solitary bees. I'll keep trying on other bees in the next few days to get better at it before attempting it with the solitary bees.

Certificate

2010-12-13T09:27:00.003Z

Last week it was the final session of the beekeeping course i've been attending here in Preston.

It was so much fun going to the lessons - Viki, our fabulous tutor, knows masses about keeping bees, bee anatomy, life cycles, pests and disease management, making honey and everything to do with honeybees. I really enjoyed meeting everyone else too - our only connection being the desire to learn more about bees.

I've been assigned a 'bee buddy' called Chris who lives near me and will help with any questions when I set bee hives up - which i'm not going to do, as it goes. Chris has still offered to show me her hives and how she manages her colonies. She has top bar hives that i've never seen before so that will be fascinating.

I loved the class and will miss my Thursday night outings to the church hall.
Above is the certificate i was given to prove i turned up and listened.

Bee News

2010-12-01T14:55:00.005Z

It's snowing here in Preston today - I wonder how the bees are at the YSP hives in all this snow?

I had an email yesterday from a friend in USA sending a link to an article in The New York Times, and then this morning another friend in Toronto sent a link to the same article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/nyregion/30bigcity.html?_r=1&hp

I've spent the last week doing bee maps and finishing the screen prints of the YSP landscape - i'll bring the prints home next week to start to overlay impressions of the blue and yellow meadows.

I also read and finished Honey and Dust by Piers Moore Ede - the concept is far better than the book itself and was wildly overpriced at 1p on Amazon. I'm not keen on books that state facts but never reference the source (wikipedia i reckon).

Maps

2010-11-20T10:36:00.003Z

I've spent a while now developing / designing the maps of YSP showing all my bee records for the summer. I've had to go back through my note book and decipher my writing, which isn't neat at the best of times. When i was out surveying YSP looking for bees I would take with me a net to catch the bees; a small glass tube to look at them; camera; magnifying lens; ID book; specimen jars; bottle of water; notebook and pens (and various other tat). I tried to record all the species I found and make a note of location and also what plants they were feeding on. But, now i'm going back through my notebook i'm having to remember the code i used.

I'm also still attending the BBKA beekeeping course. I missed one on the beekeeping year, but the last two sessions have been on queens and swarming and have been really interesting. The more i go though, i know i'll not become a beekeeper myself.

Printing

2010-11-12T10:02:00.003Z

I've started in the print rooms at Uclan. I'm printing views of Yorkshire Sculpture Park in b&w so i can overlay an impression of how the blue and yellow meadows could look.
So, with the help of Magda i did some test prints the other day to try grades of colour and also try out different sizes of dots in the print. The different tests are now on my wall so i can choose which to go with.

On another note, i just finished a wonderful book about insects Insectopedia by Hugh Raffles. One of the chapters Language is about the work of Karl von Frisch and his life-long research about bees. I was recommended the book by a friend Anny and it was one of the most fascinating books i've read for ages - chapters on Chinese cricket fighting, crush fetishists, the traditions of beetle selling and collecting in Japan - i loved this book.

Sound Links

2010-11-05T11:41:00.011Z

For all of last week i was transcribing bee sound recordings on to paper. I collected the recordings over the summer at the YSP hives. I've loved drawing all week - over layering lines and lines of noise.

I got an email from my friend David today with a link to a website about bee recordings:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/10/music-made-with-bees-free-sample-set-and-why-you-should-care/
Plus, i've been listening to extracts from the recordings of sound artist Francisco Lopez - absolutely amazing, intense sounds. It's been mentioned that he has used the recordings of bees, although i'm yet to find the exact work. You can listen to extracts of his work in the discography section of his website:
http://www.franciscolopez.net/index.html

Also - please read this little story about a Mellotron (a keyboard instrument manufactured in the 60s and 70s that uses pre-recorded tape as its sound source) and the use of recordings of bumblebees by Gaby Stenberg.
http://www.roth-handle.nu/instruments/replay_mellotron400_563.htm
then watch this video of someone playing the sounds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrtGp6LnNhc

New Phase

2010-11-01T15:07:00.003Z

I'm into a new phase of the Bee Project - with there being no bees around for the winter (apart from a few honey bees feeding on the ivy on occasional sunny days).

I'm not based at YSP any more and am now spending all my time sifting through all the research, developing ideas and trying stuff out ready for the exhibition in April next year.

I am also still attending beekeeping classes in a church hall at the other side of the city - the electric sockets weren't working in the last session so our teacher couldn't show us her powerpoint presentation and instead had to resort to telling us about the history of beekeeping through the medium of dance. It was enthralling. And the karate class were on half term so i could concentrate for the whole 2 hours.

Test Plots

2010-10-19T16:38:00.007+01:00

Last week I went to YSP to scatter the seeds onto the 2 test meadow plots behind the Garden Gallery.

When I first proposed the 2 big meadows for the site back in July, it was suggested that we might do test plots so we could try it all out on a smaller scale and learn and modify anything before planting the 2 bigger meadows.

As it goes, for various reasons (which i will explain some other time) it's now become apparent that although YSP is 500 acres in size there isn't any areas that 2 x one acre meadows can go.

For a while i wondered what the point of test plots would be knowing we were never going to achieve the final vision. But with time to think (and some coaxing) I decided it was worth the effort if only to point out the absurdity of policy, funding and management of land and what effect that can have when trying, in this instance, to plant 2 meadows for bees. What you want and need is very different from what you can have.

The day of seeding the plots was beautiful and sunny. Claire, who works in the park, showed me the technique of how to scatter seeds (it's trickier than you'd think!) and Tom and me raked each plot when finished. Now we have to wait and see what comes up next year...

Bee Club

2010-10-16T17:29:00.003+01:00

Thursday night is Bee Club night - and i know i'm breaking the rules of Bee Club when i write about it on the blog*, but i must say i am really enjoying learning so much about beekeeping.

All us novices test the teacher time and time again with loads of questions such as can a honeybee mate with a bumblebee (no kidding) and she always tells us the many answers (no, in that instance). I'm still finding the karate club activities in the next room a little distracting, so i think i missed the bit about how to look out for when a queen is getting ready to swarm, but i expect it'll be covered again in one of the next lessons.

The next session is in the back of the church, so unless the karate class are practising in the aisle i think i might have a better chance of concentrating.

* Rules of Bee Club:
1 You do not talk about Bee Club
2 You DO NOT talk about Bee Club
3 When someone says stop, or goes limp, even if he's just faking it the Bee Club is over etc...

The Honey Shot

2010-10-14T16:28:00.004+01:00

I was back at YSP this week after some time away and Ivor came to deliver the honey that our hives have produced. I've been so excited waiting for the honey. He said that the bees have produced about 25 jars and for two new colonies that's not too bad. The mixed summer weather didn't help too much either.

It smells and tastes of all the flowers of the park: rosebay, lavender, lime and bramble all mixed together. It is a pale, slightly cloudy golden colour.

I couldn't wait to get home and try it - dipping crusty bread in and getting sticky fingers. Yummy, yum.

I've drizzled it onto almost every meal since (feel a bit sick now).

Beekeeping Course

2010-10-11T12:54:00.004+01:00

I've signed on to a British Beekeepers Association Introduction to Beekeeping course here in Preston and it was the first session at the end of last week. It was two hours and the course leader, Viki Cuthbertson, told us masses of stuff about bees.

There are about 15 of us on the course and we're all keen to learn more (i seem to be the only one to confess that i will probably never keep bees - only from seeing what a responsibility and commitment it is during the YSP project). Everyone else either has a garden or allotment big enough to accommodate hives.

We did a quiz at the end of the session to see who had been listening and although there was a time during the evening when the grunting of the karate class in the next room was a bit distracting - we all seemed to do quite well (self marking).

Can't wait for the next session.

USA News Link

2010-10-07T15:50:00.003+01:00

I just got an email from a friend Anny, who lives in America. She sent a link to an article In The New York Times about research into what is killing honeybees in USA.

www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07bees.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

In The News

2010-10-05T11:40:00.003+01:00

Bee are in the news today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11472104

So, things are being done for the rare bumblebees of UK (with reference to the bbc article please see points 1 and 2 in blog entry below 'Proposal')

Proposal

2010-10-05T10:05:00.009+01:00

So, I've spent the spring and summer at Yorkshire Sculpture Park researching the subject of bees. In that time i've been constantly thinking of how to translate all the information gathered and reveal my findings.

YSP is 500 acres in size - mainly grazed areas, with woodland around the lake and some arable. The house has virtually no formal planting schemes anymore - but there is a couple of boarders near the YSP info centre planted with shrubs. Being on the site all spring and summer made me realise that habitat for bees is very scarce and usually by coincidence (i.e nothing is deliberately planted with wildlife in mind). The size of YSP could accommodate a wider range of habitats that are highly valuable to bees (and therefor for other insects, butterflies and moths, birds and small mammals etc too) and also to the visiting public who come to experience and enjoy the surroundings.

With everything i found during the research i decided to propose a planting scheme that will redress this unbalance within the YSP landscape and that will have a visual impact on the site.

So, my idea for the future of the Bee Project is that two meadows, each an acre in size, will be planted on the YSP grounds. One will be made up entirely of yellow flowering plants and the other entirely of blue flowering plants. The two meadows will be an acre each to help make a difference to the local populations of bumblebees, solitary bees and also to honey bees in the area.

Almost every inch of land in UK has a financial value and this limits the usage that a landowner is prepared to manage it for. Why would you plant an area with wild flowers for bees with no financial gain when you can rent the land out for grazing or plant consumable crops and earn money?

To set land aside purely for the benefit of wildlife, a landowner would have to be one of the following:
1) a conservation charity / organisation supported by donations / funds to cover the costs
2) paid by someone else (usually the government) for the loss of value
3) rich with lots of land and lots of money and a passion for wildlife (possibly only Prince Charles fits into this category)
4) brave / bonkers (see above)

We are all aware of the threat to bees from the loss of habitat, but who is prepared to do anything about it?

Defence

2010-10-03T16:25:00.005+01:00

Ivor the bee keeper wasn't able to make it the last time I was at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I miss him being around to ask loads of questions (usually the same ones every time) and I always feel more confident with the bees when he's there. I noticed the entrance of the hives had new guards on them so i emailed Ivor to ask their use. He replied saying that they were put on to limit the entrance size and to help the bees defend against wasps.

While i was there I did notice masses of dead wasps on the ground around the entrance of the hives - so the bees are defending themselves ok. I collected all the dead wasps for the collection - they are in a box - it really stinks.

In his email he also mentioned he'd taken some honey off and also started feeding the bees for winter. I can't wait to try the honey - the taste of YSP.

Andrena subopaca

2010-09-26T10:44:00.004+01:00

I'm finding the subject of solitary bees quite tricky - there is over 200 species in UK and trying to find them has been far more complicated than looking for the distinct bumblebees or familiar honey bees.

Looking for and catching solitary bees in summer with Brian (the ecologist) revealed that their behaviour and how they look is entirely different from what i was expecting.

Here is one of the bees we caught in summer: Andrena subopaca. It's a common small black bee and even though we caught it in July we were only able to name it after taking it to Liverpool Museum to be able to identify it properly. As you can see from the image it is tiny and not at all what i thought bees look like.

Trip to the Museum

2010-09-20T16:32:00.005+01:00

Last Thursday I went with Brian, the ecologist, to Liverpool Museum to meet with Carl Clee the Honorary Curator of Aculeate Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants). We took with us the solitary bees we'd collected at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in July. Brian had identified them, but needed confirmation form Carl.

What an amazing place - and it was really great to meet with someone so knowledgeable on the subject and who is keen to share that knowledge. Identifying solitary bees is a really complicated, tricky subject - one of the collected bees turned out to be a solitary wasp!

Carl also showed me some the collection of bees, wasps and ants in the cabinets - i loved it.

Our solitary bees identified on Thursday are:
Anthidium manicatum
Andrena helvola
Andrena denticulata
Andrena subopaca
Halictus rubicundus

The collected wasp was a Crossocerus tarsatus.

Brian has written out lots of info for me which i will put on the blog when i've also taken some close up shots of the bees.

Dead Queen

2010-09-14T10:43:00.004+01:00

When Ivor and I were looking for the new queen in one of the hives the other day we also discovered three other queen cells. As we didn't want more then one queen Ivor destroyed two of the queen cells (i kept them for the collection - you can see the royal jelly in one of them), but as he was destroying the third cell a new live queen popped out. If we'd left her, the other queen would have searched for her and killed her, so Ivor removed her from the hive.

I didn't imagine that bee keeping would involve such things as killing queens, but I asked if i could keep the dead queen bee for my collection.

So, I took her to the laboratories the other day to look at under the microscopes.
What a beautiful creature she is.

Pollen Patterns

2010-09-10T09:00:00.002+01:00

Ivor, the beekeeper, showed me the pollen in the cells of one of the frames in the hive the other day. All the different colours representing different sources in the local area. Colours of the landscape.

Pollen is a rich source of protein and fat and is fed to the growing larva in the colony. At this time of year the workers feed very heavily on pollen so they are ready to live over the winter - instead of living for the usual 36 days, the winter bee lives for as much as 6 months.

Executing the Drones

2010-09-08T13:47:00.004+01:00

While watching the hives the other day i saw a worker bee and a drone (male bee) having a fight. The worker didn't stop attacking the drone until it was pushed over the edge of the base of the hive. With their only task of mating with new queens being over by now, I suppose getting rid of all the drones seems like good hive management. The rest of the hive will not look after the drones over the winter and so they are all thrown out or executed.

It seems a bit brutal being a drone: you either mate with a queen bee and in the process rip your genitals off and die; or you don't get to mate and get executed at the end of the summer by the female worker bees for being of no use anymore.*

I'm aware these images aren't quite in focus - as it goes when i have my bee suit and hood on I can't clearly see what i'm taking images of.

* I can think of a couple of people who i hope come back as drones.

Feeding

2010-09-06T17:50:00.003+01:00

With summer ending there isn't many flowering plants that the bees can feed on now. However, there is a large late-flowering fuchsia bush near the Camellia House at YSP that both honeybees and bumblebees have been able to feed on.

While i watched the bees flying around the fuchsia and then landing on the flowers I noticed that the bumblebees were piercing the top of the flower to be able to poke their long tongue in to feed - they can't reach up along the long flower head otherwise. I then noticed almost all of the flower heads had a little puncture wound where there had been previous visits.

As it goes, i've noticed they do that with comfrey flowers too.

Bee v Wasp

2010-09-02T10:48:00.005+01:00

Watching the hives so closely i've noticed that wasps are often hanging about. I've seen quite a few go into the hives - they are trying to rob the honey. This is when guard bees of the colony will challenge the wasp, and the wasp will either fly off or they will fight with each other. The fight may end in the death of one or both of them.

Here I saw a wasp and a bee having a fight just outside the entrance to the hive - the wasp was the winner in this case - the bee hardly visible in the photos.

I've also watched wasps clear up any dead bees from the ground around the hives. I used to gather any dead bees in early summer for my collection, but noticed there weren't so many in the last month or two. I then observed wasps picking up dead bee parts and flying off with them. As much as the thought of wasps eating bees isn't a great one, at least they are keeping the area around the hives clean of carcasses.

New Queen

2010-08-31T15:29:00.004+01:00

Earlier this month I mentioned that we had no queen in one of the hives and that we were in danger of loosing the whole colony (if we didn't do something about it). On friday Ivor and I did a check of the two hives, plus the two smaller ones, and we were relieved to find a new queen in hive 2 that is already laying. Just in time i think.

There aren't many flowering plants left now, apart from the Himalayan Balsam, which continues to attract the honeybees. But i didn't see many bumblebees this last few days - a few B. pascuorum, B.terrestris, B.lapidarius. The small plot with the rosebay, meadowsweet and scabious has been cut so there isn't much about to feed on around the grounds.

It's september tomorrow - summer seems to have gone so quickly...

Top image taken by Adrianne Neil - getting as close to the hives as she possibly dare.

Soil Samples

2010-08-25T10:40:00.007+01:00

For various reasons* I'm collecting and testing soil samples from certain points on Yorkshire Sculpture Park. So, last week as the sun was setting, I collected samples from different spots and brought them home to test for pH, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).

* My ideas for the future development of the Bee Project involve creating and managing areas of meadow that will benefit bee populations and have a visual impact on the landscape.

Sound

2010-08-22T16:05:00.006+01:00

During the last few months i've been recording the sound of the bees at the hives. The sound of the hive when they are all active is intense - a mass of noise. I've also recorded the bees coming out and taking off to look for food and then coming back into land - whizzing by the microphone. Sometimes one or two land on the mike shield and i can hear them in my headphones nibbling at the sponge.

In 1609 the work of Charles Butler was published: The Feminine Monarchie or A Treatise Concerning Bees, and the Due Ordering of Them: Wherein the Truth, Found Out by Experience and Diligent Observation, in which he attempted to transcribe into musical notation the 'piping' and 'quacking' sounds produced by rival queens within a hive. Check this website out for more information on the books and images of his findings:

http://www.nls.uk/moir/piping.html

I've been translating my recordings into a visual form too - shown above.

Rosebay

2010-08-21T17:06:00.006+01:00

There is one little plot of flowers on YSP (in the nature reserve, by the lake) that i love going to as it always has loads of bees, butterflies, hoverflies, wasps, flies etc feeding on the plants there.*

The Rosebay Chamerion angustifolium is such a striking plant - and one to flower later in summer. The bees love it. I've collected and pressed a couple of specimens too.
Now it's going to seed, which are all fluffy and drift along on the breeze, catching the sunlight.

The photo of me looking for bees is by Charles Quick.
*See also blog entry Meadowsweet (July) - it's all on the same little plot.

Queen Is Missing, Presumed Dead

2010-08-21T11:32:00.003+01:00

A while ago I mentioned on the blog that we were chuffed that the hives both had new queens (that we marked) and saw were laying etc. But since then, for reasons we can't figure out, we have lost one of the queens and it's taken far too long for the hive to replace her. Here are the entries into the hive log book about hive 2:

17th July 2010: Hive 2 - Queenless. Sealed queen cells. All but one destroyed. 2nd super mostly drawn out.
30th July 2010: Hive 2 - No laying queen as yet. Remaining brood all hatched. 2nd super mostly drawn and part full.
12th Aug 2010: Hive 2 - Still no laying queen. Bees are working the balsam (off white pollen).

Presumably with no new brood being raised eventually we'll loose the whole hive. Bees only live on average for 36 days (worker bee) or 22 days (drone) in the summer. With this in mind, and the dates in the log book, we're very close to loosing the whole colony. Arse.

Close Up

2010-08-15T16:55:00.004+01:00

On friday I went back to use the microscopes at the University of Central Lancashire to get more shots of the dead bees i've been collecting. It's been ages since i was last there, with being so busy and also away from Preston. I really love looking at the bees under such scrutiny - examining their wings and hairs and eyes and stings.

A big thanks to Adam for his time and patience (and bad insect related jokes).

Tricky Subject

2010-08-12T12:27:00.005+01:00

Himalayan Balsam Impatiens glandulifera is a tricky plant. It's an invasive species and can create large stands on riverbanks shading out and suppressing grasses and native plants. When it dies back in autumn and winter it leaves the riverbanks bare and therefore liable to erosion. It grows to 2m in height and the explosive seeds can fall up to 6 - 7 m from the original plant. Each plant can produce up to approx 2,500 seeds.

But talking to Ivor, the beekeeper, he said he loves that there is Himalayan Balsam on the YSP site as bees absolutely love it. And, if it wasn't for the presence of Himalayan Balsam in the past two dull, rainy summers bees would have been in real trouble. However, research is being conducted on the effects caused by bees preferring to feed on the balsam instead of other native flowering plants in any given area.

The bees at YSP do love the balsam, but i'm not convinced that any monoculture in the landscape is a good idea. It's not just about bees is it? Surely if Himalayan Balsam spreads so much, to the detriment of other native plants, then lots of other species, like insects and birds etc, will decline too. Isn't it all about the whole picture, not just supplying honeybees with an easy food source?

Bee Object

2010-08-11T10:24:00.002+01:00

This beautiful little object was sent to me from my friend David who lives in Italy. It's 11 cm long and when i first unwrapped it I didn't know what it was. Here is his note:

"I'm enclosing one of my treasures - an old 'queen excluder' given to me by an old beekeeper in Scotland. A beautiful abstract object, I thought you might find it useful for your bee show perhaps?
ciao ciao
David"

So this little object has travelled quite a bit and is now sitting on my work desk.

Other Summer Plants

2010-08-10T10:30:00.006+01:00

Here are a couple more plants that the bees are loving feeding on at the moment:

top image: Ragwort Senecio jacobaea
middle and bottom image: Corn Sow-thistle Sonchus arvensis

There are a few small patches of Ragwort at YSP and the Corn Sow-thistle is edging the arable fields on the site.

Lime

2010-08-09T14:56:00.004+01:00

I was back at YSP briefly last week and although it was a blowy day with rain showers passing through there was still lots of bees about - some looked pretty bedraggled though.

The Lime trees (Tilia x europaea) at YSP are attracting both the honey bees and bumblebees - when we (me and my friend Charles) stood under one of them the tree was humming with the sound of busy bees. They obviously love lime trees.

YSP Bee Boxes

2010-08-09T14:39:00.003+01:00

Yorkshire Sculpture Park have run a couple of workshops with families to make bee boxes for gardens. These here, made during the Bee Event day in July, are for solitary bees, but you can get others for bumblebees too. You can buy quite a few different ones for your garden, but perhaps it would be more fun to make your own.

I found this great website with a page on how to make a solitary bee box www.foxleas.com/bee_house.htm

photo by Helen Moore

French Bee

2010-08-09T12:24:00.004+01:00

I've been away from home for two weeks and only now able to up date the blog. For the first week I was in France in a beautiful area near Vimoutiers. While visiting someones garden i saw this fabulous bee - just look at the size of it!
My friend who knows lots about bees did mention what it's called, but i forgot to write it down - so i'll add it later.

Up date: after doing a bit of searching on-line i reckon this bee is a Violet Carpenter Bee Xylocopa violacea. It's a solitary bee and one of the largest in Europe. It nests in dead wood - the genus name Xylocopa comes from the Greek noun xylon = wood and the Greek verb copto = to cut.

Event Day

2010-07-26T16:20:00.003+01:00

It was the Co-op Members Bee-spoke Day at YSP yesterday and we had guided tours down to the Bee Project base at the boathouse, plus there was a couple of art workshops to make bee houses and an activity trail too.

It was a lovely day* and everyone who attended the tours seemed to enjoy the walk and then also seeing into the hives and all the bees.

It's been a busy weekend - i went to do a talk about the Bee Project at CCA Glasgow too on Saturday.

Tomorrow i'm off to France for a week - i'm going from Preston to Paris on the train (I can't wait) so i'll not up-date the blog for a few days.

* The day started badly: I had an unbelievably stressful journey to YSP with a taxi driver who had no map, didn't know how to use a satnav, who set off in the wrong direction thinking that West Bretton was 109 miles away from Huddersfield, who thought it was ok to stop on the hard shoulder of the motorway to re-set the satnav and also thought it might be reasonable to charge £71 for the fare when we got there over an hour later. Knowing the journey should only take about 20 minutes i gave him 20 quid. I fear that he might still be trying to find the exit of the YSP car park.

Bombus Vestalis

2010-07-23T11:46:00.004+01:00

On Monday i was joined at YSP by Brian, an ecologist, to have a look around the site and do a survey of all the bee species.
We had a really great day - despite it being grey and rainy in Preston when i set off early in the morning it was a hot sunny day over in Yorkshire.

We spent the whole day walking for miles and trying to catch bees and identify them.
Here is a new species for the project - it's Bombus vestalis Vestal Cuckoo-bee.

It says in my Edwards and Jenner field guide: A widespread species, found in many habitats in England and Wales. It is only recently known from Scotland and is not currently known from Ireland. This species takes over the nests of B. terrestris.

We also found a number of solitary bees too - but Brian has taken them away to identify properly.

Meadowsweet

2010-07-22T13:58:00.004+01:00

While the bumblebees are enjoying the lavender near the centre the honeybees are busy loving the Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria. There is an area in the nature reserve part of YSP that is covered with Meadowsweet and also Rosebay Chamerion angustifolium.

I love visiting that area - i can stand surrounded by the flowers that sway in the breeze and breath in the sweet summer aroma.

Along with the honeybees I've found a few species of bumblebee there too (B. terrestris, B. lapidarius, B. pascuorum, B. hortorum, B. pratorum, B. lucorum, B.vestalis) and a couple of solitary bees - which i will update on the blog soon.

Stung

2010-07-22T11:29:00.004+01:00

It finally happened - i got stung.

I was walking to my allotment with my friend Robina and as she knows that i'm collecting dead bees for the project she pointed one out on the path leading to the plots. I picked it up and cupped my hand round it. Two steps further and i got a shot in my hand - it stung me! After a brief episode of turning the pure Preston air a distinct shade of blue, i picked the bee back up (i'd dropped it when i got stung) and saw that it was already dead - i got stung by a dead bee!

By the way it's a Bombus pascuorum, Common Carder-bee.
And look how sore my hand is - i'm finding it difficult to type.

Lavender

2010-07-21T12:24:00.003+01:00

Near the visitor centre at YSP there is a boarder planted up with Lavender. A couple of weeks ago when it was just beginning to come out in flower there wasn't much feeding on it - but now it's in full flower it it absolutely buzzing with bumblebees (not so many honey bees). Yesterday wasn't very sunny and rain showers kept passing through, but it didn't deter the bees from feeding - they love it!

Bumblebee Conservation Trust

2010-07-18T18:53:00.002+01:00

I finally got round to joining the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and i got my members pack yesterday. I should really have joined ages ago - the work they do is vital to understanding why bumblebees are declining and how and what we might do about it. In my pack I got a poster, pack of wild flower seeds, a car sticker and lovely enamel pin badge, plus a copy of their newsletter.
I'm really happy i eventually got round to joining them.

Link

2010-07-16T14:32:00.002+01:00

My friend Robina has just sent this link about S'Warm by the National Youth Theatre, a mass participation collaboration with Complicit involving more than 600 NYT members.
The group will 'swarm' London in a figure of eight for 5 days from 18th - 22nd Aug, reuniting at famous London landmarks to perform en-masse.

www.ideastap.com/magazine/all-articles/swarm

Other Bugs

2010-07-15T15:48:00.005+01:00

While i'm looking for bees at YSP i'm also seeing lots of other bugs too. Not sure what any of these are images of - the third image isn't even of the whole bug - as it got away before i got a good shot of it. It shows its fantastic body shape though.

Bee Sex

2010-07-15T15:28:00.008+01:00

The other day I was joined on one of my daily walks by Richard who has been working at YSP. At the back of one of the clearings in the nature reserve area on the site a couple of bees on a Foxglove caught our eye. Looking closer we noticed they were busy being 'attached' to each other...*

Being occupied with the task at hand, the bees weren't too bothered that i got so close to take photos. If you look very closely at the third image you can see that the female has her sting right out in the face of the lower bee.

* Or one could be giving the other a piggyback

Butterflies and Moths

2010-07-15T15:12:00.005+01:00

Also last week there were hundreds of Gatekeeper butterflies on the roses too and all along the bank near the lake at YSP - plus the steep slope down to the river was fluttering with lots of a brightly coloured day flying moth - either a Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet or a Five-spot Burnet - two very similar species and i'm not sure how to tell them apart...

Roses

2010-07-14T17:04:00.005+01:00

One plant that was really full of bees, bugs and butterflies last week was the rose that lines the outlet from the lake. Although almost completely inaccessible, i managed to climb down the bank over the wall and see that there were lots of insects feeding on the flowers.

I found it difficult to catch anything though and got nettled up my arms and legs, plus i left my scissors in the bushes (after collecting a sample to press), but the smell was heavy and sweet and i sat for a while listening to the water running and the bees buzzing.

The roses fell apart when i tried to press them - so i don't think it'll be such a good pressing, but we'll see.

Queen Marking

2010-07-12T09:43:00.006+01:00

In a Where's Wally? style exercise me and the beekeeper, Ivor, spent time looking for the two new queens in the YSP hives. He'd previously removed the old queens (and put them in smaller hives to the side) and as we'd seen new queens cells we hoped that new queens had hatched, had mated and were now laying eggs. Ivor is obviously much better at spotting the queens than me (we'd potentially still be there looking) and it didn't take long to find the first one.

He marked her by gently placing a ring with wire front over her to stop her from moving away and then put a dot of bright blue water based ink on her back so that she's easier to spot in the future.

We then had to do it all again with the second hive and find their queen and mark her too.

The weather has been good this year so Ivor mentioned that both queens were doing great by laying so soon - the good weather has meant that both have been able to mate over a number of fine weather days and lay almost as soon as possible. Bad weather can hinder this as she'll not go out in bad weather. The queen has to mate with about 10 - 12 males as she'll not go out again.

Here are the entries to the hive log books:
Hive 1: New laying queen; brood in all stages on 5 frames; queen marked blue; honey super half full.
Hive 2: New laying queen; eggs and larva on 2 frames; queen marked blue; top brood box full of honey; super full; second empty super added.

One thing to note: I mentioned to Ivor that i hadn't seen so many bees around at the end of June / beginning of July and he said beekeepers call it the June Gap - when all the spring plants and blossom etc have died away but the summer plants aren't quite out fully yet. So, it wasn't the football after all...*

*see Lull blog entry below.

Lost Camera

2010-07-07T14:50:00.005+01:00

The last couple of days at YSP have been great - Ivor the beekeeper came and we did lots with the hives (which i'll up-date soon); I walked miles around the site looking for bees and collecting plant specimens to press; and there was a small group of people from Lancashire Artist Network that came to the boathouse to visit the project.

In amongst all this when i got home last night i couldn't find my camera. I couldn't remember where i might have left it and spent the whole evening, most of the night and early this morning thinking through my time at YSP to try and work it out..... happily it's been found (a relief to my housemate who has had to endure hours of me recalling where i went in a step by step account of the past 24 hours).

Because of this I don't have any photos from the last couple of days - apart from this Polaroid of poppies in the corn field. The bumblebees seem to really like the poppies - bobbing from one to the next.

I'll up-date all the other info when i get my memory card back.

Comments Book

2010-07-07T14:13:00.005+01:00

When the display for the Bee Project came down at YSP in May I was able to see all the comments in the book from visitors. There is a lot of comments in the book - here are a few:

"Pls save the bee while we still have got a chance, don't wait too late!"
"We love bees! bzzzzzzz they are very under appreciated!"
"Bees love our garden as it has 'wild' areas. Let your privet hedges flower - smells great and bees LOVE it."
"I have buff-tailed bees living in my garden stone wall in Derbyshire - long may they continue there."
"I think bees are cool"

Quite a few people seemed compelled to do drawings in the book too - three of which are above.

Bee Mimic

2010-07-02T14:58:00.004+01:00

I don't think i've looked so closely at everything that flies around so at YSP i'm discovering all sorts of beautiful insects.

This image is of a bee mimic (a fly in a bee suit) so that predators think it's more dangerous than it really is and therefore avoid it and don't eat it: Batesian Mimicry.

At a flash glance this fly really looked like a bee - it's only when looking closer that you see it's not. A couple of ways to tell (i've been told) are that bees have 4 wings and elbowed antennae, but flies only have 2 wings and short stubby antennae.

Magnified

2010-07-01T09:58:00.003+01:00

I went back to the laboratories at the Uni in Preston last week with my bag full of dead bees i've collected.
Adam worked out how to use the camera that attaches to one of the lenses on the microscopes.
I must say i'm loving the images of the bees in extreme close up: the colours and shapes not entirely clear.

I'll definitely go back again and try and take more images of dead bees that i keep finding (on a walk on Sunday i found 10 dead bumblebees in total - 6 were from around a bumblebee nest in the ground - i'm beginning to wonder if bees drop dead at my feet).

Lull

2010-06-25T20:30:00.002+01:00

It's been a weird coupe of days - even with lots of flowers out there didn't seem as many bees as usual. There is clover, trefoil, thistles and buttercups but it all seemed very quiet - I wonder why that is? It has been very hot: do bees stay in the shade when it's hot?
As it goes it was pretty quiet for visitors at YSP too - i reckon everyone was watching the England match at the world cup - maybe that's where all the bees were too.

Bombus pratorum

2010-06-20T10:08:00.005+01:00

I found another species of bumblebee for the YSP list (takes the total to 8 species now). Bombus pratorum Early Bumblebee.

There is a few about - on the Thistles and Cotoneaster, but i got these shots of one while it was on the Ox-eye Daisies.

Here's what it says in my Edwards and Jenner Field Guide to Bumblebees:

Distribution and biology - A widespread species, found in many habitats. A regular garden species where it is a particularly good pollinator of soft-fruit flowers.
Nests - Made in a variety of situations, at ground level in the bases of bushes, underground and in holes in trees.
Flower visits - Often seen visiting the flowers of shrubs, especially Raspberry and Bramble, but also a wide range of other plants.

I think it might be male as its got yellow hairs on its face.

Badge Map

2010-06-19T11:16:00.004+01:00

At YSP you can fill in a 'bee promise' card (to plant something in your garden that bees like etc) and in return you get a limited edition bee badge with one of my dead bee drawings on.*

On the card you can write where you are from and i thought i should collect all the information and transfer it on to a map of UK to see where all the badges are going. Quite a few don't put where they're from, but the ones that do get represented on the map.

A lot of badges are local / regional to YSP in Yorkshire, but they are going further afield.
The most northern in UK is Haddlington in East Lothian; the most far east is Chelmsford in Essex; and the most far south (and west) is Falmouth in Cornwall. Some have gone international: quite a few to Holland, a couple to Norway and one has gone to La Paz in Bolivia - cool!

*See also Bee Badges posted in March on the blog.

Thistles

2010-06-17T13:02:00.005+01:00

All the Hawthorn blossom has gone and the Rhododendron flowers are fading, but the bees are now loving the Marsh Thistles Cirsium palustre. They're also loving Creeping Buttercups Ranunculus repens and the big Ox-eye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare.

Pictured here are the thistles - my net finally arrived so i spent the other day catching bees and crawling about in thistles, which isn't that comfy. But it was gloriously hot and sunny so i managed to put up with it.

Anticipation of Pain

2010-06-14T14:02:00.005+01:00

I've been working on the Bee Project for a few months now and I've still not been stung...

I've been told that you're not a real bee keeper until you have been stung. When i'm blocking the entrance to the hives as i'm recording the sound of the bees or taking photos i know i'm making the bees irritable and frustrated. When i'm out looking for bumblebees and trying to get good shots of them i know they're not happy sometimes - they throw their legs up to the side in a 'get away from me' gesture. So, it's only a matter of time before i get stung good and proper.

Bees are seen as heroic and noble when they sting - they die after stinging, so they must have a real reason for making such a sacrifice. They are forgiven. Unlike wasps who we think deliberately go about looking for targets they can sting repeatedly.

Last summer i was walking to my mum's house and an insect of some description plopped on to the top of my head and stung me twice. It hurt SO much! What didn't help was that the day before i'd been to a funeral and was suffering from a bit of a hangover and I was on the way to the dentist. My mum decided to help by putting a massive greasy blob of vaseline on the sting site (and all in my hair too). Thanks mum. My wish was that whatever the insect was it eventually died a horrid death after it crawled off into the hedge - but as it stung me twice i presumed it was laughing its little insect head off while cruising for it's next victim of pain.

www.insectstings.co.uk/beesting.shtml

Bee Keeping Booklet

2010-06-11T14:12:00.007+01:00

My friends Charles and Pauline gave me a Young Farmers' Club Booklet Bee Keeping. It is the fifth edition published in 1945.
I love that the chap is smoking a pipe in every image.

"A person who knows very little or nothing about bees should make friends with someone who does, and watch him handling his hives and stock. It is a good thing to find out in this way if one likes bees before starting on one's own. In most districts there is a Bee Keepers' Association, and by joining this and attending its meetings a great deal can be learnt."

Inside

2010-06-08T09:37:00.003+01:00

I took over 500 shots during my last visit to YSP.
The ones I like the most were taken inside the hive. They are dark and claustrophobic, ambiguous and a bit creepy.

I've put a few more images on my website too.

BWARS

2010-06-07T11:53:00.004+01:00

I decided to join The Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (BWARS) and my membership pack came last week. I received two of the past newsletters plus a member's handbook and the catchily named book Provisional atlas of the aculeate Hymenoptera of Britain and Ireland Part 7.

The handbook is really good with chapters on conservation, encouraging bees into your garden, photography, equipment etc. The Atlas is a little publication showing distribution maps and species profiles of bees, wasps and ants. It's fab.

Other things to note at YSP are that the bees are loving the Laburnum, Rhododendron and vetch (all shown here) plus they love the Whitebeam and Horse Chestnut flowers too.

Laboratory

2010-06-05T11:12:00.005+01:00

A while ago i met a forensic entomologist (like you do)*, and he invited me to look at bees under the microscopes at the Uni near me in Preston. So yesterday i took along my little collection of dead bees that i've been gathering for a while.

I entered a magical, mesmerising world inspecting these creatures in so much detail. The complexity of their eyes, the hair magnified, the breathtaking beauty of the wings and the individual grains of pollen collected on their legs. One of my dead bees had its sting out - in close up a gorgeous vicious weapon. I feel that i don't have the capacity of describing the visions in words.

I tried unsuccessfully to take photos down the lens, but Adam mentioned they do have a camera that can capture the images and i can use it next time. Really can't wait for the next visit.

* Forensic entomologist - someone who works with a highly trained team of insects to detect crime.

Bombus hortorum

2010-06-04T08:57:00.006+01:00

I found another species of bumblebee at YSP:

It's Bombus hortorum Garden Bumblebee and it was feeding on White Dead-nettle Lamium album.

Quite a few different bumblebees were really loving the patches of dead-nettle and systematically drinking from every flower head on each plant.

My Edwards and Jenner book says this about Bombus hotorum:

Distribution: A widespread species found in many habitats. It may not be frequent in any particular area. A garden species.
Flower visits: One of two species which regularly visit Foxglove flowers, the other being B pascuorum. It also frequently uses Red Clover and Dead-nettles.

Catching Bees

2010-06-03T11:00:00.006+01:00

Last night i went out to a lovely little meadow near to where i live in Preston. I went with a chap called Brian who is also keen on bees.

The evening was sunny and warm and the meadow was full of flowering dog daisies, buttercups, vetch, crane's bill and grasses. I had a go at catching bees in a net and then looking at them in an inspection tube before releasing them.

We caught lots - the fields were buzzing. We caught 4 species of bumblebee (pascuorum, hortorum, terrestris and lapidarius) and also a couple of solitary bees. We also caught a couple of wasp species, hover-flies and a bee mimic - a fly in disguise. I loved it last night - wandering about in the flowers, finding new things to wonder at.

The middle image shows Bombus hortorum Garden bumblebee
The bottom image shows a solitary bee - with its underside covered in pollen.

Coming in to Land

2010-06-02T11:33:00.004+01:00

I spent ages the other day sitting in front of the hive watching the bees coming in and out. I also made sound recordings of the buzzing. They don't like it very much that i'm in the way and eventually more and more come out and get more frantic around the entrance.

I took these shots of them coming back from foraging - laden with pollen.

I have to say i really don't like the smell of the hives. It's hard to describe - it's not sweet or honey like, but i think it's mildly unpleasant. My friend Andy thinks it might be the result of thousands of them feeding on lentil flowers.

End of the Display

2010-06-02T09:46:00.003+01:00

The Bee Project display came down the other day - it's still there, only under a couple of layers of paint. Naughty children can no longer try to create a cat's cradle with the threads, or poke their fingers through the frames in the virtual hive.

The images here were taken by Adrianne Neil

Removing the Queen

2010-05-31T10:21:00.005+01:00

Ivor the bee keeper came to YSP the other day as he wanted to take the queen out of one of the hives.

He'd noticed that the workers were making a queen cell in the hive and he didn't want to let the existing queen swarm taking half the bees with her.

So, we first had to find the queen and he put her along with a frame of bees into a small hive situated next to the other two hives. The original hive is now queenless, but they have the queen cell which will hatch soon.

The third image here shows the queen cell - very distinctive.

Hawthorn

2010-05-30T17:37:00.007+01:00

This last week has been wonderful at YSP.

The weather has been a bit changeable with rain showers, sunny spells, a cool breeze and skies full of white clouds.

The early plants have all died away and now the bees are mad for other flowers - the honey bees have been frantically feeding on Hawthorn blossom which seems to be smothering the trees at the moment - the smell all sweet and heavy. I went for a walk late into the evening and the Hawthorn trees looked like cloaked figures glowing in the dim light.