Do honey bees and bumble bees prefer different food sources?

[madasafish]

With a lawn as good as yours why would they want to go slumming in someone else's back yard ? (That's a compliment ! - for a change !!)

I have not noticed bees foraging on my lawn.

The moss looks great at a distance. Now my next door neighbour is a lawn fanatic: roller, careful feeding, spraying..

After winter it still looks as bad as mine!

 

[Chris Luck]

I agree they can smell the honey/wax, but how do they communicate the position to the rest of the bees/hive if as Seeley says that the waggle dance doesn't work for short distances.

Because it does, not very accurately perhaps but they can do "in front, not far" and "above very close" etc;

Stick some honey, your own of course, on the side of the hive, five minutes and the bees from that hive will be pouring out, flying a short distance, turning round and going to that side if the hive having been told where to go.

Get your own experience, do your own experiments.

Chris

 

[davnig]

I agree they can smell the honey/wax, but how do they communicate the position to the rest of the bees/hive if as Seeley says that the waggle dance doesn't work for short distances.

there's a circle dance - basically says there's nectar/pollen within 100/200m (may be off with distance but close by anyway), take the scent off me and go and find it. It doesn't give direction as it's so close they can use scent to zero in

 

[Winker]

Because it does, not very accurately perhaps but they can do "in front, not far" and "above very close" etc;

Stick some honey, your own of course, on the side of the hive, five minutes and the bees from that hive will be pouring out, flying a short distance, turning round and going to that side if the hive having been told where to go.

Get your own experience, do your own experiments.

Chris

I know for a fact they can communicate a short distance to the hive, I see it regularly, when they come in to the shed I store all the honey/wax. First one will come in and then fly out, it will then communicate that location to the hive and within 5 mins 7-8 turn up to see what they can get. 5 mins latter you will have 30-50 there and within a hour you can have hundreds.

My question was not out of lack of knowledge it was to start a discussion on whats been written in a book and what we see in reality

 

[BeeNice]

I agree they can smell the honey/wax, but how do they communicate the position to the rest of the bees/hive if as Seeley says that the waggle dance doesn't work for short distances.

Who says they come a short distance, my raiders come from about half mile away at least. So they must waggle dance like crazy!

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Since last autumn, when I did my first bee course, my wife has visited every garden centre for miles around to buy "bee friendly" plants - allegedly! I've had my bees in my garden for 3 weeks now and have been watching for honey bees in the garden.
I saw honey bees - could have been mine - on Sycamore and Mountain Ash but they seem to largely ignore the ground cover and decorative plants, whereas these lower plants are absolutely covered in several varieties of bumble bee. My bees are out foraging somewhere but not in large numbers in my garden, now that the Sycamore and Mountain Ash have finished.
Let's hope the investment my missus has made in plants over the last six months will not all go to feeding bumble bees!

 

[Chris Luck]

my wife has visited every garden centre for miles around to buy "bee friendly" plants - allegedly!

Well by your own words they are bee friendly, just not necessarily honey bee friendly..

Several hundred species of solitary bee and, what is it? 30 odd species of bumble in the UK? That and the fact that Honey bees will go straight past their own forage plants if there is something far more interesting elsewhere, OSR being a classic example.

Rather like all this disingenuous stuff about "Bees are in trouble" with most people thinking it means Honey bees.

Chris

 

[madasafish]

Not only do honey and bumbles forage on the same plants in our garden, they meet and stop to have a few words:

 

[user 6228]

bees have a looping search technique returning to a fixed spot . The do a loop with the far point a short distance out then repeat changing the direction of the loop. When the complete a "circle of loops" they increase the far point and repeat until they give up.
facinating ....

 

[Erichalfbee]

just not necessarily honey bee friendly..

Several hundred species of solitary bee and, what is it? 30 odd species of bumble in the UK? That and the fact that Honey bees will go straight past their own forage plants if there is something far more interesting elsewhere, OSR being a classic example.



Chris

I seek out bee friendly plants too;any bee. They are pleasing to watch.
I sat out in the sunshine yesterday next to our pyracantha and is was humming with bumbles and hover flies.......wonderful

 

[Sanctuary]

My bees fly over everything to get to the OSR. Its only once the OSR has finished they look at other plants. But as its been said above by Ben90, I don't think they work anything directly outside the hive other than robbing their neighbouring hives

Maybe a dumb question but - do honey bees prefer OSR? If so, why

 

[Sanctuary]

My 'garden' is a maze of buttercups and white clover at present (I'm that kind of gardener ...) yet the only bees interested in 'em are the Bumblies.

Local foraging must work though, else fruit growers wouldn't put hives in their orchards.

LJ

Yes, thanks for bumping my neurons. I know of cider farmers and wine growers who both do the same, and it's an ancient tradition. Which leaves me befuddled why my bees are making a bee-line for pastures further away.

 

[user 6228]

They do if there is something interesting for them they will forage to within a metre or two of the colony all day long, max returns for min energy expenditure.

Chris

Yes they've been very keen on parsnips only 4m away
Derek

 

[Sanctuary]

Yes they've been very keen on parsnips only 4m away
Derek

Really? I mean really? This could be fantastic news. If parsnips produce pollen and/or nectar, and they leave behind an edible vegetable, surely we should all be going mad on parsnip production!?!?

 

[oliver90owner]

surely we should all be going mad on parsnip production!?!?

Feel free. Go ahead. Enjoy your parsnips, but please don't expect us all to be so enthusiastic.

 

[alldigging]

Really? I mean really? This could be fantastic news. If parsnips produce pollen and/or nectar, and they leave behind an edible vegetable, surely we should all be going mad on parsnip production!?!?

When they go to seed .. Normally after you should have harvested them if you want to eat them.

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

surely we should all be going mad on parsnip production!?!?

Feel free. Go ahead. Enjoy your parsnips, but please don't expect us all to be so enthusiastic.

Last year my bees really loved the Fuchsia in my garden this year I have been looking for them to find it but not a single bee. The Phacelia I planted for them has been ignored except by a couple or so and left for the bumbles the same with the Alliums and the raspberies. There must be something more interesting around because they have been flying strongly since the weather improved.
Can I interest you in parsnips gentle people. they are not just for roasting chipping and boiling or even for adding to curry but also make a fantastic wine. slurp slurp.

 

[MonseigneurBienvenu]

I have two bumble colonies right next to the garden and the flowers are covered in them. I have seen only a couple of honey-type bees on the flowers/in garden in several months, and at least two of those were actually masonry bees. Even with a hive right in there, they just seem to like to fly away. But I can't say they don't forage nearby - I'm not filming 14/7

Another fun observation about bumble bee numbers: the Ceanothus in the corner of the garden is covered and it's louder than the hive!

Kind regards,

A

 

[madasafish]

The beech trees up the road- 100 years old+ and enormous are covered in bumbles at 7 am. Under them the noise is quite soporific