- Joined
- Sep 4, 2011
- Messages
- 5,993
- Reaction score
- 5,614
- Location
- Wiveliscombe
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 24
I've been catching up on weeding in the veggie plot today. Did a couple of hours or so this morning and then went out again this afternoon. At one point in the afternoon, for no clear reason, a bee flew around me and then headbutted me a couple of times. I moved away and she started flying around the little fold-up seat I'd been using before circling the area and then settling down on some pea plants. I walked back and she was straight back at me again, so I backed off again. We repeated this dance several times with her following me further each time, but completely ignoring other people in the vicinity. One time she flew around my father-in-law's head quite a few times, and then came straight at me with another headbutt. The final time she followed me right to the back door of the house, a good thirty metres from where I'd been working. I couldn't think what might have got her back up so badly, especially as I'd been out there all morning without any issues.
I decided I'd have a drink and then go back out, so I washed my hands, got my drink and perhaps fifteen minutes later wandered back out again. Started where I'd left off and had no more bother at all. Later on I went to get a wheelbarrow full of semi-composted woodchip which was barely more than five metres from the nearest hive and I still had no trouble. Not even any slight interest. I heard bees flying past me, but they didn't seem to care that I was there.
I'm aware that the isoamyl acetate component of alarm pheromone occurs naturally in some plants and I'm wondering if the explanation for this behaviour is that something I was pulling up as a weed left traces of the same chemical on my hands which I then transferred to the seat as I moved it along the beds. Immediately before this started I'd been removing some sycamore seedlings that had previously escaped notice, but also some self-seeded calendula seedlings that had grown in the path. Calendula seems to me to have quite a strong and distinctive smell (the stem and leaves, not necessarily the flowers) so I wonder if that might be what triggered the defensive behaviour.
Any of that sound plausible, or is there another obvious explanation?
James
I decided I'd have a drink and then go back out, so I washed my hands, got my drink and perhaps fifteen minutes later wandered back out again. Started where I'd left off and had no more bother at all. Later on I went to get a wheelbarrow full of semi-composted woodchip which was barely more than five metres from the nearest hive and I still had no trouble. Not even any slight interest. I heard bees flying past me, but they didn't seem to care that I was there.
I'm aware that the isoamyl acetate component of alarm pheromone occurs naturally in some plants and I'm wondering if the explanation for this behaviour is that something I was pulling up as a weed left traces of the same chemical on my hands which I then transferred to the seat as I moved it along the beds. Immediately before this started I'd been removing some sycamore seedlings that had previously escaped notice, but also some self-seeded calendula seedlings that had grown in the path. Calendula seems to me to have quite a strong and distinctive smell (the stem and leaves, not necessarily the flowers) so I wonder if that might be what triggered the defensive behaviour.
Any of that sound plausible, or is there another obvious explanation?
James
