Bees are endangered around the world and in Ireland too. Ever been tormented by the buzzing of a bee at the window? Paul Handrick, ‘The Bee Guy’, wants us to think about bees more, to help them where we can. Here, he charts the story of one bee, and through doing it helps tell the tale of the amazing work bees do…
SO IT’S A spring morning and you’re chillin’. Doing your thing. Reading the paper. Browsing on your phone, catching some half sleep…
And there’s a buzzing drifting through the house. It’s been tickling the edge of your consciousness for about an hour. Playing hide and seek with your awareness.
Changing slightly in pitch and depth. Falling silent for a few moments only to kick back in slightly more frantic before levelling back to constancy again.
It’s slightly annoying. But not quite annoying enough to really disrupt the chill. Even the more frantic moments not quite frantic enough to set off the need to act.
Wake up to bees
Now where was I?
Before the buzzing tickled.
Oh yeah…
The buzzing?
It’s a bee, innit?
In the house, innit?
Stuck against the window, the wee fool, innit?
But I’m busy chillin’
It’ll wait.
I’ll get to it later.
Must remember.
Probably won’t though. But it’ll be alright. It’ll figure it out. And if it’s not – well there’s loads of them aren’t there?
Should have known better.
Now…back to the important stuff – a walk on the pier or a bit of shopping this afternoon?
On the window sill the bee sits still.
Exhausted.
Confused.
Her Majesty
A queen – she had been out foraging. It had been the perfect morning for a bumblebee. She had been sitting on her first brood of eggs as the sun broke the horizon splashing heat onto the soil and vaguely lighting the old mouse hole in the fern camouflaged bank she had chosen as her nest.
The eggs beneath her were warm from contact with the hairless patch on her abdomen that allowed her to transfer her heat to them. But she could feel her energy dipping. She knew she’d have to venture out. She needed nectar. Needed sugar to create the energy and heat to keep the eggs cosy. She needed those flower visits. Thousands of them.
The hope was for suitable flying conditions and this morning was feeling good. Her bee sense signalling no storms, no heavy rain. She’d wait an hour or so until the heat from the sun really kicked in then she’d go.
She’d warm up those flight muscles and shoot from the nest like a bat out of hell – or a bee out of a mouse hole as she preferred. She had a window of opportunity. She had to make it out to the flowers, do the shopping and get back to the eggs before their temperature dropped too low.
This being the first brood of spring she had no backup yet – no daughter workers to nurse the eggs while she was gone. No willing foragers to collect the food for her. Not yet. She was all alone.
She was everything.
And she was hungry.
The heat increased. The muscles warmed and she flew.
Nourishment from plants
Straight to the flowers high up on the nearby Pussy Willow trees where she gorged then moving on to the low flowers on the ground, the dandelions, that pointed her to exactly where their nectar was located with markings invisible to the human eye.
She worked each flower methodically, absentmindedly humming ‘Don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time…’, as she cut through the air in between.
She loved flying. It never got old. She’d missed it all through hibernation.
She knew instantly when landing on a flower if it had already been emptied by one of her contemporaries, by the scent left behind, thus saving her precious time and energy on a pointless mission. Bees have got it going on!
As she fed she was always aware of the need to be quick. To get back to her nest. To her eggs. Pausing on a dandelion to groom the pollen that was now all over her shiny spring hair her large eyes caught something moving fast in her direction.
Two kids were playing football in their back garden – her forage patch. She rose from the flower in panicked flight and flew straight in the back door of No. 27. The air in here was warmer. No breeze. The light different.
She needed to get back to her eggs.
She flew around this foreign environment trying to get her bearings. To locate a landmark. She saw the sun. And headed for it. This was going to be okay.
And then it wasn’t.
She didn’t know what hit her. Hadn’t seen it. But it hurt. One second she was in full flight and the next she was on her back her stinger up ready to defend herself. But from what? She scrambled around to take off again. But there was something in front of her pressed against her head. Her eyes. Something hard. But she couldn’t see it.
Her eggs! Need to get back!
She’d fly over it.
So she rose.
But it rose with her.
She feinted left.
It followed.
Right.
There too.
But the sun. The sky. The way back to her nest.
She could see it all.
She dropped down. And worked her away along the bottom. It followed.
She tried over again. No.
She flew at it. And flew at it. And flew at it. Flew towards the sun. But got nowhere. It hurt.
And her energy drained.
She rested.
She went again.
The desperate dance with the invisible partner.
Her eggs! Her eggs!
She went at it and at it until she was spent.
And now she sits on the window sill.
Broken.
Confused.
And the sun beats down on her.
And the spiders wait.
And her eggs.
The future of her nest.
Grow cold.
Open the window
You see bumblebees don’t get windows.
Bumblebees don’t get houses.
Bumblebees can take on enough energy to fly for about an hour.
Bumblebee eggs need to be kept between a very specific temperature range. Bumblebee queens need to make up to six thousand flower visits a day to create the heat to maintain their eggs.
Bumblebee queens are all important. If they fail the nest fails. They have no backup.
So get up off your arse and help that bee out.
Right now.
No faffing about.
No excuses.
A little bit of your effort will go a long way.
Time is of the essence, innit?
It’s vital, innit?
It’s bees, innit?
She’s in your house.
And she’s in trouble.
So go be a hero.
It’s your responsibility.
Innit?
Paul Handrick, known as The Bee Guy runs The Bee Sanctuary in County Wicklow.
Save the bees with us by becoming an Official Friend of the Bees via the website - www.thebeesanctuaryofireland.com.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say