Finding Wild Bees

Finding Wild Bees 1 / Copyright beelistener.co.uk

On a warm day towards the end of February this year, I was taking a long walk along the road near where I live when I heard a honey bee fly nearby. I was surprised to discover that this worker bee was collecting water from grass stems at the roadside. This could only mean one thing to me; the bee must come from a wild colony nearby and not from my own apiary 2 miles away, or another apiary slightly closer.

How did I know this you may wonder? Well, water collecting in winter is especially risky for bees because the weather can change so suddenly rapidly cooling a bee that has already been compromised by taking on a load of cold water. Flying back home is hazardous so they collect water as close to home as possible.

Honey bees are not domesticated animals. At best, they are semi-domesticated so the moniker feral is not scientifically correct given that feral applies to a domesticated animal gone wild. I prefer to call them wild though some refer to them as free-living.

Finding Wild Bees 2 - Wild bee in bee box / Copyright beelistener.co.uk

Returning a couple of days later bursting with excitement and accompanied by my husband, Linton, and sister, Catriona, I try to locate the wild bee nest. I have my walnut wood bee hunting box to capture bees in. I entice them with attractive sugar syrup scented with anise oil so that, when they are released, I can hopefully notice the direction of their homeward flight. The theory is that the bees return home and tell their sisters about my delicious syrup and they come back for more bringing some of the family back with them. Meanwhile, I sit a little square of bee’s wax comb filled with syrup on the front entrance of my box and mark the thoraces of a few bees with different colours so that I can time how long it takes for them to fly back to the nest with the goodies and return to my box for a refill.

I can work out approximately how far away the nest is by the length of time away from my sweet lure. “Following the Wild Bees” by Thomas D. Seeley is my guide to this exciting and challenging way of enjoying bees and you can learn how to do the same from this book.

When the bees become familiar with the feeding station, the wax square is placed inside the box and several bees are captured and taken a few hundred yards along the direction of flight (beeline) where the bees are released and the feeding station set up again. This is repeated gradually bringing the hunter close to the nest, at least that is how it should work.

Finding Wild Bees 3 / Copyright beelistener.co.uk

In this case, our search and discovery were much easier and involved only placing some syrup on a mossy wall attracting many excited bees who were so hungry for syrup that I could mark them as they lapped it up. I got splashed with syrup accidentally and found bees feeding on my hand. I was busy marking them as Catriona spotted the direction of flight out to the right over a stubble field.

Finding Wild Bees 4 / Copyright beelistener.co.uk
Finding Wild Bees 5 / Copyright beelistener.co.uk
Finding Wild Bees 6 - marking the bee / Copyright beelistener.co.uk

I looked up to watch the bees fly off and suddenly realised that they were flying a few hundred yards west then turning a sharp right to north. Just as I noticed this, I saw Linton waving from beside a larch tree. On a walk at the edge of the woods he spotted a larch tree with a gigantic split down the back and on moving round the front he saw the bees flying home to a long propolis covered entrance. The large amount of old propolis was a clue that this nest has been occupied over many years though not necessarily continuously.

Finding Wild Bees 7 / Copyright beelistener.co.uk
Finding Wild Bees 8 - The bee tree / Copyright Beelistener.co.uk
Finding Wild Bees 9 / Copyright Beelistener.co.uk

You can see the bee in the photo bringing back red deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) pollen, others were collecting gorse (Ulex europaeus) pollen and probably nectar also.

Why this find is so exciting is that has been previously thought that wild bee colonies have not survived due to varroa which came to Scotland in the 1990’s. It is now known, through extensive research, that colonies of wild bees in the Arnot Forest in NY state (USA) have survived and evolved to cope with varroa. This is also the case for wild bees in some forests in Europe, so why not in Scottish forests and woodlands?

Having consulted with the head forester for the estate on which the bee tree lives, I have made plans to put up a bait hive to offer a good home to a swarm that may come from this colony soon. The larch tree is unhealthy having probably suffered a lightning strike some years ago and it is thought that it may come down in a storm, so it would be good to be able to find out just how these bees are coping with varroa, and also to know more about their genetic origins.

I shall keep you posted.

19 thoughts on “Finding Wild Bees”

  1. I do find your information fascinating. Having taken propolis for my leg ulcers with good results. I didn’t realise they would put it where they have. I hope your work has a good outcome before the tree is blown down. Edward Pugh

    1. Thank you Edward. Yes, propolis is amazing. Recent research shows that if bees are able to coat the inside of their hive with it their immunity to infection is increased and diseases reduced. They also use it to block up draughty gaps in their hives/nests, and strengthen comb.
      If mice make the mistake of entering a hive, bees can kill them and mummify them with propolis to prevent infection from decay.
      I use propolis tincture with good effect for sore throats.

  2. What a wonderful story of discovery, and one that is beautifully illustrated with superb photos. They give me clear sense of where you conducted this bee hunt. Thank you for making this report.

    And kudos to you for noticing a water collector, which started your hunt. In my experience, that is THE best way to initiate a hunt for a wild colony of honey bees.

    I look forward to learning if you find more wild colonies around where you live in Scotland.

  3. I’m so glad to have read this. Perhaps the presence of Varroa in our hives and the difficulty of controlling that has led us to falsely conclude that there cannot be any unmanaged bees out there in the woods. Those that I do see, I have assumed were from my own hives. Perhaps not. I’ll have to give your (and Tom’s) tracking method a go – and hope that I don’t end up back in my own garden.

  4. Really interesting hunting adventure with a lot of information and food for thought. Thank you.

  5. Super story, I remember DD well ( Discovery Day) standing guard on the look out for the bees.

  6. It is fascinating to read about your observations and experiments, Ann. They are so refreshing. I will follow your website avidly from now on.

  7. What a wonderful story of following the wild bees! I love your new website, Ann. Please keep your blog going. It’s always fascinating to hear about your adventures with the bees.

  8. Hi Ann. Fabulously fascinating post Ann, and exciting too. I haven’t noticed another post about your success with a swarm from the bee tree – could we have an update please?

    1. It was exciting, Caroline. Yes, I will update at the end of the month when I take the nuc box down and report on further bee hunting and findings. So far though no swarms. I may need to reduce the number of frames in the nuc box next year to give the bees an illusion of more space. Carrying a full sized deep brood box through the woods and strapping up in tree sounds like too much work!!

  9. I remember my old bee mentor telling us about propolis – pro = before; polis = the city, so the propolis served as a barrier to the city inhabitants (the colony), protecting the colony as their first line of defence against harm. Never forgot that.

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