Pooing in the sun

[gavin]

Now to lower the tone. Bee poo. We've all (presumably) seen it on the washing or the car. Why do they do that? And do they really just scatter it at random, or do they choose their toilet sites carefully? Would an insect do that - be careful about where they let loose as it were? I saw something today which I've never seen before, bees deliberately sh!tting on a sunny wall. It was a deliberate act - they flew to the wall, some with strings hanging from their rear ends but many just holding it in until they got there. It was amazing to see them land, curl their abdomen so that the tip was almost touching the stone (reminded me of an ovipositing butterfly), then stick some yellowish paste to the stone. Many moved forward to do more, one waddled forward regularly spotting the stone with a string of evenly spaced yellow spots, each neatly deposited with a downward dip of the tail.

Why? It was 9 am, the sun was strong and the day warming up nicely (about 10C?). One of the better flying days recently. There are bees two streets above us up the hill. Presumably the Woods' bees survived the winter. This wall is maybe 5 ft high and made of sandstone blocks. It is 50m down the hill from their bees in a SSE direction in full sun. Are they deliberately putting their waste in a sunny spot to sterilise it? Do they carefully segregate drinking places and poo-spots? In 10 min I watched about a dozen bees relieve themselves in this way on the same area of wall. I checked a similar wall facing the same way and at about half the distance from the hives, to the east of them, but there was nothing there.

The first thing that grabbed my attention as I strolled up the hill to the allotments was a bee hovering with 'something' hanging from its rear. My first thought was that perhaps they were inspecting their bees and that this was a wounded one with part of the sting apparatus still attached (sorry Woods! - I know that you are gentle beekeepers) but it landed and brushed it off.

Not my best bee pics but I only had the phone with me and it doesn't do close ups well.

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/dropping_it.jpg

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/dropping_it2.jpg

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/dropping_it4.jpg

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/dropping_it3.jpg

[The Drone Ranger]

They like my car and the wife's washing mostly
Perhaps wall pooing is a little known AMM advantageous trait
Very strange though :)

[Jon]

Maybe the heat attracts them.
Is the wall facing SE?

[gavin]

Perhaps wall pooing is a little known AMM advantageous trait
Very strange though :)

Lol! Unfortunately they looked more carnie than Amm.

Yes, facing SSE with the sun directly on the wall. It would be warm. But they don't need that degree of warmth to collect water for example. Cars, washing, wall, all off the ground and in the sun. Has anyone seen them deposit on cars and washing? I'd always assumed that they'd be airborne but now I'm not so sure.

Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk

[Trog]

Well, being the Sabbath, there wouldn't be any washing out, so I suppose decorating a wall was the next best thing?

Maybe they were leaving you a message in Morse Code ;)

If they were Buckfast bees, I'd assume graffiti :)

Seriously, though, I wonder if the heat helps the evacuation process?

[gavin]

Well, being the Sabbath, there wouldn't be any washing out, so I suppose decorating a wall was the next best thing?

Maybe they were leaving you a message in Morse Code ;)

If they were Buckfast bees, I'd assume graffiti :)

Seriously, though, I wonder if the heat helps the evacuation process?

You're on top form tonight!

Yes, I suppose that the warmth would help the squeezing - both getting the muscles going and perhaps softening the paste?

[gavin]

OK, further thoughts. Bee pooing spots do seem to be elevated and in the sun. Is that a general rule?

Perhaps when it is runny enough they can safely let fly, as it were, on the wing .. but when it is a bit pasty (perhaps the colony was getting a bit dehydrated, I can sympathise with that sometimes) they need to land and wipe it off (the comparisons stopped earlier in this sentence!)?

And our pooing spots - don't they tend to be cool and sunless?! Are we hard-wired to select or even build pooing spots where ... for example ... flies will be less active, or bacteriological fermentation encouraged rather than drying in the sun?

Too much speculation perhaps. I feel this is an under-researched topic. There could be a PhD in it for someone, the evolutionary biology of defecation across the animal kingdom perhaps.

[Adam]

I think I'd rather do a PhD on something other than poo, Gavin. :)
I can add that last year after several days of rubbish weather, the sun came out at about 6 pm and the bees steamed out of the hives and went to a sunny conifer hedge and did their stuff. It was just on the conifers and no-where else - except me as I was too close to be missed.

[gavin]

Excellent - another poo-watcher! See ... a raised object in the sun was targetted. There's a pattern developing. Was it just the once or do they have regular poo-spots? In the morning would they find another bush which was more in the sun at the time?

Was thinking about commenting about it not being a particularly well-worked topic and other lame 'jokes' but I thought better of it.

Do they partition their landscape as 'food', 'water', 'poo-spot'? And where do they dispose of their dead?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Gavin
I half remembered something, and after a rummage it was Les Bailey on nosema

"caged infected bees kept at 37C for 10 days lose their infection"

The bee will be a few degrees above the wall temperature but nowhere near 37
and not for long enough so it must just be sunbathing.

[Adam]

I'm sure the reference to bringing out the dead was only there to have the excuse for another Month Python clip.

For my girls, it was a 1 off. Usually it's the car, trampoline, picnic table, next door's car (that they clean and polish every week !), the washing - especially whites which now don't go outside to dry.
My next car might be a beige/orange Austin Allegro.

[Jon]

My next car might be a beige/orange Austin Allegro.

One of the history teachers at my old school in the 1970s drove that very combo and it was the source of much mirth amongst us schoolboys.
He was not a beekeeper though curiously the other history teacher was. What a waste of a turd coloured car.

My humble opinion, as a man with a BsC in psychology, is that a gentleman who feels the need to polish a car every week is either suffering from too much time on his hands or OCD.

[madasafish]

One of the history teachers at my old school in the 1970s drove that very combo and it was the source of much mirth amongst us schoolboys.
He was not a beekeeper though curiously the other history teacher was. What a waste of a turd coloured car.

My humble opinion as a man with a BsC in psychology is that a gentleman who feels the need to polish a car every week is either suffering from too much time on his hands or OCD.


A real gentleman employs a chauffeur to do such things.

[GRIZZLY]

Have you tried syrup of figs Gavin ?

[Jon]

A real gentleman employs a chauffeur to do such things.

Maybe Adam can confirm or deny that his neighbour is akin to a character from a PG Wodehouse novel.

[gavin]

I'd just like to announce that the Wood's bees have reverted to normal behaviour. They're pooing on cars again ;).

[Trog]

Oh, good. That's a relief ...

[EmsE]

Could possibly be that they've been reading Trogs blogs :cool:
http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/entry.php?124-Tales-from-the-Hive-Sabotage!&goto=prev
Strange what triggers a memory, but I enjoyed re-reading your blogs again Trog

[gavin]

Well spotted! (oh dear, there was no intention to write a pun there ... )

There are hidden talents in that there Trog. She should do more before the B&B season hots up.

The apparent preference of the bees for washing or cars to walls (clearly the ancient traditional pooing spot for a honeybee) suggests to me that they are even smarter than we usually think they are. Surely they are targeting mobile, changing elements of their environment which are in the sun and so capable of sterilising the poo quickly. They are showing their disdain for objects that are unpredictable ... or obviously man- (or woman-) controlled things. A little bit of rebellion in their smallish brains.

Adam: well, yes and no. But bee cemeteries are another place disease could spread from if they are not careful. Maybe bee bodies get dumped in damp spots so that damp fermentation (aided by some sweet stuff in the honey stomach) can speed the neutralisation of bee pathogens. Last year it was so wet that they never got to stage 2 of undertaking (stage one seems to be turfing the corpses out of the door for them to dry a little and become more easily heaved off into the distance. The smell at my hives made me worry about foulbrood but it was only the carpets of corpses rotting at the front door.

[Trog]

Well spotted! (oh dear, there was no intention to write a pun there ... )

There are hidden talents in that there Trog. She should do more before the B&B season hots up.



Too late, Gavin! Last week included a 7 day week with two hours off and shortened sleeping hours! Really must get one of the two planned books written one of these days!

Re corpses: generally here they disappear overnight as the hive entrances are patrolled by great tits, hedgehogs and probably other beasties I've not seen.