Nikki's Blog - the SubT project

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2010-04-22T18:44:00.001+01:00

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Spring is on its way!!

2010-04-14T16:33:00.001+01:00

Dear all

You have probably seen over the last couple of weeks queen bumblebees starting to emerge from hibernation! The queens are generally quite big about 1/3 bigger than the workers. They will be foraging for the first two weeks and then begin to lay their eggs which will develop into workers. Once the workers begin to forage the queen then remains in the nest.

Here's a couple of emerging queen pictures. The first is the common carder bumblebee Bombus pascorum, which was taken By Barry Yates at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and the second is a very exciting bumblebee indeed! This is a bumblebee which hasn't been seen for over twenty years in and around the Dungeness/Romney Marsh area. It is a Bombus ruderarius queen. This queen is different from the common red tailed bumblebee because it has red hairs on the hind legs, is smaller and much much rarer! This is a very exciting find and many thanks to Chris Bentley at Rye Harbour Nature reserve for spotting it and sending the pictures in.

Keep a look out in your garden for more queens emerging over the next few months!!

Till next time..................................

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Hibernating queens

2010-04-07T14:22:00.001+01:00

Dear all

The queens are now in hibernation. They have been placed into matchboxes and now are being kept cool in an incubator. Prior to this the queens were mated with males form different colonies to increase their genetic diversity. We let the queens mate for about three days and some were even seen to mate more than once! Once the queens start to try and bury themselves we know it is time for their hibernation to begin. These queens will be in hibernation for a few months and then flown back to the UK for their release.

Before the queens come back we will be sending back dead males, workers and original queens for a complete disease analysis screening. This will be done by world bumblebee disease expert Dr Mark Brown. Of course the last thing we want to do when we reintroduce these queens is to bring any new diseases with them. These specimens will be screened and when given the all clear we will begin the process of sending the queens over.

So fingers crossed all going well we shall see the short-haired bumblebee return to our shores for the first time in 22 years!!

Keep watching for more information..................

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Mated queens

2010-03-28T22:02:00.001+01:00

Dear all

News from New Zealand the queens are now all mated and have been put into hibernation. So its an exciting time for the project entering the next stage. We have quite a small number of queens for this years release. However, we are now planning for this November's collection and rearing in New Zealand. We hope this will be the first of many releases for the next few years.

A big thank goes to Rosemary for all her hard work and patience in rearing subt. The queens will now be kept in hibernation until the end of May when they will be flown back to the UK for their release. This release will mean the first time this bee species has been seen in the UK for 22 years!!

Meanwhile back in the UK I have been doing some school visits. Two weeks ago it was the British Science Associations, national science and engineering week. As part of this I visited three schools, one secondary and two primary's to talk about the conservation and importance of bumblebees and a bit about the project. Many thanks to the schools who invited me, it was great fun and really good to see the pupils engaging about conservation and the work that were doing.

So watch this space for more news about the bees!!

Till next time...............

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6 queens

2010-03-07T22:04:00.001Z

Dear all

We have six queens now. They have hatched from two colonies queen 48 and queen 45. We have also had many males hatch. So this week over in New Zealand they will be mating the queens and putting them into hibernation. Then they will be flown back to the UK at the end of May ready for release in June. So its been tricky rearing the bees and a very slow process. However, this has taught us a lot about subt and its requirements and will help us for our continuing collection and rearing of the queens. It is hard to say whether any more queens will be produced. The original queens are getting old and its getting late in the season but Rosemary will keep a watchful eye.

Meanwhile back in the UK I am busy planning the spring and summer events. I shall post the event listing very soon. This last week I meet with a couple of farmers to discuss coverting some of their land into good bumblebee habitat. Over the next few weeks I will be doing some school visits where I will be teaching primary school children about bumblebee conservation!

Keep visiting for how our breeding queens get on.......

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We three queens!!

2010-02-26T11:23:00.001Z

Dear all

We have now received reports that we have three queens hatched, all from queen 61. Unfortunately this queen died but because she had already laid queen larvae and pupae they have been cared for by the workers of that colony. We hope that still more will come through from this nest. Many of the subt colonies are now outside foraging on red clover, this is hoped will give the colonies a further push for development. Fresh, good quality pollen is needed by this bee species and by providing this we hope we are giving them the best chance of developing new healthy queens.

I will also be giving a talk down at RSPB Dungeness on Sunday the 13th March from 3-4pm, do come along if you can make it.

Till next time....

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First subt queen to hatch

2010-02-18T10:58:00.001Z

Dear all

Here is the picture of our first subt queen to hatch. She came from queen 61! She's looking quite pale in these photo's as she has just emerged but will darken over the next few days. We are incredibility pleased to see her and know we are doing something right with subt's rearing. Unfortunately we have had a couple of set backs. Queen 61 died a few days ago, thankfully she has laid some queen eggs, her workers are now looking after the egg/larvae/pupae so we are confident some will hatch out. It's quite unusual for a queen to die once she has started a colony- subt are testing us at every opportunity but we have made significant progress and are hopeful for the future. We knew the bees would be hard to breed and we have 21 queens remaining (which is excellent) all in different stages of progress. Obviously I am hoping for enough queens for a release this summer.

Till next time................
--
The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland,
number SC 011159.

Subt workers and males

2010-02-09T10:10:00.002Z

Dear all

We are really pleased to announce we now have four subt colonies with workers, and some even have with males. A big thank you to Rosemary who has worked so hard on the rearing. Sam her daughter (who helped collect the queens) had taken these photos for us. As yet we don't know if any queens will be produced, we just have to wait and keep everything crossed for them. Certainly to date the rearing has proved much more successful than we ever would have thought. We have learned so much about subt from collecting them in the field through to rearing them. We hope we can continue this great work for the years to come....

Keep posted, till next time

Subt's are hatching!!

2010-02-05T08:06:00.001Z

Dear all

We have some good news. Three of our queens have hatched out males and workers. Here's a picture of queen number 30, she's on the right with a newly hatched male next to her. Seven other colonies have good larval development. It's a bit of a waiting game to see if/how many queens are produced, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed. So far we are very please with the breeding results, over half our queens have produced eggs, and many of these have gone on to lay larvea. Some are still catching up.

Keep your fingers crossed

Till next time Nikki

Queen number 30!!

2010-01-26T09:36:00.001Z

Dear all

Subt queen number 30 is our best queen so far with over 12 larvae developing. We have another 5 or so catching her up but fingers crossed she will produce some lovely workers! All remaining queens have now laid eggs, so all are coming along but they are moving slowly.

Keep posted for more subt updates and keep your fingers crossed for the queens

Till next time Nikki....

Subt queen with hortorum workers

2010-01-20T21:19:00.001Z

Here's one of the subt queens. She has hortorum workers with her (some colonies have males) and she has started to lay some eggs! Watch this space for some pics of subt larvae!!

News from New Zealand

2010-01-20T21:16:00.002Z

Dear all

An update on how the queens are doing. Well we have now unfortunately lost half of the queens collected which we did expect would happen. But we do have some good news, most of the remaining queens have now laid eggs, some eggs have died and have been kicked out of the nest but they seem to keep laying to replace the dead ones. In fact Rosemary has even seen 3 queens lay eggs! Some of the nests have larvae which is a good sign and we hope the other's will go the same way. Its taking a bit longer than expected for the eggs to turn into larvae. So we have put some queens into red clover poly tunnels to see if this would move them on, but the weather hasn't been to good here in Christchurch so they haven't developed that fast.

So our next plan is to collect some B. ruderatus colonies from the traps we sent out a couple of months ago. Unfortunately we didn't get any subt in them but we did get a lot of ruderatus. Therefore we can collect these traps and bring them up to Christchurch. From there we can harvest some of the brood and workers to help the subt queens.

So it's a hard task but its the first year and we are pleased with how many have survived to date, and with the egg laying, let's just hope some of them go all the way to laying some males and queens

All the best Nikki

First subt worker

2010-01-06T09:34:00.002Z

Dear all

So recent news, we saw our first subt worker a couple of days ago at Lake Tekapo! Here's a pic of her. We also found a queen on the same day, we collected her because we have actually lost a couple in the rearing process, but there are promising signs from a few queens. So fingers crossed. We are supplementing the queens with other bumblebee brood and workers to encourage them to lay. Rosemary is doing the best she can but its going to be tough so we must keep our fingers crossed.

We have decided to put out a few queens into outside foraging cages filled with red clover. This will mean they can forage for fresh pollen and nectar when they want it everyday. So we are trying a few methods to see how the bees get on and trying a few things to encourage them.

Keep in touch for the bees progress!!!

TV3 news

2009-12-28T08:33:00.002Z

Dear all

We were shown here today on national TV3 news, so check out this link to watch us in action!!

http://www.3news.co.nz/NZ-bumblebees-to-repopulate-motherland/tabid/309/articleID/135567/Default.aspx

We had news from Rosemary that about 6 of our bees have now died, but we also have good news because some of our bees have started to lay wax down. We have also managed to collect a few more queens to re stock the ones that have died.

Till next time.....................

Team bee

2009-12-21T23:33:00.001Z

Dear all

Well all the bees are caught and currently being reared at Christchurch by Rosemary Read. She's doing a brilliant job and we are very lucky that we have someone who can breed long tongue bees here in NZ. Its early days but the queens seem to be doing well and some even look a bit broody- which is a good sign. One has sadly died but I do have a secret stock of 5 queens which I am keeping for the film crew who are due to arrive today! Breeding these bees is going to be very hard- so do keep your fingers crossed for them!

So here's some pics of our brill team bee. Here's Andy and Maggie Tebbs and Rob Jones in one of our red clover fields down in Clyde. We're in Twizel today and I had a quick peak at two of the sites and found a newly emerged subt queen- they are still about!!! Heard the weather is freezing over there with snow playing havic! Well I hate to say it but its pretty hot over here!

All the best, till next time......................

Queen subt

2009-12-12T22:15:00.001Z

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Subt on echium

2009-12-12T21:43:00.002Z

Here's some fantastic shots taken by Maggi and Andy Tibbs of subt foraging on Echium. These were taken around Twizel were Maggi and Andy have been looking for subt queens with great success! So next week we're heading up to Christchurch to see how the queens are doing.

People who helped pics!!

2009-12-10T03:39:00.002Z

Here's some pics of Barry, Rob, Sam and me out collecting the queens from a red clover field in Clyde, Otago.

let it bee- we got sixty!!

2009-12-10T03:21:00.001Z

Dear all

We have reached the target!! We have the sixty subt queens we needed. Sixty is the most the breeder Rosemary Read can deal with but we can top them up over the next couple of weeks if any die.

So a massive thanks to Barry Donovan, Sam Read, Robert Jones, David and Julia Mayo and Maggy and Andy Tibbs for their help in collecting the queens. We are so excited and now wish the queens all the best in their rearing. We were now catching a few with pollen which we were letting go so they could continue their nests. We are confident that we have left many queens behind to continue the New Zealand population! We are still finding them in new locations.

So now the very hard task begins of actually rearing and breeding the bees- its not going to be easy. They are very fussy and need lots of attention, so keep your fingers crossed for the girls!!

I can have a day off now- whoo hoo

Keep posted for details on how the breeding goes. I will be visiting Rosemary in Christchurch next week!

2009-12-08T03:47:00.002Z

Dear all

We are incredibility excited to say we now have collected 36 queens. These have been across Twizel, Lake Ohau and Clyde. So we have quite a mix of genetics as well!

We were joined this week by two volunteers from the UK Andy and Maggie Tibbs and they have done a great job in helping us find the bees. They will be joining us for a few weeks travelling round and looking for subt emerging. Friends of Barry Donovan David and Julia Mayo have also collected three subt queens from around their home in Lake Ohau and are keeping their eye out for more.

Here's some pics of all the action..... Keep your fingers crossed for more subt

Till next time...................

18 subt queens!!

2009-12-04T02:28:00.000Z

We have collected 18 queens so far and here's one of them on some red clover!
--
The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland,
number SC 011159.

Feeding subt

2009-12-03T01:45:00.002Z

Out in the field!

2009-12-03T01:31:00.002Z

Here's Sam Read and Rob showing Neil Ford (who owns the red clover field)

Red clover subt fields

2009-12-03T01:17:00.002Z

Hi all

Well we have had a fantastic fews days down here in Clyde. Beautiful red clover fields and we now have 13 subt queens!!

Here's some pics of the bees, the field and the people helping out!!

Nikki

Nine subt queens!!

2009-12-01T00:36:00.001Z

Dear all

We have so far collected nine subt queens. We are ecstatic with the number we have found so far! We are currently down in Clyde near Alexandra and have found some red clover fields. Robert Jones have found one as has Sam Read who is doing her project at Lincoln University on the breeding of subt! We will be staying round here for a while to see if some more emerge but we are very happy with the number!

Will post up some pics soon of the subt!!

Keep posted for more info on how the collection is going

Nikki
--
The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland,
number SC 011159.