Mid October…the bees are bringing in baskets loaded with orange pollen.
When I saw how much pollen was coming into Bee Beard log hive, I wanted to find out where it was coming from. I knew it had to be ivy because that’s the only thing in bloom this late. I set out to prove my theory.
I went to my known ivy patches, which just happened to be in the sun…perfect.
Mid October…An American Painted Lady (I think)
I didn’t see any bees at this first place, but this butterfly posed for me long enough to get a short video. She is sipping nectar through her long proboscis which acts like a flexible straw.
This looks like a bee, but the eyes are different. It’s a fly who is grooming herself in the sun. The video shows her rubbing her front legs and using them to scrape the pollen off the top of her body.
I see Barbara out walking her dogs. She knows I’m obsessive about bees and mentions an ivy covered wall that was buzzing with bees. I head over.
This ivy wall was buzzing with bees…I’m going to get lots of opportunities to shoot bee videos.
I knew something was weird with this when her proboscis touched the top anther and rubbed it. It’s another fly that resembles a bee.
This looks like a white-trimmed black wasp, but it’s the wrong habitat for it. Can anyone ID it for sure? It’s another ‘buzzing insect’ working the ivy.
Celeste A. S. Mazzacano, Ph. D.
Staff Scientist / Aquatic Conservation Director, Xerces Society Project Coordinator, Migratory Dragonfly Partnership
Celeste replied to my request to for an identification of this wasp…
Pat, I am pretty sure that what you have are some lovely shots of the White-faced Hornet (Vespula maculata, also known as Dolichovespula maculata, not sure which name is the most current). The markings are quite distinctive, especially around the eyes and thorax, and this is the only West Coast wasp species that is white and black–all the others are yellow and black. These dudes are apparently aggressive little stingers, and the adults are predatory on small invertebrates, so I don’t think they’d be more than incidental pollinators. They make above-ground nests out of chewed wood pulp, but a colony only lasts for one year–they die off over the winter, except for females that mate at the end of summer and start new colonies the following spring. These are nice photos! Thanks, Celeste.
Finally I see an actual honeybee who is sipping nectar, but no pollen is evident.
Another look, but no pollen is visible.
I spot a bee on a dandelion, pollen sprinkled on her abdomen. A close look revealed none in her pollen baskets.
I can see I was mistaken about the pollen going into my hives. It can’t be ivy just yet…not sure what it is, but I’ll keep looking.
Removing English Ivy from trees
Patricia talks about the importance of ivy as a nectar source for insects late in the year.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
Ivy certainly does produce pollen, but not all honey bees will be on a mission to collect it. Two studies of bee collection habits found that about around 58% of bees collect nectar only, 25% pollen only and 17% both nectar and pollen.
The reason for this is that although pollen is a lighter load, nectar gives them a higher energy return relative to effort (easier to suck up nectar than pack the pollen in baskets perhaps?). So you may well have seen one of the 58% collecting nectar only!
Do you have Michaelmas daisies in your area? They are lilac in colour and shaped like daisies. They are also an important late flower here in the UK. I’ve been seeing my bees coming back with different colours, so they can’t just be on the ivy. The ivy is coming to an end here though, so I have put my mouse guards on.
I just looked up Michaelmas daises. They are Asters! We have a few here and there. I’ll keep an eye out to see if they are being visited by my bees.
Last year, I think it was you that mentioned ivy being a pollen source. It was then that I discovered that ivy bloomed and the bees went to it…I had never noticed it before. 🙂
Ah so you do have some! Here is a photo of a bee on a Michaelmas daisy in an article about them, you can see the colour of the pollen, bright buttercup yellow: http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/leisure/outdoors/10706351.Nature_Notes__Michaelmas_magic/
According to this interactive pollen chart, ivy pollen is yellowy orange: http://www.sheffieldbeekeepers.org.uk/tools/pollen-chart/ (turn Autumn on, spring and summer off, ivy’s in the middle right under the dark orange square).
Hi Emily, thanks for mentioning those two web sites. I’m making the effort to get Michaelmas Daisy’s (Asters here) so my bees will have a late summer nectar source.
The interactive pollen chart is something I’ve never seen before. I’ve sent it to two bee clubs in my area to see if we can devise something like that. Is that something that most clubs in the UK have?
Oh and by the way I really enjoyed the video, thank you. I often need to watch videos with the sound off, so having the captions is nice.
I’m glad you enjoyed the video. I love to shoot them, splice out the bad (out of focus) parts, and put them all together. Captions work best for me. Now if I had a great English accent, I might try speaking more often. 🙂
I’d love to have a great English accent too – mine’s a generic southern England one. To have a Yorkshire accent would be grand 🙂
That pollen is probably from Asters. That yellow flower is not Dandelion but either Hawksbeard or Hawkbit.
Ivy pollen is more yellowish dull i think.
You must know your flowers well. I tried to find the difference between dandelions and Hawksbeard on google. I guess I’ll have to look at the leaves and stalks the next time I get a chance.
Just wondered now putting fondant over the warre box went last fall. My bees only built into one box this year. Added fondant below on the mesh floor. Was told it needed to be ABOVE for the cold days. So I’m considering a 2″ eke with a floor they can pass through to get to the fondant, right under the insulating cloth. thots?
Last year the Warre went into winter with only one box. I removed the empty top and bottom boxes which they had not built into, to conserve the heat. October 25, after much discussion and flip-flopping back and forth over whether to feed or not to feed, I built a 2″ eke with 1/2″ hardware ‘cloth’ stapled on the inside. Then I put a couple of layers of newsprint on that and poured the sugar mixture on top. I only covered about 1/2 of the space I had and then I cut slits in the newsprint that was still exposed so the bees could move through. This was placed on top of the brood box, but below the quilt box. Some pictures of the sugar ‘cake’ are here, along with photos of the comb ladders that worked very well.
https://solarbeez.com/2012/10/18/waffling-over-the-warre-to-feed-or-not-to-feed/
https://solarbeez.com/2013/03/27/warre-worries-waning/
You can see how well the bees built up prior to swarming May 12.
https://solarbeez.com/2013/05/01/adding-ladders-to-a-warre-and-tanging/
Hello! Re your comment about about the interactive pollen chart, I suspect the Sheffield association must have someone rather good with IT. Although I have also come across this very good interactive chart by the Bristol beekeeping association: http://www.bristolbeekeepers.org.uk – click on ‘Pollen guide’ along their top navigation menu.
Hi Pat, thanks for stopping by and giving Bugphoto a follow. Very nice video above. Your fly appears to be a Drone Fly, Eristalis tenax of family Syrphidae. Many syrphids mimic bees and wasps. The drone fly does a very admirable job mimicking the honeybee as you’ve noted.
Fun fact: A neat thing about a lot of flies is you can tell the sex by the spacing in the eyes. Looking at your still shots, the first drone fly looks to be a male because the eyes come together. In the next one, you can see they are separated meaning it’s a female. Applies to deer and horseflies as well…which is good for identifying the bloodsuckers (i.e. the females).
As for the “hoovering,” I think that was the anther, but I don’t know plants so well. I’m not a bug expert (I like to think of myself as a bug photography expert :)), but I’m guessing it was just looking for some nectar. Probably wasn’t finding much.
Here are some shots I took of a drone fly if you’re interested. (The text is about internet hoaxes, though, hehe.)
http://bugphoto.net/2013/03/07/call-me-ishmael-better-yet-call-me-morgan-freeman/
And if you want a little more drone fly info, here’s the BugGuide page:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/7183
Best wishes,
Mike
Many thanks, Mike, for getting that information about the flies. After clicking on the Bug Guide link I could see how right you are with the fly identification. I’ll have to visit that site more often. I’m wondering if the flies are doing the biomimicry thing…looking like a bee so they won’t get eaten by a predator.
The honeybees also share that characteristic with the eyes, but it’s even more dramatic. The drones’ eyes are much bigger and touch in the center at the top. The female eyes are more widely spaced.
I look forward to seeing more of your bug photography.
My pleasure! BugGuide is a great site; as an amateur/enthusiast I’d be lost without it; it just takes a little getting familiar.
These flies are definitely trying to take advantage of the bee look. They exhibit what is known as Batesian mimicry, where a harmless animal adapts to look like or give off signals of a dangerous animal.
I did not know that about the honeybees’ eyes; I’ll have to keep an eye out for that as I go through my archives (a.k.a. the winter bug blues activity).