okay so what you've just been watching is of course a time-lapse sequence that
shows the honey bees and wasps eating dry regular sugar but the interesting
thing is that what happens while they're trying to eat sugar first of all it's
only 39 or 40 degrees at the beginning of that sequence and that's what we're
watching right here that's also why we have the conspicuous absence of the
honey bee the wasps can't get out and fly early they fly in the cold and even
though this sugar here on this feeder is spread out they all pile in in a tight
cluster and they chew away at the granules of sugar together and that's
interesting to me because I expected well it would just spread out and maybe
gather it I am interested in seeing how they metabolize dry sugar but they chew
it and they chew it together they push their faces together and they grab at
one another's mouths which is very interesting also so the honey bees fly
out later when it starts to warm up generally the honey bees are airborne at
50 degrees if the sun's really out on the landing boards and they heat up
they'll fly out a little sooner but often they can't handle it so here we
have Yellowjackets and some other paper wasp species and they're all chewing
away at granulated sugar now if you keep watching you're gonna see a behavior
that's very interesting because nearby there are bees that have been on these
feeders overnight and they just sit tight and wait to warm up in place now
that puts a honey bee in jeopardy when they're out clinging to plants or when
they're sitting in this case on bricks that I used to weight down
drinkers the wasps can get around and completely take advantage of honeybees
that are for all practical purposes defenseless until they warm up and they
get airborne so we keep watching and I'll show you what I'm talking about
now I'm sure somebody watching is gonna be familiar with the different species
of wasps what we're looking at here and I'm just guessing that the one at the
seven o'clock position there is a queen she's much larger than any of the others
but if you know the difference please chime in and let us know I'd appreciate
it
now as you watch that first two-minute sequence you saw that this group of
Yellowjackets did sweep completely across but their numbers increase and
you also notice of the time lapse sequence that the regular honeybees
showed up and that really changed things and sped up the consumption of the
granulated sugar notice also that even though there are different species of
wasps here they are not fighting one another they are just trying to get the
same food now here's an example of a honey bee that I was explaining about
earlier look at the one on the left side there that's head down they'll often
cling to a print plant or they'll sit on bricks as they are in this case and
they're unable to move because it hasn't warmed up enough remember it's 39 or 40
degrees the Sun is not warming the surface that they're sitting on so the
wasps that are in the vicinity can do anything they want to honeybee and if
you look at these bees right here I initially thought when I watched this
wasp approach oh well he'll just attack this maybe and possibly even dispatch it
and take the food back so they can feed grubs but that's not what's going on at
all and with these bumble bees here again they're getting a slow start
they've been here overnight and they can't fly yet either
and we're back to that honeybee look what's going on if you weren't paying
close attention it would look like this wasp is chewing at the bee but it's not
this honey bee was at the drinkers which are sugar water and it has residual
sugar syrup dried on its body and this wasp came along and late for the sugar
of the bee including the wings the eyes the antennae and everything else and I
know that's a nightmare for this honey bee that's not warmed up and able to
defend itself but it just had to sit there and allow the wasp to work it over
and clean off all of that sweet residue here's another one getting the same
treatment notice to the size of the wasp it's every bit as large as this female
worker honey bee and it is just licking away on every part of the bee and didn't
do anything to ensure the bee this was a remarkable behavior because for the
distance you would assume that the wasps are attacking and harming honey bees but
they really aren't it's just working its way around and collecting residue of
sugar syrup and this 4-v sits here and just has to take it because it cannot
it's kind of like sleep paralysis that's sitting there and the wasp comes up and
does whatever it wants so that honey bee is really at the mercy of the wasp and
the wasp is capable of flying and moving around and much colder temperatures than
the being so this was a surprise
if you watch also watch the wasthe antennas it touches and Pat song the
honeybee lots of unexpected behavior here
they noticed too that the Sun is picking up a little and that will begin to warn
the bees we can start to move around and it definitely would not put up with this
wasp if it were warned and ready to fly
and of course I'm not gonna just leave this piece hitting here you'll find that
if you bring some 50/50 sugar water along and as these dormant bees are
waking up in the morning if you feed them sugar water that carbohydrate will
kick them right in the gear
and this is the sugar water that I put it down for them and the honeybees first
all weighed out and started ringing right away and I'll just right in the
middle of the mix here the yellowjacket is right in with the honeybees and so
long as their resources present they are not attacking one another
they're simply sharing sugar water
and notice how frenzied their behavior becomes once that resources gone and
there is going up with the circles in this break so we had a little worth of
them you can send them acrylics of sugar water even on the bodies here and on
that wall a static space now why is it that wasps are able to fly in cold
temperatures well the honey bees have to wait to warm up and the way honey bees
warm up is they vibrate their flight muscles much like humans do when they
shiver and that burns calories and generates heat through their thorax so
that they can fly but wasps for some reason
why no matter what the weather is doing and even in the rain I hope you found
this observation interesting I'm glad that you watch my video and I hope
you'll watch future videos as well thank you so much