Loud Buzzing Bumblebee Works a Champlain Rose

A Bumblebee working the roses in our back yard
Toronto, Ontario
June 5, 2010

One of our rose bushes swarms with bees and other insects when it's in bloom, mainly in late May and early June. It's a Champlain rose that's about six years old; a Martin Frobisher rose right beside is more fragrant to the human nose, but doesn't draw nearly as many insects. Both roses are examples of the Explorer series developed by Dr. Felicitas Svejda at the Experimental Farm in Ottawa back in the sixties.

The bumblebees are the most obvious and the easiest to film, but there are also honey bees and at least two other types (including wasps I think). There are also flies and various other insects, including one that looks like a tiny bee (but probably isn't).

This video only follows a single bumblebee. The bee has two distinctly different types of buzz: one while flying and one while harvesting. The latter is quite loud. I originally thought the sound was from its wings striking the inside of the flower, but they are clearly at rest. According to Wikipedia, "The sound is actually the result of the bee vibrating its flight muscles, and this can be achieved while the muscles are decoupled from the wings." This may be partly to keep the flight muscles warmed up, but it may primarily be to shake more pollen loose:

"Sonication or buzz pollination is a technique used by some bees to release pollen... bumblebees and some species of solitary bees are able to grab onto the flower and move their flight muscles rapidly, causing the flower and anthers to vibrate, dislodging pollen."

There is a third type of buzz, but it's from an annoying power saw at a neighbour's place. It turns out our back yard is way noisier than I'd realized. From jets overhead to traffic on the street, it is very difficult to get any reasonably long stretches of silence to properly hear the bees.

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Canon HV20 - HDV mode
Canon DM-50 stereo mic

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• motoronna
• bees
• Agriculture Canada
• hybrid
• rugosa
• hardy
• winter
• R.kordesii
• Canadian
• Samuel de Champlain
• nectar
• pollen

[roberto82469]

Ha like I wanted a change this pink pen that live in Brazil.

[clikket000]

Bumble bees are pretty

[McDonDoggyDooz]

Pretty cool

[Oceopode]

Fun to view, great sound!

[scottsdunlop]

Whistle while you work!