Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[J Smith]

Not sure where to post this, could be environmental, could be wild bee, could go under lots of headings and please, mods, feel free to shift to where you see fit.

Yesterday I went trout fishing, nothing odd about that, I do so a lot in the NZ Spring/Summer. Whilst walking up a paddock (field for most of you) adjacent to the river to get to where I was going, I witnessed some bee behaviour I have never seen the like of.
In a small depression in the ground there was the well past its use by date dead calf. Well decayed, mostly bones and skin with some putrid semi liquid "stuff" and the odd maggot. There were hoof mark depressions in what was once mud around the remains and these had filled with "water" mixed with that semi fluid putrid stuff. Enough of the gore- I bet you all get the idea, bit sickly and very smelly, no place for honey bees right?
Wrong, there were around 30-50 honey bees landing both on the remains and the hoof puddles and looked to be "eating".
Now, also around the general area were some empty bags of a glucose remedy often given to ailing calves in cold weather if they "go down", blood sugar boost help get them up and back feeding off mum.

Now, is there a chance some of the "remedy" had not broken down and there was a sugar content to this mess? Or is there some other answer?

[Barbara]

Bees forage for lots more than pollen, nectar, water and resin and they forage in places that we would probably really rather they didn't.

Your account is probably the most unpleasant I have heard of so far but it doesn't exactly surprise me. My bees regularly visit my pile of urine soiled horse bedding, I've been told by someone who worked there that he often saw them on the filtration beds at the sewerage works and others have documented them visiting latrine run off and blood from gutted animals/fish.

I think they probably get minerals and/or microbes from such sites. I certainly don't think the sugar from the supplement would be available at that stage of decay.

Very interesting though and you have to wonder at the amazing instinct that nature gives creatures to seek out what they need.... sad that we have mostly lost it ...... although also relieved that I don't have an instinct to seek out and lick up the decomposing fluids from a dead calf!

Are they likely to be bees from your own hives and does it make you feel any differently about the honey they produce? Ignorance is such bliss!!!

Regards

Barbara

[J Smith]

No, not my bees and most likely (given the locality) a feral tree dwelling colony.
A heifer dairy calf is an expensive commodity in this neck of the woods, so it is likely the glucose was not the only thing poked down the throat of this sick beast. This in turn made me think there may be possibility the bees are self medicating if all of the injected drugs had not broken down fully.
Was disappointing the carcass was not picked up and disposed of properly- as it should have been by law, but had it been I may never have witnessed this behaviour.

Do I feel any different toward the honey they might produce? No. We no not where our bees have been during the course of the day, nor what they have been up to- given your other accounts, perhaps it is best not to! But then what ever they were after in that mire may never enter the honey side of things as a raw product and may be something like an enzyme they need in their own gut to function well- kind of pro biotic in a foul way.

[Che Guebuddha]

When I fish for Pike and after cleaning it on my out table I have seen my bees feeding on the fish blood. I'm sure they are going for the mineral salts in the blood.

[NewForester]

I am sure that I read somewhere that in times gone by, it was thought that bees were born out of dead cows. Perhaps that thinking was related to this kind of behavior.

[madasafish]

You obviously don't know the story of the lion in the Book of Judges in the Bible.. and the well known image of Tate and Lyall..

The tin bears a picture of the rotting carcass of a lion with a swarm of bees, and the slogan "Out of the strong came forth sweetness". This is a reference to the Biblical story in chapter 14 of the Book of Judges in which Samson was travelling to the land of the Philistines in search of a wife. During the journey he killed a lion, and when he passed the same spot on his return he noticed that a swarm of bees had formed a comb of honey in the carcass. Samson later turned this into a riddle at a wedding: "Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness".[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_syrup

[NewForester]

No, I am afraid that I didn't know the Bible story or the background to the Tate and Lyle image. Thank you.