I was taking a break today and was sitting next to one of my hives. I was just watching the bees be bees. One in particular got my attention, it was surveying to ground in front of the hive. She was trying to clean up the dead drones. While not having much luck she kept trying. Then something caught my eye behind the hive. It was a lizard(a skink lizard about 6 inches long). I stayed still as it approached the hive and went right under it. I have it on a stand keeping it about 16 above the ground. The lizard came out in front of the hive and looked around. There was a drone just barely alive and once the lizard saw it move, it became lunch. Then another moved and it was gone too. Mean while the undertaker bee was trying to carry off another drone. Not having much luck getting it off the ground. This got the lizard's attention. It crawled over to the two bees, and snap the third drone was gone. Taken right out of the grasp of the worker bee. Before the lizard left, it was able to find a fourth drone after looking around a bit. The whole time the lizard was getting his stomach full, the undertaker bee was flying all around, many times within striking distance of the lizard. The lizard must not have had an appetite for worker bees because it never tried to go after it. It was just interesting watching the interaction between the two of them.
Chris
Nice post. That lizard knows that the bee is armed and the drone is not.
:-D
Jim
I read an article one time a long time ago. The keep said he would clip the wing of a drone and toss it into his pond. A fish would grab it almost immediately. Then he would clip a worker and toss it in. The worker would swim in circles until it tired out and died. He stated he repeated it many times and it was always the same. The fish ate the drones, but would never touch the workers.
Down here we have curly tail or maybe scorpion lizards for the want of a better name.
they chow down on the girls if they stay on the ground.
only they go for the head first always the head. now we have a colony of say 10 all trying for a quick lunch.
if the bees notice them they always turn their backs on they some times as many as three times.
the bees get disinterested and fly away.