bees and purple martins ( funny)

bailey · February 23, 2008, 10:16:39 AM

I had to ask this of the group!
anyone ever keep bees around their martin housing? if so i hope you have seen what i saw yesterday :shock:

when the martins were coming in for a landing they were coming in over the flight path of most of my bees, as they flew over the bees each one would pick up 1 to 6 bees that would then be on the ass of the martins lile little fighter jets on the 6 of a big slow plane.
the first time i saw it i didnt really think it was real, but the bees just kept "escorting" the martins to their bird pole.
the funniest thing about this behavior was that when the birds landed the bees would often head butt the birds hard enough to make them fly off again.
anyone ever see this behavior before?

hope the mental picture of this gives yall a smile, if i can i will try to get video
documentation of this to try to show the group.

bailey

JP · February 23, 2008, 10:23:24 AM

Bailey I would love to see footage of this, better yet, I just may have to come down and see it in person! Thought of you yesterday evening, went out to Lake Catherine to treat a large home's attic spaces for paper wasps. The house is twenty feet off the gound with open space beneath, its up on concrete pilings. Purple Martins have made their homes atop the pilings, could see them coming and going, pretty cool.

....JP

bailey · February 23, 2008, 11:08:52 AM

i dont have any plans for the day except putting out a few swarm traps.
come on down

Cindi · February 23, 2008, 11:25:53 AM

Bailey, ooh that was a coool little story for sure, thanks for sharing...have a wonderful and awesome day, love life. Cindi

KONASDAD · February 23, 2008, 01:42:14 PM

wellcome bailey- I need to know what kind of fish you are holding. Maybe a cobia/sm shark, cant tell w/ shadows

bailey · February 23, 2008, 03:34:41 PM

it,s a 70 lb cobia.
i got him last summer, i am looking to have jp catch a few of them this year!

bailey

mgates61 · February 23, 2008, 03:40:45 PM

We don't have martins, but have tons of mountain bluebirds. It will be interesting to see how they interact.

Mike

catfishbill · February 23, 2008, 04:05:23 PM

will be putting up the martin houses monday.calender i have kept for last few years shows them getting here about first week of march.they will have a suprise this year!

Michael Bush · February 23, 2008, 09:08:13 PM

Head butting is a typical bee defensive behavior as is hair pulling.

Kimbrell · February 24, 2008, 12:34:07 AM

We have a large number of martins that stay here every summer. Their apartments are in sight of the hives. I'm sure that I lose some bees to the martins, but not enough to notice. I have never seen the behavior you describe; but I'll sure look for it now!

JP · February 24, 2008, 01:02:54 AM

Quote from: bailey on February 23, 2008, 03:34:41 PM
it,s a 70 lb cobia.
i got him last summer, i am looking to have jp catch a few of them this year!

bailey

Hope we get a chance at some like we had beside the boat during that slack tide. Those were big!!!!

....JP