French wildlife and beekeeping

Masked hunter, Reduvius personatus ,  Réduve masque Found in most regions of France this member of the True bug family is known as an Assassin bug and due to its secretive nocturnal behaviour it tends to go unnoticed even when in your home. They are especially fond of old houses, barns and outbuildings where they hunt other insects including bedbugs, silverfish, book lice and flies. However they will eat any number of small insects and can also be found in other habitats including woodland, scrub and grasslands but always avoiding the light. Where ever they are they are never in large numbers. Although they bite and kill their prey by piercing them with their robust rostrum they rarely use this against humans unless handled roughly but if they do it isn't dangerous but can be extremely painful. They spend the winter as juveniles and then breed in May or June having reached the adult stage.   During their development stages, (instars), they exude a st...

Every year in France , usually from about February, some people find their houses invaded by small red or reddish-brown beetles. This is by no means everywhere and many people will never see one, however where they are present they can sometimes be observed in relatively large numbers. The creature concerned is a Longhorn Beetle, Pyrrhidium sanguineum, although being only 8 to 12 mm it is rarely recognised as being one. Known in English as Welsh Oak Longhorn Beetle and its common French name is La Callidie Sanguine). Females lay eggs in crevices in dead or freshly cut wood with bark that is exposed to the sun from March – June and are polyphagous in nature using a range of deciduous trees, but with a preference for oak ( Quercus spp.).   Larvae burrow into the timber making galleries up to 60cm in length where, when fully grown, they pupate.   They can’t use seasoned timber and usually have an annual life cycle, occasionally this can be two years. When ...

As soon as we start to take a look at either Hedgerows or Dry stone walls it soon becomes clear that in France as in many parts of the UK it’s difficult to talk about one without the other. Although there have been what could loosely be called hedgerows to some extent in France since before Roman times they really started to come into their own in the 16 th and 17 th centuries as the available land not already owned by the nobility or the Church was eagerly snapped up by the wealthy middle classes, the bourgeoisie urbaine. They used hedgerows to define their boundaries, to protect their crops and to prevent other farmers from grazing their land. Apparently hedge laying, (plessage), was widely used throughout France but has disappeared without a trace in many regions since the 1960’s and I have yet to see an example or a remnant in our region.  From the end of the 19 th century and into the first half of the 20 th century the industrialisation of agriculture started to c...

Oil beetles are another one of those species that not everyone is comfortable with due to their interesting life cycle which we’ll come to. They belong to the genus Meloe which is a large group with some 35 species of Oil beetle in Europe and 15 in France although I’m not sure how rare some of them may be and they are also somewhat understudied according to OPIE. Certainly the commonest are the Black Oil Beetle Meloe proscarabaeus and the one I find at our place the Violet Oil Beetles, Meloe violaceus, and we sure have a lot of them, so many that it’s hard not to tread on them when walking among the trees where the Lesser celandines are flowering at the moment. Click images to enlarge Below: Newly emerged female before putting on weight. Below: Female having put on weight.  Below: Recently emerged male with pronounced kinked antennae . Below: Another male, again showing pronounced kinked antennae. They are a flightless beetle without fu...

It’s fair to say that our fields aren't the most exciting habitat in the region although they probably are the most species rich as a whole for the immediate area albeit most of the species are common, but then common doesn't mean there aren't increasingly reduced numbers at a local level – it all adds up and ours is probably the only decent size bit of proper grassland for many kilometres, everything else is cultivated or so called improved pasture which is really only one step up from a wheat field in terms of species usefulness. Anyway this isn't about the surrounding area but just a small selection from some idle wandering here and there in our own fields recently with the camera just taking photos of anything that caught my eye and hopefully draw a little attention to the simple plants that can make all the difference. Starting with a couple of plants that once introduced to grassland will soon establish and sort themselves out, Crown Vetch and Birds Foot ...

How the time flies when you’re busy and when the bees are swarming it doesn’t leave time for much else, especially if you are like me and are always leaving everything to the last minute. In this case it’s preparing enough hives and frames for the swarms to be housed in which I’ve just about kept up with, (about 25 so far). Then nature decided to lend a hand by dishing out the rather vile weather we have been experiencing for the last week which has prevented any more colonies from swarming giving me some catch up time. Unfortunately this won’t have helped the bees at all. Any colonies prepared and waiting to swarm may have had to tear down and destroy any Queen cells that were about to hatch and colonies that had already swarmed may have had problems mating their new Queens with all the cold wind and heavy rainstorms which seem to be an increasing spring feature of the weather in this part of France. The requirement to be around my hives for swarming does rather hamper my other activ...

Not quite out of the woods yet with a sharp cold spell always possible ‘til mid March but today after all the rain the sun is finally shining, 11°C+ in the shade and life is emerging again even if perhaps only briefly taking a break from hibernation for some creatures. I have to confess that this is always a somewhat nervous time of year for me waiting to see how many of my occupied bee hives are active. Even though activity in itself is no sure sign that the colony is OK and has a good Queen it’s quite a good indication if they are taking in pollen but even now if a Queen fails before the end of March there is no chance of a naturally mated successor. Most of the hives looked good, all were active and I even managed to get my first sting of the year right on the face, not too happy about that I have to say, never a pleasant experience however much it goes with the job. Butterflies today were much as to be expected, all the common over wintering species, Brimston...

I think it's best to start for non Bee keepers with a short explanation of a basic hive structure. Shown below is a French Dadant Ruchette which is basically a small starter hive and is exactly the same as a full size Dadant hive in design, Dadant being a style of hive. The box structure at the bottom is called the Brood box which is where the bee colony lives.  Next with the hole in the middle is the Crown board or the cover that goes over the bees. The hole in the  center  is for placing a syrup feeder over or for placing a block of fondant for the bees to eat. When not in use it is normal to close it with a small cover. Finally standing on edge in this photo is the outer metal covered weatherproof lid. All very simple really. From time to time I lift the outer lids on my active hives to check everything is OK and as it's quite common to find various creatures that have made it their home I thought I'd take a few photos over the last week to ...