Saturday, 23 July 2011

Snake Cam & Sustainability Fete

New gadget time again, below was an image I captured using a usb snake cam pushed through the entrance hole in the hive.  I will have more of 'play' tomorrow, but by the time a got it out the box on Friday, it was time for bee bed time and the hive was pretty full and they were not appreciating the spotlight I was giving them.  I will have another go tomorrow midday and hopefully see more comb, less bees, and I will call that an inspection!  

Tweens and I had a busy day today at a Sustainability Fete, Our association had a stand and one of our association members had his observation hive on display and it was drawing a lot of attention.  
I remember my first experience with Honey Bees was at a similar occasion. I saw an observation hive and was totally fascinated, How do they make honey in there? How can there be only one Queen? Why don't they all just fly away?  It took me a couple of years to build up the courage to do something about it, but I am glad I did.  I can't describe the calmness and the general peace with the world that I get when I spend time watching the bees. But enough of that. 

I was really interesting to talk to others today and introduce some of them to the bees world, people who were interested varied from the prospective bee keeper, children who had never seen bees before, to a teenager who was more interested in the mass chaos that would ensue should he undo the catch!  I confess, I mostly listened, there were far more experienced bee keepers present who were far better informed. 

Within the observation hive today we watched new bees hatching, mortuary bees trying desperately to find a hole to throw out dead bees and a larvae that was not going to make the grade. Hopefully, by now, they are tucked back up in their national hive with an open entrance to take out the trash!
A small side line to the information session, our local bee keeper was able to supply his local honey to the local population.  Just how it should be, I bought a couple of jars myself and I am looking forward to a spoonful on my yoghurt tonight. 


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