World News

eye of the beeholder

Did I publish this link? http://eyeofthebeeholder.blogspot.com/

The Eye of the Beeholder is probably the blog I meant to write, if you know what I mean... Good info on bees, plenty of pictures, and written with both wit and charm.

Dang!

Ever wondered how a bee is able to fly?

""We're no longer allowed to use this story about not understanding bee flight as an example of where science has failed, because it is just not true," Dickinson* says.
The secret of honeybee flight, the researchers say, is the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency.

Read more at http://www.physorg.com/news8616.html

*Michael H. Dickinson, the Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of Bioengineering (and his postdoctoral student Douglas L. Altshuler and their colleagues at Caltech and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas).

How fluent is your Bulgarian?

A good video collection at http://pchelarstvoto.hit.bg/.

Lifecycle of the honeybee

Are my bees too big for the queen excluder?

In one hive there were probably twenty worker bees stuck half-way through the queen excluder. They had starved to death, I think.

Are my bees too big for the queen excluder?

Honey crop - so far

From two hives, three supers in total. In the third hive there are three more full supers, none fully capped.

Predicting the weather for my next visit...

Andrew's Bee Blog

We're all out there doing our stuff: http://andrewsbeeblog.com/

Click on the link to the swarm capture, then click on the photos for a neat slide show.

Not so urban

Good bee blog here: http://urbanhennery.com/2009/07/11/and-the-hive-drama-continues/

Satisfying levels of calm incompetence, describing the difficulties of uniting hives and the bees simply not going along with it. Generally, a pleasing blog, beautifully presented.

Bees in Space (I am not making this up)

On the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, I searched for 'bees in space.' And Oh Yes, there is a site: http://www.beesinspace.org/

You might like http://wechoosethemoon.org/, too, or http://www.google.com/moon/

Hissing down

Local Weather Statistics, June 2009
Average daily maximum temperature 21.8 oC (0.9oC above average)
Highest daily maximum 29.7oC
Lowest night minimum 5.8oC
Rainfall was 33.4 mm 68% of the average.

This information was obtained from John Smith’s website at: http://www.london-weather.eu/

This fails to note that on every occasion during June, it has absolutely hissed with rain every time I have opened the hives.

Wasps

Quick look at one of the hives this evening, shortly before (as per usual) the heavens opened.

There were probably eight or ten wasps in the hive - and those were just the few I could see. The bees were chasing them around, but not out.

Not sure what to do about this.

Pic from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_jacket

Pseudoscience (quack, quack)

You *must* read this: http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/bee.html

Huge thanks to Anonymous, who posted this as a comment.

Pic from http://www.rubberduck.com/

Beesource

I fully realize I am the last person on earth to know this.... http://www.beesource.com/ is well worth visiting.

Bee photos...

Found these excellent shots: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nautipuss/show/.

Peeping Tom Beekeeping

Took a brief look at the hives, peeping through the fence from outside the apiary. The two originals (Alpha and Beta) look busy enough, the third hive (Omega) with the shook swarm looks very quiet.

SNAFU

In summary - belting hot weather, strong signs of swarming, artificial 'shook swarm,' heavens open...

SNAFU.