#3 Weekly Reading

Langstroth Hive Design

1. One interesting thing to me was that there are different types of artificial bee hives. I did some further research and found there are actually a lot of different styles like the National Beehive, WBC, Commercial and the Dartington etc. I had no idea there were different types and styles. Another interesting thing that was mentioned in the video was that dead bees fall through to the bottom shelf and are pushed out by other bees. Another interesting thing I found about the structure of the hive are the cone foundations placed vertically. I find it strange that the bees can work in such strange and small areas.

2. Next time I am in the apiary I will try to study the structure of the beehive more.

3. A question I have after seeing this video is how do the bees respond to different types of hives, and if it affects the honey produced.

Weekly Reading #2

Bee Lifecycle

1. It is hard to choose just three interesting elements from this article because all of what I read was brand new and bizarre knowledge. I would have to say that the amount of time it takes for a fully grown adult bee to emerge from the wax cell is quite amazing, because I never thought it would take that long for a tiny insect to grow. The whole idea of the wax cell is also very fascinating. Another interesting fact was that there are different roles of the bees. In this instance, the nurse bee who feeds the larva, and that the larva is fed something that is produced from the head of a worker bee. The third most interesting fact I found was that once the adult is fully developed, it has an orientation and is then assigned a proper job in the hive. I found it so strange that these bees are so sophisticated almost, and have specially assigned occupations.

2. Something I will try to look for next time in the garden or apiary are any wax cells containing growing bees and larvae. I will also look for queen bees hatching larvae and nurse bees feeding larvae.

3. A question I have from this article is how the worker bees produce Royal Jelly, and how do the nurse bees obtain it from them. I also would like to know how the bees know how much time to spend feeding the larvae, and how long they wait until they incase or seal them in the wax casing.

#1 Weekly Reading

Bee Yard Safety

1. The three most interesting elements of the article I found are first of all, that bees actually respond differently to white then they do to black, and are more calm around bee keepers dressed in white. I was always told they were attracted to vibrant colors because they looked similar to the colors of flowers. The second fact I found very interesting is that bees can actually track Co2 and are attracted to carbon dioxide coming from your face when you breathe. The third thing I found interesting is that bees dislike the smell of caffeine and sweat and will actually respond negatively to it.

2. Something I read that I will try to do the next time I am in a garden or apiary is to smoke the hive so the bees are more calm. I will also bring benadryl, roll on antiperspirant and bananas just incase I get stung. I also would like to observe how the bees respond to different colors.

3. A question I have after reading this article is why the bees respond differently to the smells and colors around them so drastically. And why does smoking the hive calms them, and what is in the smoke that calms them.