Bell Jar Bees Day 12

Even though the season is nearly over, the bees continue to work in the bell jar and are now starting to store honey. If you look very carefully in the second picture, you'll see some very peculiar bee legs.

 

 

Bell Jar Bees Day Seven

Steady rather than spectacular progress probably because the weather has not been the best for nectar collection.

 

Skep the light fantastic

Are Northern Ireland's beekeepers going a little over the top with this skep-like structure? No, it's the eleventh night bonfire celebrations of Northern Ireland's loyalist communities as they prepare for the Twelfth of July parades day when Orangemen march to celebrate the defeat of Catholic King James II by Protestant King William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. (We'll quickly pass over the fact that the Pope was siding with King Billy because that's just far too confusing!)

 

Picture courtesy of the BBC.

Bell jar bees: day five

The infrastructure cells are now being constructed to contain the honey. But it is a race against time: I expect the nectar flow to slow down soon and the bees may even be thinking about swarming because this is the last empty part of the hive and they must be feeling a little cramped.

 

Busy as bees in a bell jar

It's day three in the bell jar and the bees are showing considerably more interest in their new home extension.

The decoration hasn't really begun -- this is more like the undercoat being applied. They walk around, chewing a bit here and there and generally casing the joint. They still have some comb building to complete in the super below, so no clusters of wax builders have yet appeared in the bell jar. (They will cluster to raise the temperature to enable the wax to be excreted and built.)

Incidentally, the jar is kept wrapped in an old t-shirt and there is a hole in the top of the jar to prevent the build-up of condensation.

 

Will they or won't they?

It's been a miserable early summer in southern England and with only about ten days of the nectar flow to go, I've at last been able to put the bell jar in place.

I've stuck small strips of foundation to the inside of the jar and the idea is that the bees will join the dots and make a pretty picture. So far, so good. Within a few hours, they seem to have accepted the jar as a potential nest extension and haven't been put off by the strange new environment. But will the good weather hold and will they take up the challenge?