Rescuing Bees

[emo_snal]

I. The Daily Story
   Once upon a time, about 13 years ago now, I started emosnail with the credo of "every day has a story, and I intend to tell it." And back then I did update just about every single day.

13 years later here we are at emo-snal, we've lost an i, and updates are few and far between -- typically only when something really exciting happens and

Comments

[fimbrethil]

Thank you for sharing this. I love your bee stories.

At the botanical garden where I work, we have 7 hives. It's been a harsh winter in NYC but I was delighted to see that the bees in our observation hive had done some housekeeping and were sending out scouts on a particularly warm and sunny day.

[emo_snal]

How exciting! :D

So they live in the observation hive year round? Is it big? Indoors? We've had trouble keeping hives alive in observation hives here. /:

[fimbrethil]

All the hives are the same size, what I think of as a standard hive size, and are wood with metal roofs. The obsevation hive varies in that it has three doors that can be raised to view a cutout covered in plexiglass. Those doors are taped shut in the winter. All the hives are outdoors but the observation hive in near the entrance to the bee garden and the other 6 are up the hill toward the back. All our bees died during the winter in 2013 so the beekeeper brought new colonies last May. I don't know if the other 6 hives survived but the front hive was a flurry of activity last week.

[magenta_girl]

I love the bee stories as well!

[emo_snal]

Thanks! (:

[selucius]

I always wondered how you bridged the dilemma of working at Bee Busters and still being able to make winged insect friends everywhere you go. You like the bee whisperer.

[emo_snal]

The flak I get from other bee enthusiasts is worse than the actual killing of the bees. One gets rather philosophical about it -- death is part of life. These bees in people's walls can't be there and are usually pulling the gene pool down anyway. If I didn't kill them someone else would anyway, either another Bee Busters employee or another company. Its a little harder when I have a little more choice -- like when my parents had bees in THEIR wall and wanted me to kill them, I dragged my feet on that a bit

[selucius]

In Texas, we mainly get wasps. There is no such thing as a non-angry wasp. I never go into battle with less than two fists of death spray.

[emo_snal]

Wasps around here aren't as scary as they look but you won't find my trying to pat them ;D

[technophobe1975]

I think that it is very interesting what you said about hives having a distinct "personality" of their own, as you always think that bees are all very similar.

[emo_snal]

Oh different hives definitely have different personalities, both because they all share genetics as sisters and half-sisters, and learned behavior -- for example I've noticed hives on the ends of rows tend to be meaner than the others, presumably because they're always getting intruders in the form of bees mistakenly trying to enter them instead of the correct hive, which in turn leads the hive to increase its guard force.

[nightspore]

I love this and am so glad you posted it (and just that you posted anyhow). Did I ever ask you if you know Deborah Gordon's work on ants? Because she talks about her harvester ants in ways similar to the way you talk about bees.

http://www.amazon.com/Ants-At-Work-Society-Organized/dp/0684857332/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394988248&sr=8-2&keywords=deborah+gordon+ants

http://www.amazon.com/Ant-Encounters-Interaction-Networks-Behavior-ebook/dp/B004Y546VQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394988248&sr=8-1&keywords=deborah+gordon+ants

She sent ants up to the space station a month or two ago, too.

[emo_snal]

Hmmm interesting no I wasn't familiar with her work!

Ants in space! I can't help but think of the Simpsons episode with "I for one welcome our new insect overlords" -- I tried to find the video clip just now but found it surprisingly illusive. /: