25 September 2008

Oscar Wetterblad


In case you were wondering, the "Death by Sting" data was found by Oscar Wetterblad, who is Swedish and has his own web site, http://www.wetterblad.com/oscar.html

16 September 2008

A short history of robbing

Went to check the hives, add anti-varroa treatments, remove the feeders and settle the bees for the winter.
As I packed up, carelessly as it turned out, a great gob of sugar solution dropped out of a feeder, SPLAT, on top of the frames and dribbled right through down to the floor.
Within moments, the air was FULL of robbers, with a no-holds-barred wrestling free-for-all at the hive entrance.
So, all things considered, preparing for winter went, er, well...

11 September 2008

What the bees know and what they do not know



Much as I admire L. Fejes Tóth, bees do not build hexagonal cells. They build tubular cells of circular cross-section, and follow closest hexagonal packing (with some clever rhomboid-stuff at the base).

So http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS/Repository/1.0/Disseminate?view=body&id=pdf_1&handle=euclid.bams/1183526078 there.

03 September 2008

No honey at Christmas?

Initial estimates show that English hives produced just 6,000 tons of honey this year - half the usual annual level.

Stuart Bailey, chairman of Rowse honey, which supplies several major supermarket chains, said the company has been able to source just 125 tons of English honey this year forcing it to rely more heavily on foreign suppliers despite rocketing prices.

"We will be out by Christmas there is no doubt about that," he said.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/02/eahoney102.xml