#urban bees

[roofhoney]

 January 12 update: BEES FLEW. HUMANS HAD THE FLU.

Last week, in a miserable, flu-induced state of mind, I was restlessly roaming the house. For no particular reason, I climbed upstairs to the roof and peered out the window. Flying bees!

So I thought, “It must be warm!” (Well, warmish, as it turned out — about 57˚ F /14˚ C.)  So what did I do in my fever-addled condition? Naturally, I trotted out onto the roof in bare feet (and wearing only my sushi pajamas) to take a picture in what was a surprisingly brisk breeze. (I’ve discovered, I don’t make my best decisions with a fever.)

Now it’s Sunday. The temperature has dropped. (That would be the air temperature. My personal temperature is still a bit high.) The bees that flew on Thursday, fly no more. But me? I still have the flu. Should I really be surprised?

[empressgreen-blog]

One lady bee to another

[thinkingimages]

City honeybees in the transparent hive more info: http://padma.okno.be/Vt3myazz/00:02:55.000-00:03:48.000

[foodsciencedaily]

Urban Bees Using Plastic to Build Hives

Once the snow melts, Canada’s bee population will be back in business — pollinating, making honey and keeping busy doing bee things. For at least two urban bee species, that means making nests out of plastic waste. A new study by a University of Guelph graduate and a U of G scientist r...

Read more Urban Bees Using Plastic to Build Hives

[thehoneyclub]

Time to rise and shine

Our bees have smelt Spring and are out an about, getting the hive ready for action! Our lovely building manager and bee-guru Stuart was up on our roof earlier in the week and gave this report:

"I had a good look at the bees, they are out in force today and yesterday, returning with pollen and doing house keeping."

He even spotted some of the worker bees dragging out the dead drones, to clean the place up (see below).

Brian from Urban Bees popped in on Thursday to help Nick R and Stuart do a comprehensive check. Sadly, it seems our more problematic colony (in Hive 2) has lost its queen over the winter. However, Hive 1 is thriving, so we hope to be able to take a new queen from that hive and place her in Hive 2 soon. 

And we enjoyed our first taste of Honey Club honey 2012 on Friday morning! The verdict: richer and more robust than the 2011 crop, but still a distinct taste of elderflower. Yum!

[alwayssnacking-blog]

This week I learned that bees sting contrasts. Bees need to protect themselves from mammals who could destroy their hives. They've learned to sting around the eyes where it hurts the most and is, in many mammals, the most recognizable part of the body even from a bee's perspective because eyes are usually darker. Raccoons have "masks" and bears have glassy black eyes. Wearing any sort of jewelry gives bees a good target for stinging.

[alwayssnacking-blog]

Ahhh bees!!!!!

[wolffolinsblog]

London Honey Festival

Sunday was an exciting day for WOLO's latest venture – the Honey Club. We had a stall at the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank, taking part in the London Honey Festival alongside lots of other bee-keepers from in and around London. From 12-5pm, we were descended upon by enthusiastic honey-lovers, asking questions about our bees and the social enterprise. Turns out there's a lot of bee keeping lingo we need to bone up on! Sadly, we didn't win the overall tasting competition but we got lots of compliments on the light, citrusy honey our bees had created. An experienced bee-keeper told us she thought they'd been feasting on lime trees (which are in bloom at the moment). And we left smiling when we overheard someone else say to their friend "I told you they had the nicest packaging"!

The week before, we were busy preparing our leaflets and badges.

And, of course, harvesting our honey. We stole one frame from Hive 1, which was stuffed full of lovely honey, filling around 20 little pots to take to the festival. 

Huge congratulations to all those involved, in particular our fellow stall-holders from Global Generation, the local youth development charity which has co-founded the Honey Club with us.

  If you want to find out more about our work with the Honey Club, check out www.honeyclub.org.