Beekeeping photography

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HELP SCIENCE HELP THE BEES!

We are a science-based beekeeping course aiming to improve the plight of bees while training a new generation of beekeepers. The course is sponsored by the Biology Department of the University of Washington, Seattle and the UW Farm*. Our current projects are listed below. As you can see, we are investigating a diversity of bee topics.

We have a shoestring budget, which limits what we can do, but you can help us by donating through our funding tool:

HELP SCIENCE HELP BEES

OUR CURRENT PROJECTS

1. Biology and Processing of Bees Wax
Learn in detail about how bees secrete wax, its functions in the hive, chemical properties and industrial uses, and problems, especially pesticide contamination. Build a solar wax melter and render our collection of recyclable combs. Process the wax in an experiment to remove pesticide residues. Make candles.

2. Mite Monitoring & Management Testing
Learn in detail the biology of the Varroa mite and its management. You will consistently monitor mite populations in hives under various treatment regimes to assess their relative performance. Data will contribute to the series begun in 2011.

3. Hygienic Behavior Assessment
Use a standard freeze-kill method to create a uniform "unhygienic" patch in the brood of colonies of several different strains. Assess the ability of the bees to detect dead brood and remove it. This is a behavioral trait correlated with the ability to clean the hive of disease spores and possibly other problems. This test was developed by professional researchers for breeding more "hygienic" bee strains.

4. Dance Behavior and Forager Mapping
Record foraging dances within the hive and translate into a detailed map of foraging range centered on the Farm apiary. Then, to verify the data, go to one of the indicated sites, set up feeding stations, mark bees that arrive, and try to recover the marks in one of the home hives.

*The UW Farm is a group of University students, faculty, and associates that run an on-campus, food-growing, urban organic farm. The Farm is now growing food for the campus food services! Check out the Farm link and come visit!

What do bees do when it rains? If it's not raining very hard, they may brave the storm and continue to fly out for food. But to them, a raindrop is a bucket full! So when it rains hard, as it did this morning, the bees stay home but crowd the porch and wait for the sun! These gobs of anxious bees are just raring to go! As soon as the rain lets up, they're OFF! Great work ethic  -- they have already put up a whole box of honey, even in our cool, wet summer!

Featured on The Daily: "Braving The Swarm"

We were featured as a part of The Daily's Double Shot.
Take a look at what our classmates, Alex and Russ have to say about the beekeeping internship!

Building a Solar Wax Melter!

For one of our class research projects, we are learning how bees secrete wax and testing wax to learn about pesticide contamination. For this purpose, we built a solar wax melter on Saturday to test old comb we have acquired from the apiary. We will use it to process wax and test pesticide residues. Photos from our work party after the jump.

An unlikely encounter with a bumble bee nest

Salvage shopping for materials for the bee course, my attention was drawn to a "bee nest" in a corner of the yard at the Re Store in Ballard. A sign assured me (with Abe Lincoln guaranteeing it) that bees were at work. I saw none. Later, the counter person explained that bumble bees had taken up residence in the bird house above the sign. On closer inspection I could see that, sure enough, bees were very occasionally coming and going from the box. And they were indeed bumble bees, Bombus mixtus to be exact, a common local species. This is unlikely because this species is not well known to nest in such spaces but prefers ground nests close to the surface. They are often found in compost heaps, for example. Our main above-ground species is B. melanopygus, which often make nests in such bird houses, which are a good dimension for them and may contain fluffy materials from previous bird occupancy. But these B. mixtus, a later-active species, seemed to be doing fine in this abandoned avian apartment. Typical of b.b. nests, it smelled putrid and the entrance was smeared with crusty, caked up excretion. Unlike honey bees, bumble bees are not very clean, they don't really need to be - their colony breaks up and abandons the nest by mid-summer. With some observation I saw one large worker emerge and dash around the entrance several times, wiping her abdomen on the surface, before retreating inside. With some finger-scratching, I eventually coaxed another timid bee to appear briefly and feebly buzz its wings before also retreating. Not much of a defense, typical of this relatively docile species. The obstreperous B. melanopygus would have had me running in seconds.

- Evan

Welcome to our cozy mess!

Bumble bee!