I am a researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London investigating the effect of urbanisation on honeybees (http://elizabethsamuelson.wix.com/beesinthecity) and am planning a large-scale experiment this summer using the honeybee waggle dance to compare foraging behaviour of urban and rural bees. To do this, we film bees in observation hives performing the waggle dance, a behaviour which informs their nestmates about the locations of profitable flower patches. We later analyse the videos, decoding the dances to plot foraging locations of the bees on a map. The aims of the experiment are to identify important foraging hotspots in the urban environment, and to compare foraging in urban and rural locations.

We are looking for existing observation hives in London and the surrounding countryside (i.e. the counties around London) which we can visit to film waggle dances. I realise this is primarily a Scottish forum, but I wondered if anyone knows of any observation hives in the SE England area that are set up? This is likely to be museums, schools, attractions etc. I’d be grateful for any leads so that we can start contacting sites to see if they are interested in being involved in the experiment.

Thanks!