todays news

[fatshark]

And you thought that retrieving supers from that stroppy colony in your out apiary was a pain ...



Apis dorsata laboriosa in Nepal ... a topic covered previously by Eric Tourneret in his book Cueilleurs de miel but awe-inspiring nevertheless. The video accompanies an article in National Geographic this month.

[Jambo]

Lots and lots of blue pollen coming in - is there anything other than RBWH at this time of year that yields pollen like this?

IMG_7763_cropped.jpg

Also has anyone got any tips on photographing flying bees!? Not easy!

[fatshark]

One of these rigs perhaps?
insect-rig-front.jpg

It's neat how they store the pollen by colour in the frames. Mine have individual cells packed with the RBWH pollen, interspersed with some yellow stuff.

[RDMW]

Good result from my new water boiler

Nice clean frames (boiler no longer shiny)



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[RDMW]

And from my homemade solar wax extractor -980 grams


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[RDMW]

Here is a flying bee. It's a bit fuzzy but not bad with an iPhone (California lilac)



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[Jambo]

One of these rigs perhaps?
insect-rig-front.jpg

It's neat how they store the pollen by colour in the frames. Mine have individual cells packed with the RBWH pollen, interspersed with some yellow stuff.

Ha maybe that's what I need.

Yes... I suppose they must do it by taste, as not even bees can differentiate colours in the dark, surely? And has anyone ever proposed a theory for why they might bother doing this?

[Adam]

And from my homemade solar wax extractor -980 grams


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980 g and a sink!
Can we see inside the extractor? And what's the wire for?

[RDMW]

The wire is for a thermometer. One day it got up to 102 degrees! That was too hot and I think scorched the wax a bit.


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[RDMW]

Here is the inside. I bought the metal work from thornes and made the rest from plywood. It is insulated with several layers of metallic bubblewrap stuff from B&Q and double glazed with two sheets of 4 mm window glass. I was surprised by how clean the wax it produces is and it is clean and there is no risk of fire in comparison to trying to render comb over a double boiler on the stove. Should last forever (well as long as I will)


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