Recycling propolis

[gavin]

Last day of October and the weather is getting chilly. Never mind, one bee was out trying to salvage propolis crumbs that had dropped onto the lid of a Paynes nuc from a colony that had been sited on top. It seems they were too tough for her, but she persisted for a while. Maybe she's had more success in warmer spells.

I like the bipedal attempts, using the tip of the abdomen to balance, and the circular runs when she was trying a sideways bite. Occasionally there is a very rapid dab from a middle leg to the corbicula but I don't think she ended up with more on there than when she started.

Clearly I need to practice a little and the focus was terrible but bear with it and there are sharper sections.



Oh, and where she falls over .... or that shaking of the middle leg when there is a lot of activity at the mouthparts, like some dogs when you scratch them in the right place down the side of their belly.

[fatshark]

Are you feeding them through the roof or is that feeder just resting there?
Mine were out in force today piling in the pollen. Going by the evidence on the Varroa trays there's lots going on in the colony as well.
Varroa drops are significantly higher from a few hives than they were a month or so ago. I suspect this reflects an increase in brood rearing with this extended warm(ish) spell.

[gavin]

Q. Can bees walk backwards on three legs?

A. See 4 mins in ...

[gavin]

It is just a Paynes nuc box with some frames inside that have some exposed pollen. Turfed outside as I'm having allergy problems which I think are coming from pollen mites .... I'm assuming that this one (and its roof) were parked under another for a while given the debris on it.

Ah, the ceramic thing? It is just an upturned plant pot weighing down the Paynes roof.

Yup, plenty of pollen going in. There is quite a bit of largely south facing ivy where I am.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Six minutes watching a bee battling with pollen - one should use that as some sort of mediation or calming-down video like that Norwegian film (which I haven't seen) about a log fire. Yes, at four minutes she seems to get quite acrobatic in her efforts to use a large chunk of pollen - and then discards it!
Kitta

[The Drone Ranger]

tsk tsk Kitta
level 5 Jedi Beemaster
thats propolis

[Mellifera Crofter]

Aaah! Sorry. I know that - really!