Landmarks

Worker honey bees live for about six weeks. The first three weeks of their life are spent doing tasks inside the hive. The next three weeks are spent doing work that involves flying away from the hive. When the bees begin venturing from the hive at about three weeks of age, they start by making a series of orientation flights in which the bees memorize the appearance of the hive and its surroundings. The young bees start their “flight school” in the afternoon by flying in a small figure-eight pattern inches away from the hive’s entrance. As the bees make their orientation flights, they are looking for colors and patterns of shapes. Honey bees can see all of the colors that humans do with the exception of red. The bees can also see ultraviolet, which is beyond our eyesight. The images that the bees memorize involve shapes and patterns of interruptions. After flying close to the hive’s entrance, the bees expand their flight to learn landmarks surrounding the hive.

Honey bees at the Children’s Museum of Memphis have no problem finding their hives located among the huge building blocks that spell “CMOM.” In today’s picture from the museum’s blog, www.cmom.com, the museum’s CEO, Richard C. Hackett, is high in the air above our bee hives painting the letter C in pink for breast cancer awareness. To learn more, the museum directs us to www.nbcam.org/about_nbcam.cfm and www.cancer.org/. The always personally involved Mr. Hackett, a beekeeper himself, proposed the honey bee exhibit and offered useful suggestions in the development of the observation bee hive project. Mr. Hackett swung in close to the bee hives to paint the iconic blocks that make the museum a landmark in the heart of the city. The honey bee exhibit is designed to fit into the museum’s mission: “We create memorable learning experiences through the joy of play in hands-on exhibits and programs.” The museum helps honey bees as well as children expand their view.

--Richard

Observation Bee Hives

Much of our knowledge of the honey bee colony’s activity and life cycle is learned using observation bee hives having clear windows of glass or plastic providing a view inside the hive. Regardless of the weather, beekeepers cannot keep a bee hive open for an extended observation without disturbing the bees and adversely affecting the colony. Observation hives allow for long-term viewing with a minimum disturbance of the bees. However, observation hives are usually smaller and are more difficult to maintain than regular, full-size hives. Most commercially available observation hives hold from two to six frames. These smaller hives are more prone to starving, swarming, and being overtaken by Small Hive Beetles. Bees in small hives also have more difficulty in maintaining the hive’s temperature.

The Columbia University Beekeeping Club is considering placing a hive outside a campus building. I offered them the details of modified Langstroth hives I maintain at the Children’s Museum of Memphis. Windows in the side of one hive expose frames of comb, and windows in the rear of another allow viewing between the frames. The hives are placed outside the building as opposed to inside arrangements that use a tube for the bees to enter and exit. With any observation hive it is most important that proper bee space is maintained. In my modified hives, Lexan windows fit flush with the inside surface of the hive bodies. Quite often I see observation hives with windows covered with comb or propolis. Maintain clean windows by providing 3/8 inch spacing between the inside surface of the window and the adjacent frame. Choosing a location for placing the hive is most important. Consider the direction of the sun in relation to the hive. If the sun strikes the observation hive’s glass, the hive will likely become a solar beeswax melter, and the bees will die. I placed my Children’s Museum hives in a North-facing alcove which blocks the afternoon sun. You may view the exhibit at http://www.cmom.com/?q=honeybees.

--Richard

Urban Beekeeping

Mark Leech, of Tasmania, Australia, writing about urban beekeeping, questions how Peace Bee Farm arranges its hives at three locations in the city of Memphis. Answering Mark’s questions about our urban bee yards reveals some interesting details. We discover that the nectar sources, the timing of the nectar flow, and the amount of honey produced varies within the city. Our bee yard located in the Memphis Botanic Garden produces honey earlier than the other locations and produces several distinct flavors of honey through the year. The area contains specialty gardens and a great diversity of flowering plants and trees. The surrounding residential neighborhoods contain flower gardens and numerous chemically treated lawns. A nearby golf course offers limited forage of clover. Observation hives a few miles away at the Children’s Museum of Memphis produce some surplus honey, even though they are primarily managed for viewing the bees and honeycomb. The older neighborhoods surrounding the museum offer wildflower forage in untreated lawns, vacant lots, and along railroad lines.

Today’s picture shows the view from our bee yard located in the rear of the Hunt-Phelan Home facing historic Beale Street in downtown Memphis. Even though the downtown area is largely paved and covered with buildings, the bees have access to trees and forage areas along the Mississippi River. Urban areas provide surprising amounts for forage for honey bee hives. The amount of honey produced may vary according to the neighborhood. Weedy areas and gardens often produce significant amounts of nectar and pollen. Carefully tended lawns, golf courses, office parks, and paved parking lots, however, are virtual deserts to honey bees and native pollinators. The Hunt-Phelan Home, completed in 1832, was designed by Robert Mills, architect of the Washington Monument, the US Treasury building, and part of the White House. The home has hosted US presidents Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, and Martin Van Buren. Confederate president Jefferson Davis was a frequent guest in the home. View Hunt-Phelan at http://huntphelan.com/.

--Richard

Observation Bee Hives

Much of what beekeepers have learned about the honey bee came from direct observation of the bees in the hive. Inspections inside the hive are important, but they should be performed infrequently, during daylight hours, and under acceptable weather conditions. To allow for further study of honey bees in their hive, observation hives are constructed. These are usually hives with walls of glass or plastic. Many observation hives are housed indoors and connected to the outside by a tube for the bees to use to enter and exit the hive. Observation hives allow people to watch the bees’ activity without disturbing the hive as much as occurs when opening the hive for inspection. Just the act of smoking a bee hive has an effect on the bees resulting from interrupting and masking hive odors and pheromones used for communications. Peace Bee Farm maintains observation hives at the Children’s Museum of Memphis. These are hives modified with windows added to allow people to look inside and see the frames and bees. Today’s photo shows museum visitors viewing the bees from inside the museum. The hives are located outside a large window at a height for easy viewing by children. The children can safely look inside the hives only inches away as well as observe the bees flying in and out of the hive entrances. Visit the Children’s Museum’s web site at http://www.cmom.com/.

Observation bee hives offer the beekeeper certain challenges. Most indoor hives are smaller in size than regular outdoor hives. Observation hives often contain fewer frames, and the frames are close to glass windows. In the winter, it is difficult for the bees to warm the hive. In the summer, the hive may over-heat, especially if the glass is exposed to the sun. Glass placed in observation hives for windows must be fitted flush with the inside of the hive body to maintain a proper three-eights inch “bee space.” Small hive beetles frequently attack small bee hives like observation hives.

--Richard

The Children's Museum of Memphis

Honey bee colonies are fascinating. Many consider the honey bee colony as an organism, not the individual bees; since individuals cannot survive alone. Honey bees only exist in colonies where they share responsibilities for food gathering, hive protection, care and feeding of the young bees and many other tasks. The colony even has a small number of bees devoted to reproducing the entire colony. These are the queen and the drones. The study of these fascinating social insects is an introduction into many of the natural sciences. I received a message today from a sixth grade student in Texas whose class is studying honey bees in school. Many of the readers of these blog posts are students from around the world who share an interest in the honey bee and an appreciation of the complex honey bee colony. One of the places that children are first exposed to honey bees is The Children’s Museum of Memphis. Peace Bee Farm has bee hives on exhibit where children can see the bees through large windows. In the picture you can see my hives and beekeeping truck dwarfed by the block letter “C” on the front of the museum. The honey bee exhibit is the idea of The Children’s Museum of Memphis’ Chief Executive Officer, Richard Hackett, a beekeeper himself. Mr. Hackett often interrupts his activity to look into the hives when I visit to inspect them.

While the honey bee is quite the subject of educational study, The Children’s Museum of Memphis accomplishes learning experiences through play and hands-on exhibits and programs. Children don a beekeeper’s veil to watch the honey bees through a glass window. The museum is currently hosting the world premiere of a traveling exhibit, “Harry’s Big Adventure: My Bug World!” My favorite part of the exhibit is a kitchen sink. When you open the cabinet doors, the sink is full of live cockroaches. Like the honey bees, they are safely housed behind glass. Follow museum activity at http://www.cmom.com/.
--Richard