Species Under Investigation

[Ananas]

*not* nasty (I somehow like this image) :

It has been a "blind" shot, it sat quite high on that tree so I had to catch it with stretched arms without seeing the display

[The Knighty NI]

Wow beautiful picture.

Looks like it could be a Brown Hawker

These beauties are found in many parts of England mainly to the the east of Wales with some in the south west, north east and west. Very few are found north of the border in Scotland and there are patches over many parts of Ireland.

Don't let the description British fool you.
http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/s ... own-hawker

The only Dragonfly I have any concerns about, (if any and that would be in a queen rearing apiary only) are the Cordulegaster boltoni which has been known to be predatory towards honey bees.
http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/s ... -dragonfly

Had to set up bird scarer's to chase away the Tit's living around here which I caught eating the bees flying into my queen rearing colony. She needs all the bees she can get to help her rear 4 new queens I need to increase the number of colonies to 6.

[Ananas]

My picture has been shot somewhere between the two big lakes Vänern and Vättern so it's probably a Brun mosaiktrollslända (The Scandinavians need Troll stuff everywhere, even those cute little Moomins are Trolls) - I guess I will fit there fairly well ... some day if they can ignore the fact that I don't drink that much

[The Knighty NI]

Here is a recent shot of the entrance to my queen breeding hive. Its absolutely boiling with young bees going out on their first play flights.

Its quite a sight to see literally hundreds of bees flying around the hive. Then streaking in an almost straight line through the youngsters are the older bees that know where they are going.

Most of these are worker bees. However, if you look closely you will see a number of bees with a more rounded back end and wider bodies, these are the drones. When you get a lot of them flying at the same time, it is an impressive sound they make.



Edited to include:

You can click though on the picture to get to a full screen shot and magnifying glass for a real close-up of the bees.

[MReed]

This really is a magnificent shot. Thanks for sharing.

[Ananas]

The bee house is painted in Falu Rödfärg? Those little guys have a good taste

In our company we have long glass floors with tiny square gardens between the office rows. In this time of the year, the floors are often a death trap for bees and bumble bees. Sometimes I find one that is still moving and put it outside on a plant but they are often very weak so they probably will not make it

[The Knighty NI]

Truth is I have no idea what the brood chamber has been painted with. It is the same as when I bought the hive 2 years ago.

However, what I can tell you is that any hives or brood chambers I build will not have any products either in the construction or on the outside that could cause any harm to any creature.

Take a look at this. Sat on top of the brood chamber you can see in the previous shot is a second brood chamber. This is how you can get a hive to start the process of breeding queens.

The brood chamber on the top has not been treated with anything and is all natural wood. It is expected that brood chamber will last for about 50-60 years without any treatment. More than the life I have left in me Lol. My bee-keeping business if the bees survive will be passed to my Nephews who are taking a real interest.