Tuesday 3 April 2012

Inclement Weather at Apiary Central

LandofSpike checked out the bee activity at Apiary Central this afternoon.
Based on his 5 minutes of HiveWatch it looked like all flights had been cancelled for the day, as it was cloudy, a bit nippy and raining on and off.
Those bees aren't daft. After last week's unseasonally high temperatures of 23C, this little cold snap isn't really the best of weather for hungry workers who want to zip out and get at that springtime pollen.
And according to LandofSpike's collection of weather-predicting seaweeds, it's going to be lashing down with rain and hailing tomorrow.
Lovely. Wrap up warm little honey bees.
The Honey Bee doesn't like it when it hails

Monday 2 April 2012

It's not just Honey Bees... An Exciting Seaside Bumblebee Adventure

LandofSpike was in Hometown-on-Sea at the weekend.
Temperatures on Saturday, after a gloriously summery week, were back to bee-worrying single figures, but Sunday was again warm and sunny.
Consequently LandofSpike spotted quite a few bumblebees out foraging amongst the flowers whilst he was taking the air with his family on the prom, just about as far east as England gets. On our left was all of Blighty, on our right was nothing but steel grey sea until you get to Holland.

Suddenly a cry of alarm, "Emergency! Bee Down!"
One of our number had spotted an upsidedown Bumble on the ground in front of us, too exhausted to get back to its colony. Perhaps it had been weakened by yesterday's cold snap, perhaps it was just fagged out.

So, now officially 'A Friend of Bees', LandofSpike swept into action. He scooped up the stricken Bombus and relocated her to a lovely pollen filled flower, a goodly height off the ground.

Good deed for the day done, LandofSpike watched proudly as the newly rescued and revived bumblebee flew off along the promenade, only to see it, 20 metres later, detour sharply Eastwards across the beach, zigzag out across the breakers and plunge, kamikaze-style, into the North Sea.

LandofSpike didn't attempt a further rescue but decided to go to the cafe for a large helping of fish 'n' chips instead. They were very tasty.