Day #185 Never Bounce a Bee

     "Whaddya mean Never Bounce a Bee?"

     "Just what I said, never Bounce a bee."

     "Why not?"

     “I thought you’d never ask…”

One of the major benefits of bees to humans is their ability to pollinate plants. I always thought they just brushed against the pollen and some of it stuck to them. But last Tuesday at the Gwinnett Beekeepers Club meeting, I found out from Dr. Jim Ellis that the hair on a bee’s body is electrostatically charged – like all those balloons we rubbed against our heads when we were kids so we could stick them to the wall.

So, you’d never want to put a sheet of Bounce^® in a bee hive, because taking away the static would make it impossible for the bees to collect all those tons of pollen.

Ain’t science grand?

p.s. Wait till you see what myth I'll be exploding in tomorrow's blog. Jim Ellis was a goldmine of information.

BEEattitude for Day # 185:

       Blessed are the good scientists, for they explain things to our humans so they can treat us better.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Perseverance, the quality that allowed me to figure out how to put together a PowerPoint presentation for the writer’s seminar I'll be teaching Saturday at Booklogix.

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #177 Cappings on the Cells

I can’t wait to see the different types of cell capping that will be in the hive once my bees get busy.

Cells that are capped (covered over) with brownish wax hold the brood, the baby bees.

White caps  indicate honey within. And I still feel somewhat nervous about how I’m ever going to deal with extracting the honey from the frames. But I’ll deal with that when the time comes.

Big fat dome-like cappings mean that there are baby drones within.

Cells packed with yellow stuff but not capped over hold the pollen, which provides protein for the babies.

I’ll be getting them next week. Can I borrow a camera from somebody, and will you come take the pictures while I’m trying to convince 12,000 bees to go into a yellow box?

BEEattitude for Day # 177:

       Blessed are the environmentally-minded, for they shall help make this world a better place for all of us bees – and for you people, too.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Being able to figure out PowerPoint for a writer's seminar/webinar I’ll be teaching on April 16^th  at Booklogix    

http://www.franstewart.com