101–108 of 108 posts
My son befriended one of the leading African elephant researchers who is now one of the big wigs at Disney's Animal Kingdom. When we met him, he explained how researchers used this knowledge to teach African villages how to become beekeepers. Elephants would often trample their crops or other areas of the village, so they taught them how to keep bees around the perimeter of the village. The elephants stay away and th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elephants, and other savannah wildlife, apparently fear humans more than any other predator, so... make human noises?
The elephant's reaction to fear of humans might not be what you expected though? Do they flee humans more often than they charge?
What they found was that the animals ran from the human sounds much more than the lion sounds; and elephants and rhinos ran particularly fast: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)...
That said, elephants are smart, and have been known to seek out human camps for medical attention when injured: https://www.itv.com/news/2016-06-03/wounded-elephant-shot-by...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Random bee fact: each workerbee trip returns ~40mg nectar to the hive. And it takes them approximately 1 hour and 1,000 flower visits in order to collect enough nectar or pollen to fill up for the return trip. It is so taxing that the muscles in their wings wear out after around 2 weeks.
> It is so taxing that the muscles in their wings wear out after around 2 weeks. Wow. I know a lot about bees (and kept bees with my father for several years), but never thought about this and of course didn't know the details of the wear effect on wings.
Also, if interested, the best book I read this year was recommended on this site and is this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14359367
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except honey?
And larvae. A honey badger will go right into a house of bees to get some larvae. How disgusting is that?! It eats larvae!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends. Winter worker bees live several months. Summer worker bees live only a few weeks. (I'm referring to honeybees here, not other types of bees.) Winter bees have to live longer because the colony has to "hibernate" through the cold winter months, doing nothing but keeping warm, then in the spring it needs enough bees to reboot the cycle. On the other hand winter bees don't have to forage. Summer bees live le…
What about bees in places like San Diego where it is mild year round? Do they have permanent spring bees?
If you take a California queen to a state like CO they tend to do poorly the first year. They're not used to things like other hives raiding honey stores in winter. It's pretty fascinating!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about bees in places like San Diego where it is mild year round? Do they have permanent spring bees?
San Diego native here. California bees are incredibly docile and produce honey year-round. They produce more slowly in the winter due to availability but they don't hunker down+expel male drones like in harsher climates. If you take a California queen to a state like CO they tend to do poorly the first year. They're not used to things like other hives raiding honey stores in winter. It's pretty fascinating!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is so taxing that the muscles in their wings wear out after around 2 weeks. Wow. I know a lot about bees (and kept bees with my father for several years), but never thought about this and of course didn't know the details of the wear effect on wings.
I believe (but might be wrong as I’ve read a bunch of books this year on bees - it’s my first year beekeeping!) that the source for this info is this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29499054 Also, if interested, the best book I read this year was recommended on this site and is this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14359367
----
Add Dr. Thomas Seely's "Honeybee Democracy" to your reading list.
And may all your honeyflows remain prosperous.
—Two-hive Beeker