It is now the beginning of November and the bee year has also come to an end at our research location in Hungary. The thermometer now reads below 10° during the day, it is often foggy and at night we have the first frost on the ground. The bees have stopped flying.
Now is the time to look back on an eventful bee year. We will be publishing several blog posts in the coming days. What were the ‘highlights’ and what were the low points? There is a lot to report.
The highlights include two workshops that met with broad, sustained interest. One was the
wild bee workshop,
already reported on. In the meantime, we have received many enquiries from other interested conservationists, to whom we were able to pass on building instructions, tips and suggestions. We estimate that at least 50 ‘wild bee hotels’ have now been built and installed as a result of this initiative. We have also received initial feedback that the first inhabitants have moved in
Another workshop took place just a few days ago on 3 November on the topic of
bats
took place. This workshop was also well attended. The participants were given comprehensive information on the topic and then made their own bat nesting boxes for their own gardens. The topic is not about the foundation deviating from its previous course of bee health, which continues to be the main focus. However, bats share the fate of being one of the endangered ‘sky colonies’. Of around 25 known bat species in Germany, only 2 are not on the red list of species threatened with extinction. Reason enough to take a closer look at this topic and raise awareness. More information on this in the next blog posts.
Another topic was research into new, more natural and nature-orientated ‘hives’ for bees. For this purpose, a first
long room hive
with only one room, different from the usual magazine hives. The special
challenge was to adapt the hive to the most common frame size in Hungary, which was successful. The hive was also given thicker solid wood insulation, which makes it easier for the bees to maintain their temperature. The first bee colony was installed at the research centre in April. We will provide further details.
But there have also been setbacks, which we would like to report on. These include the complete destruction of a colony by
robber bees
And this happened at the foundation's base in the new one-room hive, of all places. After swarming out about half of the colony, another colony took the opportunity to completely wipe out this colony, which had been weakened by swarming. After noticing this, there were only a few hatched young bees left in the hive. Not a gram of honey left, only a small amount of pollen, no bees and no queen. A frustrating event. We summarise that we neglected the daily inspection during this period and therefore noticed the predatory activity too late. We learn from our mistakes. We will report in more detail in a subsequent blog post.
A note on our own behalf is the end of the work of our
Co Worker.
Elias accompanied us for around 18 months and supported us with many tasks. This included both the care of the bee colonies and, in particular, his involvement in events at the research centre and outside. After his induction, he took over the complete preparation, organisation and implementation of these events. We would like to thank Elias for his great commitment. We will miss him.
Another very pleasing note on the
financing
of our activities. Thanks to many volunteer hours and material donations, e.g. for the workshops and the construction of newly developed hives, we will be able to keep the cost block at a very low level again this year. Our heartfelt thanks go to all helpers and material donors. Without them, many activities would hardly be possible.
You can look forward to further information in the following blog posts and please continue to be kind to us in the future.
Best wishes and be(e) good,
Yours
Klaus Heinzel
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