Just testing out my new phone/camera really.
These are my two hives, in the backyard.
It is a bit like keeping pets, I guess, for a hobbyist like me. They are more like fish than like dogs or cats, though - they don't really care about me. And (this may sound harsh) I don't really care much about them as individuals. I have real fondness for each colony, but it doesn't bother me to squash one, if she's pestering me while I work the hive, for example.
Very fair, I'd say.
The colony reproduces through swarming, and in many ways the colony behaves as a single, disjoint organism, with the queen acting as brain (i.e. hormone regulator) and also as female reproductive organ; drones bees act solely as the male reproductive organ, and workers provide every other function.
Thanks, it's an interesting idea and that article led to content about superorganisms, Daisyworld, and rivet-poppers.
Is that sound as you approach the hive, the bees? It seems more like a hissing sound? Cool yard, the hives look like they're thriving, but then I'm no beekeeper.
We started the #hubskidrinkclub# tonight and while in IRC we agreed that the next foray would be Mead. Hope you'll partake.
Cicadas. They have been going nuts the last couple weeks.
What a great sound though. It sounds like a thousand little shakers. Man, I'd definitely mic that and throw it on a New Green song if that were my back yard. Cool place.
Last year's mead is just coming ready. I'm an optimist so I've sent a couple of entries here :
One plain mead and one feijoa mead.