- P3230115
Three dwarf honey bees (Apis florea) foraging on asters in a Thai flower market. After a bunch of bee scientisits discussing the nest should not be far, we found a nest on a tree above the roof not far away. I also saw Apis cerana foraging on cabbage flowers but did not get a good shot. We failed to see any dorsata foraging in the market, but did see stingless bees also. Chiangmai, Thailand. March 23, 2000. - P3230128
A stingless bee (Trigona spp) foraging among the gladiolas (Gladiolas spp, Iridaceae) flowers. This was in a flower market! Chiangmai, Thailand. March 23, 2000. - P4090095
An Africanized honey bee foraging on a calliandra flower (Calliandra, Mimosaceae). Tucson, AZ. April 9, 2000. - bottle_brush
A honey bee (most likely Africanized, Apis mellifera scutellata) foraing on a bottle-brush (Callistemon spp, Myrtaceae). Bees sometimes become traped there because the filaments are so long. April 12, 2000. Tucson, AZ. - bottle_brush2
Another shot of a bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) foraing on a bottle-brush (Callistemon spp, Myrtaceae). Bees sometimes become traped there because the filaments are so long. April 12, 2000. Tucson, AZ. - unknown_arizona
I am not sure what is this plant (let me know if you know!). This was near a building and planted as an ornamental bush. April 12, 2000. Tucson, AZ. - strange_capping
Well, this capping is not 'normal' or 'usual'. Notice the rosette pattern? one normal looking brood cell was surrounded by six sunken cells. Normal brood should all look like the center cell. After seeing this in my observation colony, I was betting with my lab members that there were probably no brood in these sunken cells. I was wrong! there were normal worker pupae in all cells. Genetic? when the colony swarmed, I harvested it and the same queen produced similar pattern in the new colony! I should have saved a frame in the freezer and could have published another paper...Prof. Randall Hepburn (South Africa) has written a book on wax of bees and showed many strange patterns but he has not seen this type either. He did see rosette patterns before, but usually the center cell is a 'false' cell (no larva). Here all cells have larvae. MSU observation hive, May 3, 2000. Note, I have discovered (on June 3rd, 2003, three years and one month later...) another queen is doing this again, in the same observation hive! We will try to 'study' what causes these wierd cappings to occur.-- Zachary Huang - solid_brood
A healthy colony, with a young queen, should produce brood like this. While the brood is healthy. There are something usual about the pattern of capping. Have you seen anything different? Next photo explains why. - P6020007
A grafted frame showing good acceptance of queen cells. Notice that each cell has lots of bees festooning on it, a sign showing that the colony has enough workers. - P6060002
I was smiling when going up the ladder. But after being stung a few times up there, 30 feet up in the tree, I though it was not a good idea to risk my life for the bees, mite-resistant or not... The swarm was too far from the main trunk, and we had trouble cutting the branch. I ended up trying to shake the branch and let bees drop. Most workers did drop, but then they flew back in the mid-air. This must be awesome to watch on a video (but I think David Wang, the video-cameraman, ran away with others when they saw bees rained down!). - P6060003
It was June 6, 2000. I got a call from someone who says bees nesting in his house swarmed. Might be mite resistant? Could give it try. But the swarm is like 30 ft up in a tree! - P6060007
The owner of the house tried to shake more bees down. I was inspecting the cardboard box to see how many bees we got. - P6060009
hmmm. Not that many bees! - P6060015
The swarm looking about the same size when we left... - P6080029
P6080029