BEES AND POLLINATIONS

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Lots of moving is going on in my life. I’ve moved out of my house that I lived in for 13 years; moved to a smaller intown house in Atlanta; my daughter and Jeff, my son-in-law, are moving into my old house and they are renting out their house which is where Topsy has been located.

So among the many changes, Topsy can’t stay in the backyard of a house that will be rented.

On Sunday, Jeff and I split Topsy into two hives with the plan of moving the split to my new house. It was hard and made difficult by the fact that the honey comb has been cross-combed for the summer and we haven’t been able to get the bees to draw straight comb in there.

Here’s the pre-split hive.

It’s hot in Atlanta so they are bearding both down here at the entry to the hive and under the top board. This is a huge hive with lots of bees.

We took out the brood frames first. We propped up the top bar and examined each comb to determine how to divide it up because we were rubber-banding the comb into Langstroth frames.

We were as careful as we could be and rubber banded the comb into frames, fitting it as best we could.

Here’s a look down into the hive before I quit taking pictures. When we got to the honey-filled combs, everything got sticky and taking photos wasn’t happening after that.

The brood comb was straight and beautiful and we carefully cut each comb to fit the frame, trying to save the most brood and eggs possible.

The honeycomb part was a complete mess, but we managed to get them some saved comb and I put some of the comb into a filter bucket to drip through to feed it back to them.

There were so many bees that we ended up putting on three boxes for them and putting a hive top feeder of their own honey above the inner cover.

There were so many bees on the outside of the hive that we propped the top despite the notched inner cover to allow them a top entry. Both Jeff and I felt a little defeated by the daunting task of trying to split this hive and weren’t sure how it would turn out. We decided to leave them for this week in the new hive and move them on Saturday night when I get home from vacation.

So I’m at the beach with my family and Jeff, who stayed in Atlanta, called to tell me the split hive had absconded and are hanging in a tree behind his fence.

My super swarm catcher tool is locked in my new house and these bees are about 20 feet up a tree.  Jeff is going to try to get them tomorrow, but it’s not going to be easy.  I’ll let you know how it all comes out.

I’m very sad about all of this.  I put a lot of energy into this top bar hive and haven’t done well with it.  Also this is the third split I’ve made this year that has not succeeded.  So I’m not too optimistic that he will capture the swarm and that we will keep these bees.

Tonight Jeff is moving the hive boxes to my new house and if he can capture the absconded hive tomorrow, he’ll install them at my house where there are three other bee hives.  He’s picking up the pole for my swarm catcher which is still at my old house and is going to get a large water cooler bottle from Home Depot to try to use on the end of it, since the water cooler bottle is locked in the basement of my new house.

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Among the many ways we are transforming the planet and its habitats for other species, one that is only now receiving some attention is that os sensory pollution. This is when we pollute the…

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I *finally* got to see this movie, after waiting almost a year–it is now available on Netflix.  It was delightful, but not at all what I expected.

The Japanese have a profoundly different relationship with insects than Westerners.  This film examines why that is, and how insects are part of Japanese culture and history. We meet characters that range from a Ferrari-driving beetle dealer to little children caring for their 6-legged pets.

The LA Times described this movie as “a meditative piece that is by turns hypnotically beautiful and painfully slow.”  The director describes the movie as “about attention to detail, patience, and ultimately harmony – all of which are so rarely present in our modern lives.”   This film does not have a linear narrative or tell a story in the way we are used to Western movies conveying information. It’s not so much a documentary as a visual poem.

The contrast of busy Tokyo with the natural world; the J-pop sound track that alternates with insect songs; all of it contributes to a sense of paradox.  This movie feels like it’s dragging at points because we are too fast and impatient.

The film begins with this quote from a Westerner living in Japan in 1890:

“The people that could find delight, century after century, in watching the ways of insects, and in making verses about them, must have comprehended, better than we, the simple pleasures of existence.”  ~Lafcadio Hearn

Cross pollination of Zen Buddism and the native Shinto religion of Japan manifested as an aesthetic appreciation of insects in centuries of poems and music.   These spiritual roots created the philosophy of Kokugaku and “mono no aware“, sometimes translated as “the pathos of things.”    This philosophy emphasizes awareness and attention to the transience of all things, and appreciation of their beauty because of their fleeting nature.  What could be more transient than an insect, or the cycles of nature?

The film is narrated in Japanese, and the narrator has an amazing voice–you can listen to her reciting some poetry from the film here.  I especially liked this one:

Always more clear and shrill,
as the hush of the night grows deeper,
the Waiting-Insect’s voice;
- and I that wait in the garden,
feel enter into my heart
the voice and the moon together.

The only staged talking-head piece is an interview with author and anatomy professor Takeshi Yoro, who talks about his love for insects:

 ”If you have eyes to see and ears to hear, they will tell you something.”

Yes. Yes they will.

Shut off your computer and go outside.
Don’t come back until tomorrow.

Filed under: Entomology, Insects, Movies Tagged: art films, documentary
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via xkcd.com
Posted via email from a leaf warbler’s gleanings

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via xkcd.com
Posted via email from a leaf warbler’s gleanings

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–Richard

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via phdcomics.com
Posted via email from a leaf warbler’s gleanings

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I had no idea that when bees were doing the waggle dance, they were actually booty krumping. Shake it like a bee, girl!

BTW, the dancing beekeeper footage was lifted from this much more obnoxious Autotuned Bee Song.  The one redeeming feature is I’ve never seen a rasta dude in a bee suit before.

Filed under: Bees, Entomology, Insects Tagged: amusing, dancing
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Some time back I reported on a plan to convert the Ant Man comic into a movie.  Updates from Comic-Con suggest that movie is back in development!  It currently has a 2014 release date.

Ant-Man first appeared in 1962, and is described in a comic Wiki with this wonderful sentence:

“With the help of his hexapoda allies Hank was able to stem the tide of most minor crimes. “

The basic Ant-Man plot line is, like most comics, convoluted and involves many different story arcs and reincarnations.  Hank Pym discovered a group of subatomic particles and produced two serums from them, one to reduce someone in size and another to restore them.  This allowed him to shrink to the size of an ant and return to normal shape.

He went on to develop a helmet that let him communicate and control ants, and became a crime fighter and one of the founding members of the Avengers.  (Sadly, he has been edited out of the Avengers movie to be released in 2012.  Speciesism!!)

He turned his girlfriend into an insecty sidekick (Wasp) and also had several nervous breakdowns and developed alter egos. I suppose as a physicist forced to constantly violate physical principles (conservation of matter, for one), that is to be expected.   About the only constant for Ant-Man over the years is that he seems to have been a bit of a perv, inclined to hide out in inconspicuous spots on women. Like… brassieres.

Do a Google search for images of “Ant-Man” or browse through the back issues of some of the comics online for much hilarious insecty action.

Anyway, back to the movie.   The director is Edgar Wright, and initial reports suggested Simon Pegg as the lead, which is just all sorts of flavors of awesome.

Mr Wright and Mr. Pegg:

I hereby offer my services as entomological consultant.

Spare your self the ignominy of The Bee Movie’s horrible fate (i.e., being mocked here and elsewhere for their utterly crap insect science.)

Accept professional help.  Hire an entomologist!

Other Insect Superheros:

• Killer Moth
• X-Man Angel Salvadore
• The Bug-Eyed Bandit
• The Red Bee
• Queen Bee and Hellgramite
• Beware the Beekeeper!
• Japanese Spiderman, featuring giant Scarab beetles with Laser bras. Really.

Filed under: Insects, Movies Tagged: comics
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