Help the bees!!
Experienced beekeepers approach their hives as one might enter a church or temple. With quiet respect. Once there, we listen. That’s an important part of our role. The listening beekeeper knows in an instant if the colony is queenless or has been defending against marauders (wasps, skunks, robber bees). From sound alone, I can’t tell if the hive will be swarming soon or if it is overrun by mites or disease. But some scientists think the information is there, in the air, audible cries of distress or joy produced by the hive.
If we could listen to a thousand hives a day, remember the pitch and rhythm, and relate that to the health and demeanour of similar hives embedded in our memory from our past experiences, we might know a lot more about our hive. This is a project that Jerry Bromenshenk, David Firth, and their associates have spent years…
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