Follow Friday: No Cropping Zone

What's wrong in this picture?

The composition of this afternoon's photo reminded me of one of my very favorite photography+bees blogs. "Shoot bees - they'll make you humble" pretty much sums up how difficult it is to get a meaningful shot, framed right, and actually in focus.

There hasn't been a new post on No Cropping Zone for a while, but I highly recommend you explore the blog nonetheless. The macro images are outstanding, and the how-to's are exceptional, too. If you love it enough to follow, and then happen to buy an extra copy of Extreme Macro - The Art of Patience, why yes, it is on my Wish List.

"Just a bit of harmless brain alteration, that's all."

"It's time we tried my latest invention, the Mind Manipulation-omatic... I haven't tested it yet, but it should be perfectly safe. Just a bit of harmless brain alteration, that's all." — Wallace and Gromit's "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"

I've been working on this post since September! We had a very important trip early in the month, the charity walk late in the month, and in between I was working on a huge presentation for work. I simply had no time to tell you about the Backyard bees. September was a month to focus on me and getting well, but of course I could not stop thinking about bees. Once you have bees on the brain, that's it. The bees buzz around in your head, and you see them everywhere. Found a seed in your seedless clementine? Yay, bees, good job! So even while I was focused on my upcoming brain alteration, I sought out bees and honey (and Hello Kitty, too). There's more to this story, but here's what we saw on our first trip away from the Backyard.

The first picture is of a blind honey tasting that took place in Los Angeles. It was hosted by HoneyLove.org which is leading the way toward legalizing urban beekeeping in LA. Even though we would miss the event by one day, I sent them a small jar of 2010 honey. It was something fun to do, to distract me from the fact that I even need brain alteration. I didn't think anything would come of it, so it was with great surprise that during one of the rare moments I had Internet connection (who'da thunk UCLA wouldn't have wifi everywhere?) that I saw a Facebook update saying that The Backyard Bee Hive had ribboned! And not only ribboned, won First Place! We had a great time in LA, but I think that was the best moment of the entire trip. HoneyLove sent me a nifty 1st place pin but you'll just have to wait for my next post to see it.

The Spyder and the Bee Tree

To finish today's ride, we decided to stop by the Delaney Farm Apiary. It's a short hike from the parking lot to the beeyard, but when a honey bee came to check out the Spyder – they love the yellow color it seems, which can be disconcerting as our helmets are yellow, too – I decided to look around the immediate area.

Sure enough, there was lots of activity by this knothole in a cottonwood, the sideways tree in the background of the photo above. I know it doesn't look like much is going on, but believe me. I stood in the flight path, sans helmet, to get this shot, and it was busy. The bees built some comb "warm way" across the entrance, which faces north.

At the beeyard, there are eleven hives, three of which have windows. A top bar hive, a Langstroth hive and this Warré hive were each started with a swarm this Spring. None of them looked to be thriving, and this one was just robbed out.

In this closer view of the landing board, you can see one bee that looks shiny. All her fuzz has been rubbed off from the rushing in and out to steal honey. Another robber waits for an opportunity at the edge of the landing board.

I don't know why none of the hives have entrance reducers on. Maybe the beekeepers are challenging their bees to be survivors. My bees at home were smart enough to propolize their entrances down, but still I put reducers on both hives. Each of my colonies got an unusual start, so I chose to assist them. If I'd restocked my hives with swarms, I probably would've intervened as well. I tend to have low expectations of swarms as their provenance is unknown. If you're a beekeeper, what do you do?