bees
bee_monitoring_workshops

1. The Theory + Reading List
2. The new BeeHives + ObservationBeehives
3. The Data Harvesting (Technology)
4. The Artworks and Projects
5. The HoneyComb


For developing new bee homes, we can get inspiration from nature (the bees themselves, as architects) and natural algorithms.

By monitoring the bees and beehives with all kinds of sensors, we study the colony as a community. We want to research the biological time of the bee colony, and find out how we can relate this circadian bee-clock to the TIK server.
We will document this research with all kind of media (photo, film, audio, text, code) and we will use the extracted data to make artworks based upon the bees behaviour over time. We try to connect nature and technology in a new relationship of interconnections.

A few activities which can be studied with an observation hive:

• Wax making and comb building including cell capping.
• Use of wax comb when built such as brood nest, pollen storage and nectar/honey storage.
• Egg laying by the queen.
• Development of larvae and pupae.
• Duties of the worker bee.
• Foraging activity (through the entrance tube?); timing out and in and the type of foragers.
• Activity with respect to weather conditions and its parameters (temperature, wind speed, sunshine, etc.).

Marcio Dominguez' dadant-blatt observation hive in sketch-up
data on observation beehives
http://www.beedata.com/data2/obs_hive.html

Bart Aertsen's design for the protection of the observation beehive from sun,rain and snow

design for the webcam box in the observationhive

top bar hive : how to build a Top Bar Hive (TBH)?
experiments with ecological hive-building (instead of the commercial hives)
bees as architects : how do they organise? how do they build?
and: how can we relate this to algorithmic-evolving 3D patterns?
Together with Bart Aertsen we've build a first TopBarHive.
We should also brainstorm on how to go on with the monitoring of the bees, and how to relate (conceptual, practical) the 2 gardens (okno, so-on) and other bee-populated city gardens …

Instruction: How to Build a Top Bar Hive (pdf) by J. P. Chandler a.k.a. The Barefoot Beekeeper (UK)

design for topbars - waxpiece is set in the slit, bees are building the comb in a free way

Instruction: How to build a Warré Hive - more info: http://warre.biobees.com/plans.htm
And here you can download the e-book: Beekeeping for All by Abbé Warré.

The bee-book-hive from François Huber:
info on: http://www.archive.org/stream/nouvellesobserva00hube#page/n5/mode/2up

Can we build beehives as a modular system? A bee sculpture that is conceived to monitor the bees in their daily behaviour with all kinds of sensors?

Some nice manuals to start from for building hives:
micro dwellings for bees: http://www.n55.dk/MANUALS/MICRO_DWELLINGS/micro_dwellings.html

pre-workshop modular beehives (with mayo, marcio and annemie):


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