Bee holes and Batteries

A story of new life for an ugly thing. And a bee short cut. 

What do you do with a car battery that the garage says is no longer any good? 

 

save the battery

This baby, full of toxic nasty, should be on the way out. It’s done. It’s finished. It’s had it. It’s past it’s best. It’s for the scrap heap. 

Not in this house.

More of that later. 

Bee Holes 

When you keep bees there are various housekeeping tasks that help the bees in their business.  

One option that U.S. Commonly used is to give the bees a wax foundation for their honey comb. To do this you construct a frame from four pieces of wood. Then this frame has a wire support threaded across it. The support needs heat do that the wax sheet of foundation melts slightly and sticks to it. Then it’s suspended in the frame in the wire. It’s less intrusive that other types of suspension that the keeper might use. 

Bee holes

beeholes

We’ve decided to experiment this year with portholes for the bees. They work on both sides of the frame. 

We’ve noticed that when the start their own comb they create a small heart shaped droplet in the centre of the top of the frame which then grows outwards evenly. If they are working on a whole foundation sheet they can’t access both sides very well. 

We figure that if we give them a hole through the foundation it will make bilateral access a little easier. 

So there we are. 

Oops what about the battery?

Well to hear the wire easily it makes sense to make a circuit. 

Using a battery to do this makes it very quick and simple. 

bzzzzing circuits