Beekeepers,

How many of you out there have scale hives?  Well this season I have finally established one, as part of my ambitions, but it has turned out to be one of my renegade hives this year.  That wasn't quite in the plan but we all have this happen and re-queening is in progress.

Please take a look at this initiative from Goddard Space Flight Center's Beekeeping Club at http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.htm.  On the top/left of your screen, click on the map and it will show you the locations of the hives now reporting.  The website's description: 
  "HoneyBeeNet - A step toward a national network

  In Maryland and Delaware, over 25 beekeepers have volunteered to collect scale hive records in 2007 in order to document the current status of the regional nectar flows. These volunteers recognize the need for the observations and have obtained their own scales to monitor their own hives.  We think this network will grow with time.  There are over 100,000 beekeepers in the US, and the average distribution is about 1 hive per 2 square kilometers.  Many science centers maintain an observation colony of honey bees, and a "mother" colony for its maintenance.  Hives can be rented (millions are rented annually for pollination), and/or maintained by local volunteers, and can be easily converted to scale hives to produce valuable and highly informative data on the timing of the local nectar flows.  This "Honey Bee Net" web interface, for collection and sharing of such records by volunteers, is designed to enable easy comparison with satellite and other climate records, and provide a useful insight into how climate change and land use/land cover changes affect nectar flows."

Think about it,
Erik

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