https://oxnatbees.wordpress.com/2021/07/23/onbg-meeting-july-2021-blenheim-wild-bees

> "One colony survived a lightning strike on the tree, possibly due to its propolis envelope acting as a Faraday Cage."

The story got that a little backwards - propolis is a very good insulator, not a good conductor.  A "Faraday Cage" is a metal-mesh enclosure, well grounded, which acts as a barrier to block radio waves and RFI, often used with sensitive apparatus, and to test the RFI/EMI emitted by things that use electricity themselves.   Most all home computer CPUs have grounded metal covers to keep the computer from jamming the radio spectrum, so you own at least one "Faraday Cage".

I think what the beekeepers tried to say (and got mangled by the usual "reporter process" of googling half-understood things up quickly, rather than fact-checking with the source) was that the wood and sap of a living tree conducted the energy from the lighting hit to ground, and the propolis *insulated* the colony from the charge.  But this was also wrong, as the entire tree would be taken up to the same voltage by the lighting strike, the bees with it, and the energy would "go to ground" through the roots  The energy would not bother the bees, as they would "ride" the change in voltage potential much like a swimmer is raised up by a wave passing under him as he swims along the surface.

Large old trees are often fitted with lighting rods and very thick grounding wires (or braided mesh) that run to 6-foot ground rods in an attempt to offer the lightning an easier path to ground without going through (and exploding) a large section of major trunk when doing so.  For homes, gas-discharge tubes on the power panel and copper telecom lines do a similar job for an entire structure, protecting the home "at the panel" from strikes to overhead phone/power lines.

Far worse than lightning, many hives were buried under the ash from the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma, which has been erupting since Sept.  We had Thanksgiving in Tenerife with as many friends as could join us, and La Palma is only 60 miles west, so the local news is still dominated by the disaster and recovery efforts.  Attached are photos of hives that were buried in ash, the surprising good news being that beehives, if found and dug up, are not suffocated. Clearly, the trick is knowing where to dig, so, if threatened by a blizzard, or the unique case of a nearby volcano, some bamboo driveway marker poles can be a handy thing to drive next to each cluster or row of hives.  Lava tends to move slowly enough to be able to evacuate ahead of, so 






             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html