PHOTOGRAPH INFO

If you can't see it, the sign says:

CAUTION - NO TRESSPASSING - HONEYBEE YARD
Do not disturb the honeybees. Their pollinating work ensures your food supply.

The life of honeybees is a fascinating study and beekeeping is an equally fascinating hobby and/or livelihood. Many people don't realize how dependent we are on bees for our food - they're the ones pollinating all the plants we eat. Everytime you eat a strawberry, an apple, anything in your salad or thousands of other plant-based foods, you can thank a bee for making that possible. You can also thank them when you eat a burger, a steak, bacon or pork chops -- bees pollinate the soybeans eaten by cows and pigs.

There's lots of good general info about honeybees right here.

This photo was taken on Friday at a local farm where Scott (the person in the photo and my boss at the Cooperative Extension office, where I answer the "horticulture hotline" a few hours a week) keeps some of his honeybees. I'll be taking a lot more beekeeping photos over the spring and summer and hope to write an accompanying article about the entire process.

(By the way, I was wearing a Tyvec suit and a pith helmet covered in netting when I took this shot!)

Camera settings and post-processing: Shot with the Canon EOS 5D and the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens with polarizing filter at 100mm, ISO 400, f/3.2, shutter 1/2000s. Slight crop, curves adjustments, color balancing.

Thank you for visiting Durham Township!

--Kathleen

Study

Many people also don't realize that our honey bee population is dying, and rapidly. Scientists don't know why this is happening and don't know how to stop it. Considering how dependent we are on them for food, it's pretty scary.

Haagen-Dazs, has a website with information about them and links to a couple of places that are doing research about the problem: http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/

Another worker pictured that needs hood and gloves
To do a job that hopefully he loves.
A little smoke calms the bees in their home
So keeper can safely check super and comb.
As things blooming give up minute drops of nectar
Let's do what we can, the bee, to protect her.

Now there you go, sticking your lens into someone else's beesness.....and besides, shots like this give me the hives! Recently I read a quote in which Einstein predicted if the bee should vanish, mankind would quickly follow. (Sounds like the kind of thing I might have read here.)

Thanks for beeing there.

Just this week there was a segment on How It's Made about honey. The way it works is fascinating, and it's kind of unbelievable that those tiny bees produce such a huge amount of honey.

Is that pine needle smoke in the photo? The TV show said that as the beekeeper approaches the honeycombs, he sprays pine needle smoke, which alerts the bees that an outsider is approaching; this is so the bees aren't caught off guard and therefore don't sting. The guys weren't wearing gloves or anything -- they were touching the bees and the honeycomb with their bare hands! Crazy.

david tinnon: The Einstein quote has gone through a discrediting process - no one can prove he said it and no one can prove he didn't say it, so... who knows!

Anthony DiSante: Yes, that's pine needle smoke in the photo. This variety or "race" of bees is extremely gentle but it's always best to be cautious. I learned that the best time to check on the hives is when it's sunny and there are plenty of blossoms available (such as when I took the photo) because 2/3 of the "workforce" is out gathering food.

How rare and good it is to see a photograph about bees...

Bees allowed me to keep them for several years back in the 1970s; three colonies and a truckload of the finest honey were the result.
I look forward to seeing more mellifluous imagery.

Excellent shot, Kathleen. I also realize the bee problem.. even in my apple tree there are only bumble bees. Yesterday, one honey bee!

I also work in Cooperative Extension here in New Jersey, for the field crop and livestock agent. I absolutely love it!

Through your gorgeous photos and informed commentary, you continue to raise our awareness of nature and how dependent we are on it. Thank you.

It is dangerous to rely on one species. Another example is monoculture.

Great image - we keep honeybees in our backyard (Chester County). If you ever want to come photograph or bring your son, please do! We love to teach people about the importance of bees and backyard beekeeping... take a look here: http://web.mac.com/betsybarron/TheBetsy.Com/The_Hive.html

Great image here, wonderful dof use

Betty, don't discount the importance of bumble bees. There are crops that they pollinate. "Their long tongue makes them important in pollinating certain flowers that other bees can't reach. They are also active in much cooler weather than honey bees and can pollinate plants that flower in the early spring. Without bees, many plants on our planet would not be able to reproduce and their species would become extinct. Without all those plants, animals that depended on them would starve and die. We depend on many of those animals for our food supply. We also depend on many of the plants that bumble bees pollinate." (quote from http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/bumble_bee.htm )

Kathleen, your photos are an inspiration and an education. Thanks.

Bees are indeed amazing and so very important to us.

This is wonderfully handled with the focus on the sign. Great work.

There was an article on BBC Countryfile regarding bees just this weekend. Were they to die out (a distinct posibility) it would be a catastophe. 80% of our food requires bees to grow. Watch the show on BBC iPlayer, it'll be on (and is free to access) for the next 5 days.

My boss owns bees I really should pursue this. I love them.

Great use of the sign for context Kathleen.