Honeybee n Hive Photos.
Another friend beehive has made it thru the winter. It is filtered sunshine n in the lower 60’s F here at noon.
Flow hive on our property during unseasonable cool, wet summer weather.
These two taken with iPhone using a $10 clip-on macro lens.
2 Likes
Spring in the air in the Pacific NW near Seattle. I spotted the first of our Spring Fling of Dandilions.
Hi Rob, nice photos, looks like something happened to one of the wings on the bottom photo. She still must be able to fly.
I must have one of those.
Where did you get it…please ?
2 Likes
There are a whole bunch of clip-on lenses for mobile phones. I chose this one as it has a set of 3 lenses (wide, fisheye and macro) and is quality glass, a really easy clip-on system and fits almost any phone camera.
One proviso: macro lenses have very narrow depth of field, meaning only a very small distance from the lens will be in focus. Also, you have to get very close to the subject - about 2-4 cm. To get these shots, I took a few hundred photos. Bees move fast, so you have to get the camera very close, very quickly and fire your shot. The iPhone takes up to 12 shots per second if you keep the shutter button down. You can use that feature to take lots of photos and discard the duds, keep only the focussed shots.
3 Likes
Yes, macro photography is tough with hit n miss results with moving targets. The new digital age has improved the batting average some …
I am slowly adapting to the advantages of cost in the new digital era. Hard retiring all the neat cameras I have n moving on but film is too costly anymore n cameras getting tired like me.
Now I have a high end I-phone n medium priced Nikon to work with. Someone broke into my vehicle at my house so lost all but the Nikon camera n one lens. That was a bummer as I had about $4000 worth of lens I used and backpacked with for nature photograph. Just moving on until I can slowly replace my loss.
I did portrait, wedding, model n wildlife stuff for over 35 years part time… Now it’s just an fun interest I am using as I start hobby beekeeping.
Keep those great pix’s coming. I really enjoy seeing what others can do.
Gerald
Thank you so much. I"m going shopping 
possibly going to extract this weekend… WOW 
the filling of the super overall is pretty even so I’m a bit worried of what happens if they equally fill the supper frames all at once… ??
hmm
I’m hoping that there’s at least one full complete for me to drain this weekend so that they have room to fill…
this has turned out to be a great hive… I got two lots of ferrel bees and never got a queen…
so they made their own queen and after a quiet start they are blitzing my standard hive in terms of honey production…
whooping them…
1 Like
Andrew,
Your frames are looking great… Hard to not be impatient ! Are the cells capped… My eyes are not perfect anymore and I do not have a Flow-Hive Super yet so I am not experienced at what capped looks like from the side of a Flow Window. Let me know how it goes this weekend Bro. Even if I don’t have one yet it is interesting and enjoyable to see others experiencing the job of it … Good luck and keep in touch… Gerald
Andrew… I was bussy making this gavel for a friend in my small backyard woodshop. It is made on my wood lathe… It tooks several hours to carve out then assemble and dry the glue where the head and handle join. It is made from a very fine grain Eastern Cherry wood… I am cut out two additional full hive bodies after buying one an using for my pattern.
Take care Andrew
That looks lovely.
I could do with a nice artisan rolling pin…no handles 
Hard to e-mail those! 
Do you like them cylindrical or a very elongated ellipse? I find the elliptical ones hard to roll evenly.
Hi Dee ! Hmmm ! That probably wouldn’t be difficult ! It’s just a long cylinder of certain diameter n length. Just have to use food friendly species of wood (some tropical woods are not good for food preparation). The piece of cherry wood I made the gavel/wood hammer of was 3x3x12" n cost near $20.00 for the piece. We have to also use a food grade finish/oil as well. Guessing it might be much cheaper to buy online 
. Not sure what shipping might be either or import taxes. Wish you were a close neighbor like Ted ( the gavel is his as soon as he picks it up. Dee … Why don’t you move to Washington State n I’ll make that for you ! 
. Just kidding …
1 Like
I never knew there was such a thing as a tapered rolling pin. I wonder if it would make me a better cook? I have been known to use a wine bottle. The dish is rubbish if I use an empty one
This is the one I have: French Rolling Pin | King Arthur Baking
Probably the least-used thing in my kitchen drawer! 
This is Vera’s rolling pin ! 
. She was the baker here until her M.D. got to bad. It is very difficult for her to stand long enough to even start baking now. She does coach me (she sits on a kitchen chair) when I am trying something new. I use to bake pie, cookies n cakes in high school. My mom was a baker like my Vera. Vera was good then learned a lot of skills n tricks while I
was in Vietnam. We got married two weeks after I got back. My wife was the daughter they always wanted so spoiled her while I was away … My mom n Vera were exspectionally close until mom
passed. I am a lucky husband ! 
1 Like