It was a fine December evening at about 5:30 PM when we surprisingly spotted four, just four, honeybees suddenly wandering near our balcony. Our flat is on the 6th level on a 10-level apartment building. The decorative vertical columns and horizontal beams forming the facade of our apartment seem to have attracted those four bees. They buzzed and hovered around the columns and beams. They never even accidentally strayed on to the plants and flowers we had in our mini balcony garden. We became quite inquisitive about the visitors at our balcony - why were they roaming in our balcony surroundings all of a sudden, and what were they up to?
The mystery unravelled quickly, within 5 minutes. Not sure how their so reliable messaging system works, but what poured in at the scene within moments were thousands, may be 10s of thousands, of honey bees! Noise. Unbearably loud buzzing noise. Gosh, where did they all swarm so magically from? How did they get the signal from the four bees which came initially? Amazing.
Within minutes we realized that they were on a Mission Beehive!
The four who had come first were actually choosing the location. And now the whole team had arrived. They had gathered together to construct their paradise. What a perfect communication mechanism they have. What an amazing teamwork they have amongst them. What a great speed with which they build the hive. Inspirational.
Due to the swarm of flying bees all over our balcony area, for several minutes, we could only look at them from within the glass doors. In about 20 minutes time the hive took shape, big shape. A little later, the buzz calmed down a bit. Then we could slide out to our balcony and look at the tons of bees, in close quarters.
Honeybees: What a wonderful creation that naturally collects nectar bit by bit, drop by drop, from flowers all over the places, and produce honey! But, sad for them, eventually man would ransack their natural hives, and gain the - medicinal - honey. The same thing happened in our apartment also, within 3 days. That bad day, we came back from a local trip only to see the beehive missing. A bee swarm catcher had climbed down from the terrace through the facade columns and took it all away.
Anyways, here are some pictures.
The mystery unravelled quickly, within 5 minutes. Not sure how their so reliable messaging system works, but what poured in at the scene within moments were thousands, may be 10s of thousands, of honey bees! Noise. Unbearably loud buzzing noise. Gosh, where did they all swarm so magically from? How did they get the signal from the four bees which came initially? Amazing.
Within minutes we realized that they were on a Mission Beehive!
The four who had come first were actually choosing the location. And now the whole team had arrived. They had gathered together to construct their paradise. What a perfect communication mechanism they have. What an amazing teamwork they have amongst them. What a great speed with which they build the hive. Inspirational.
Due to the swarm of flying bees all over our balcony area, for several minutes, we could only look at them from within the glass doors. In about 20 minutes time the hive took shape, big shape. A little later, the buzz calmed down a bit. Then we could slide out to our balcony and look at the tons of bees, in close quarters.
Honeybees: What a wonderful creation that naturally collects nectar bit by bit, drop by drop, from flowers all over the places, and produce honey! But, sad for them, eventually man would ransack their natural hives, and gain the - medicinal - honey. The same thing happened in our apartment also, within 3 days. That bad day, we came back from a local trip only to see the beehive missing. A bee swarm catcher had climbed down from the terrace through the facade columns and took it all away.
Anyways, here are some pictures.
Annae,
ReplyDeleteKalakkureenga, unga blog-la !!!
Love birds one was touching.
Interesting blog.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Ragu