Glass hive will help lift the lid on the honeybee

There is a certain irony about the fact that our Wanganui Museum wants to exhibit a live, working beehive as part of its natural history programme.

The Honeybee (Apis melifera) as a distinct species was known to have pollinated flowering plants in return for nectar, 140 million years ago, alongside dinosaurs.

And yet, according to some researchers, we could be watching the end of them.

In America and Europe, vast areas of crops are threatened by the lack of honeybees for pollination.

Here in New Zealand we beekeepers are fighting a desperate battle to maintain our hives against the predations of the varroa mite, which slipped through our MAF security system a few years ago. Only a strict regime of controls using pesticides can keep the bees alive. Varroa has wiped out all the feral populations of honeybee, so the only viable colonies of honeybee are those kept by beekeepers.

I find now that queen bees are prone to early death and erratic behaviour. And the weird, changeable weather we have experienced for the past few years doesn't give the bees a chance to build up their colony. A queen has to lay eggs and raise the colony from winter strength of about 3000 workers in September to at least 50,000 for the nectar-gathering season, November to February. A bad few days can cause disaster with so many bees eating all the supplies and even starving.

Getting back to the museum, though. I volunteered to organise a glass observation hive with the help of our local beekeepers' club. Like most projects that you think will be a "bit of a doddle", they never are. I found, after studying glass hives on display around the country, that they do not really operate without a lot of daily adjustments by an intrepid beekeeper.

It is now over a year later, and I have actually designed and constructed the hive shown in the picture.

The key to success, apparently (according to an article in our NZ Beekeeper magazine), is artificial heating to maintain the brood temperature. I hope to achieve this by using a length of underfloor heating tape and a thermostat. I have applied for a Community Grant from Horizons to pay for the special glass and other fittings.

With a bit of luck, and if the bees cooperate, we may be able to go and view the plight of the honeybee at our local museum.

Rob Butcher is a retired engineer and a conservationist