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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

Even if you find one post on the subject, I've posted a lot on basic beekeeping skills like installing bees, harvesting honey, inspecting the hive, etc. so be sure to search for more once you've found a topic of interest to you. And watch the useful videos and slide shows on the sidebar. All of them have captions. Please share posts of interest via Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Sunday, March 19, 2017

The Camera as a Hive Tool

I am asked to give talks at bee clubs and garden clubs all over Georgia. I have a number of topics but I've presented many of them numerous times. Probably out of my own boredom (!), I decided to develop a new topic called: The Camera as a Hive Tool. I first presented it at the NE Georgia Mountain Beekeepers' meeting this month.

Since I began beekeeping, I have always taken a camera to the hive with me. Over time, I've been through several cameras because I drop them while I am in the hive or get honey or propolis on them in odd places. But most of us have a very expensive camera in our individual pockets - our cell phone. So today, everyone has the option of using a camera in their hive inspections.

I am not a great photographer by any means. However, the camera has been a great tool for me in my beekeeping. Taking photos and then returning to the computer and really looking at them can help in so many ways.

Here are the main points I make in my new talk:

1. The camera can help you learn about what you are seeing in your hive. You can get really acquainted with the differences in drones, workers and queens.

2. You can use the camera to document a hive inspection - take a photo of the hive front as you start the inspection and take whatever is interesting as you inspect the hive. Photograph changes you make. At the end of the inspection, take another photo of the front of the hive.



3. The camera will help you to identify problems in the hive.

Once in 2010, I put a medium frame of brood and eggs into a deep box to help a queenless hive make a new queen. The queenless hive was a teaching hive in a public garden and my hives at home were all in medium boxes. Here is what happened!


4. Photos from your camera can be used to ask for help. When I have found something that I didn't understand in my hive, I can post those photos on forum sites to ask for help.

I didn't know what a drone-laying queen would do in a hive and posted these photos on Beemaster to find out what was wrong:



Another time I found a queen whose wings had been chewed and her paint mark gnawed almost off, so I posted this photo to find out what to do to help with the situation.




5. The camera allows a lot of potential for sharing. I use it on this blog all the time to share my photos with you. I make videos with my camera to use as an educational tool. For example, here's what a real robbing situation looks like.




6. Finally, the camera is a tool for the art part of beekeeping - which as we all know is both an art and a science. So I take photos of bees on flowers and on beautiful wax, etc. to enjoy the art of it all!


How do you use your camera in the hive? Share in the comments, if you are willing.

So get out your camera/phone and take it to your hive. Enjoy the many opportunities that having a camera with you can add to your beekeeping experience.

3 comments:

  1. Sometimes, I'll take a lot of pictures of combs while inspecting and then later on, I can review them to see what I missed in person. I've ended up spotting my queen in the pictures when I didn't see her in the hive!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Exactly - it's the only way I ever saw the queen for my first two years of keeping bees. Also by blowing up the photo, you may see eggs that you didn't see in person.

    ReplyDelete

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