Update November 2010: Bees are not active when the temperature falls below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. You will not see much, or any, bee activity right now. Please check back in the spring!
Watch bees at work on this live web cam or see a recorded view on YouTube.
In a prior post, I told you about all the equipment you need to keep bees. In this post, I'm announcing the PlanterTomato.com Beecam, streaming video of the bees in one of my hives.
Beecam is currently positioned at the front of the hive and lets you watch the bees entering and existing the hive in real time. In future posts, I will move the Beecam to another position so you can see the bees building honeycomb.
Why Do A Beecam
My seven year old daughter is fascinated by the bees, but also a little scared of the large swarm that forms in front of the hive when hive activity is at its peak. I decided to build a web cam so she could view the bees from the safety of the computer in our study.
Beecam Views
Most of the action occurs at the front of the hive and that is the view that is presented currently. You'll see bees leaving the hive to gather what they need to survive -- water, nectar, and pollen. If you observe carefully, you'll see that some of the bees have yellow bumps on the backs of their legs. This is the pollen stored in pollen baskets on the backs of the bees legs. The pollen is a source of protein for bees.
In the future, I'll change the position of the Beecam to show a different view of the hive's activity. Specifically, some of the activity within the hive. To do this, I cut a number of windows into one of the deep hive boxes and covered the holes with Plexiglass. We can now look into the hive to see the bees building comb for honey storage and for raising additional bees (see second photo attached below)
How To View:
To view the Beecam click on the below link and then enter the ID and password.
Link: PlanterTomato Beecam
ID: Guest
Password: Beecam
Best Times To View Beecam
The bees start their day when the air warms to over 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Right now, that means at about 9:00 am U.S. Pacific Time (4:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time). However, the bees are most active, and therefore best viewed, between the hours of 11:00 am and 5:00 pm Pacific U.S. Time (6:00pm to 12:00 Midnight Greenwich Mean Time)
It goes without saying, the hours between 8:00 pm and 9:00 am Pacific U.S time are not good times to view Beecam because there is not sufficient light and/or the bees are not active. My plan is to run Beecam throughout the summer months, barring any technical or other issues.
Viewing & Technical Issues
My previous posting on "What Equipment You Need to Keep Bees" has been extremely popular. I suspect that Beecam will attract a large audience and traffic to the web cam is likely to be very high. However, Beecam is not hosted using a professional service, so I do not know what level of internet traffic will cause the system to slow to a crawl or crash. If you experience difficulty viewing, please visit on another day or see the recorded view of the hive on YouTube.
YouTube Recorded Video of Hive
You can see views of the outside entrance, and inside views of the hive front and side that was recorded on May 24, 2010. The link to the YouTube video is:
PlanterTomato.Com Honey Bee Video
it becomes honey sweet..
Posted by: Medical Advice | 05/21/2010 at 10:28 AM