We at LKBU have been mulling this idea over but haven’t yet decided between honeybees and bumblebees (which are farmed by a couple of companies out here). Bumblebees seem to be better pollinators (we have some fruits and veggies growing here), less aggressive (lots of kids around) and just prettier, but the colonies are smaller and seem to be more difficult to keep…
It turns out that Air Traffic Controllers are also good at policing the bees’ flightpaths :-)
My girlfriend says it is interesting that you don’t use wax in that frame.
Ha, great catch!
Most of the frames are indeed “self-built” by the bees. I don’t use wax foundations unless I really have to; instead when I go from one deep to two deeps in Spring, I move half of the frames upwards and I insert new, unbuilt frames in between each of the already built frames so that they build them reasonably straight.
The season 2021 has been mostly about consolidating the existing installations and making sure that the colonies survive that rough year (the weather was terrible in Spring and the current winter is way too mild).
2022 will be about expanding the team, by setting up an association dedicated to this project – honeybees.aero. I set up some slides and a form in French here if fellow french members want to take a look: https://bit.ly/honeybeesaero and https://bit.ly/joinhoneybeesaero
European expansion could be an option if someone is interested in putting some effort in it (it is a very rewarding activity, intellectually and socially-wise). Any takers?
Thanks for continuing to inform us on this great project.
Time is missing for me but I would be glad to do something.
Any chance to approach the AFPM? Many altisurfaces may be closed on winter, but they are some opened and accessible, and as the association is really nature-oriented beside the avgas consumption, I think you could get traction on this.
Did you get some airfield in the south east? I know that they added some hives in Cannes, and it results that the vegetal wall near the terminal entry sometimes frightens the incoming passengers, but I didn’et hear of any harm ever.
I think many terrain could get a load of hives, especially those close to vineyards (Fayence, Cuers, Le Castellet, Vinon, Aix, Eyguieres, …), the problem being that vineyards usually have tons of pesticides… some of them are Bio but unfortunately not enough.
I have a backlog of airfield interested in hosting some honeybees but what we need now is more people willing to commit a bit of time to care for those bees.
We have the equipment (150 hives, one extractor for the honey) and some tools (a mobile app called “happiaries” and even a device to track a parasite called varroa (more about it on https://hivyleague.com)), so it has never been easier to get started in beekeeping. Also, it’s the perfect ultimate excuse to hang out at airfields :-)
I have not talked to AFPM specifically but we might put hives at LFIP. The problem is that these areas are challenging to most bee sub-species, so we need to be careful.
The grapes don’t produce flowers that are interesting to the bees but indeed some modern vineyards include other plants that are beneficial to grapes and that need bees for pollination. LFTF would be a great candidate indeed (and I go there quite often to visit my grandma); anyone is tempted to taking care of an apiary there?
Unfortunately I have no idea. I used to fly there for training or getting/bringing club planes for maintenance essentially, but twice in a year is not enough. May be some people in the aeroclub, but I don’t know anyone there.
Five Bizzy Honeybees by Lance Douglas is a great book for getting children interested
