Bees on the Balcony

I recently added setting up a proper Bee hotel as a goal, but I didn’t think something similar would happen naturally. I love the concept of Bee hotels. Bee hotel is a man-made structure for solitary pollinator bees to rest. It seemed like a fun project, so I added it to my TODO list. This week, we found that one of our balconies has been home to a beehive. It’s not a bee hotel but equally fun.

A beehive is where bee colonies or communities live and raise; a bee hotel’s purpose is to solely attract bees that do not make their homes in colonies, but instead build individual nesting sites of their own, referred to as “solitary bees.” – Wikipedia

I did contact the folks at The Hive for help. These are Apis cerana indica, or the Indian honey bees. Apparently, they are mostly harmless and sting very rarely. They are going to get a wooden box for these Indian Honey Bees. We will figure out with their help where to house them. Until then, I am a beekeeper.

I found a dead bee on the floor and took pictures of it for science. This is probably my first time photographing a dead insect. I should have used a real camera for this. But these mobile photos are not bad. Next time I will use a real camera.