SKD Ecology | 103.6789.234
The roof of this building has two beehives which are looked after by our very own beekeeper. Each season they produce around 11kg of surplus honey which has a unique taste as a result of our wildflower planting schemes.
The Daily Commute
It is amazing to see how colonies of bees stick together, despite the vast distances each worker must travel in order to serve the hive. As a rule of thumb the foraging area around a beehive extends for two miles (3.2 km), although bees have been observed foraging twice and three times this distance from the hive.
Experiments have shown that beehives within 4 miles of a food source will gain weight, but beyond that the energy expended is greater than that gained during the foraging flight – this is why we’re constantly evolving our landscaping here at the Docks to ensure the bees have plenty of food.
The Waggle Dance
It is known that bees use the position of the sun to help them know where they are and where they need to go back to; there is now some evidence of sensitivity to the earth’s magnetic field too. The Waggle Dance is a term used to describe how apiologists believe bees communicate a newly found location of food to the bees. Honeybees communicate the distance, direction, and quality of nectar sources with a series of movements known as a “waggle dance”.