The Experiment was short lived. By 8:30 am, when there were suppose to be plenty of bees darting to and fro, there were but only 4 or 5 and none of them had any idea how to get into the hive. I am pretty sure they did not exit from the the new hive. They must have found a crack or something. I can only imagine what was going inside the coconut shell. The bees must be going crazy not finding the way out and the sun was already way up. I decided to remove the tube and the bees burst out of the coconut shell. However, many bees were still confused upon their return. I saw some bees carrying some pollen. They would land on the coconut shell, enter, then fly out again. Maybe, they were thinking that that could not be their hive. Already, there were lots of bees hovering around and not entering. Maybe I panicked... maybe I did not give the bees' intelligence enough credit. So I removed the coconut altogether.
Here are some photos during the experiment:
Lone bee... "hey! what the h3$%... where did they put the door..."
Foraging bees about to enter the shell..."it's about time they open the door..."
Hard working bees... notice the bee in mid-flight at the left of the entrance... look how translucent and swollen its abdomen from gathering nectar... this bee is quite full. The bee at the top of the entrance is carrying orange pollen on its hind legs. Could it be acacia pollen? Acacia trees are flowering during this month.
Well, the experiment was a failure, but it was very interesting and fun to watch them. Tonight, I put up the shell again with a 1 inch tube for an entrance and exit. This is Experiment #2: To see if I can train the bees to accept the shell as an extension chamber and the orange tube as their new door. If they can adapt, I will gradually increase the length of the tube until it is long enough for me to connect a new hive. Tomorrow, we will see.
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