UrbanBeeLab

Studying the Bees as part of the ecosystem of the rooftop garden
Studying the honeybee colony and its inner-workings allows for an excellent introduction into non-biological subject areas. This reveals how artificial boundaries between science subjects in a continuous world really are and points out the necessity of looking beyond those boundaries.
Bees are bio-indicators. They reflect the biodiversity and complexity in our ecosystem. Since their domestication, bees live in symbiosis with humans. (green light).
Simple observation of the live-camera broadcast or recalling stored recordings.
Following the data streams of the honeybee colony, of the weather, plants and soil and a-biotic elements.
Any imaginable analysis of previously recorded events you can think of.

By monitoring the bees and beehives with all kinds of sensors, we study the colony as a community. We want to research the biological time of the bee colony, and find out how we can relate this circadian bee-clock to the TIK server.
We will document this research with all kind of media (photo, film, audio, text, code) and we will use the extracted data to make artworks based upon the bees behaviour over time. We try to connect nature and technology in a new relationship of interconnections.

Hereunder are listed a few activities which can be studied working with an observation beehive. On following pages we will research in detail some items of the list and document the fieldobservations in text, images and sound.

  Wax making and comb building including cell capping
  Use of wax comb when built such as brood nest, pollen storage and nectar/honey storage
  Egg laying by the queen
  Development of larvae and pupae.
  Duties of the worker bee.
  Foraging activity (through the entrance tube?); timing out and in and the type of foragers.
  Activity with respect to weather conditions and its parameters (temperature, wind speed, sunshine, etc.).