Sugar Syrup

 Today, I'm in the lab setting up for my project. I'm going to be testing different pollen dispensers to measure their effectiveness. It's a huge project for me and requires a lot of setting up.

My first job is to mix up some sugar syrup. I need to mix equal ratios of sugar to water.











I have a huge sack of sugar to use and the bees will consume all of this over my trials.















This is the clean up area with all the flasks and vials. The tap in the centre contains special water that has been destilled.

 This is an Epindorph vial (5ml). I have around 1000 of these. I will be using them to collect individual bees in once I start my trials. I will be collecting bees to measure how much pollen they have on them. That will tell me how effective the pollen dispensers are. I will have to chop the bees heads off before they go in the vial which is a bit gruesome. I will be collecting 90 bees per day over 10 days. 

This is a very cool machine. It has an element controlled by the left hand dial. The right hand dial controls the magnetic stirrer. I have added the water and sugar in equal quantities to the flask. I added a small magnetic rod covered in plastic. I turn on the stirrer and it controls the speed. I love using this!

 This is the pack that I need to carry all my gear around. The beehives I am using are 2.7km apart. The pack weighs close to 40kg. I have since gotten a trolley to push it around with as it was killing my back.

 This is one of the pollen dispensers. It is called a Harwoods dispenser.The pollen gets placed in the middle and the bees walk through it as they leave the hive.

 This is the second dispenser called a Triwaks dispenser. It is a bit more advanced. This is the inside of it. The bees are supposed to leave through the left side. The pollen goes between the perspex pieces. They climb the ramp and leave through the small slot. They then return through the right hand side.

 This is the Triwaks closed.

 This is the old dump site. I have installed the Triwaks dispenser here to allow the bees to become used to it.

Here is a close up of the bees leaving and returning using the triwaks dispenser.