Making a stain

This is the recipe to make Alexander's stain. It was a bit like following a recipe except there was no licking the spoon and these ingredients could kill me!

 This is Malachite Green. I had to add 0.02gm of it. That is an incredibly small amount. I had to use special scales that could weigh down to 0.0001 of a gram. They were in a special box because even a person moving by would cause them to flucuate.

This is a special instrument for measuring out precise amounts. I could set it to draw up anywhere from 0.1 ml to 40ml.

Here I am using the magnetic stirrer.

This is another stain. It is bright red.

This is Glycerol.

This is the most dangerous chemical in the recipe. I had to use a fume cupboard to ensure that I did not breath any in. It has a very strong odour and can make you very ill.

This is the last chemical I added. I have heard of Lactic acid building up in muscles but did not know it was used in chemistry.

Bee Training

I need to train my bees to a feeding station as a part of my trials. I need to know that the bees I will be collecting from the hive have left through the pollen dispenser.

 This is the beehive. I have set up a camera on a tripod so that I can monitor how many bees are leaving through the entrance and how many are leaving through the exit. The camera is powered by a sealed cell battery with an invertor attached.













This is the feeding station. It is 30 metres away from the hive. This is my favourite site. I get to sit under this Tortured Willow. It is right next to Bledisoe Park which has a beautiful stream and amazing bush walks. I have explored lots of this park as I have large amounts of free time while I am training the bees.










I train the bees using sugar syrup. I have to put in a small amount of fragrance initially. I have used peppermint. The watch glass needs to be placed directly in front of the hive and left there until heaps of bees are drinking from it. I have measured that it takes the bees 5 minutes to drink, take the syrup back to the hive and then return. The syrup has to be 40 to 50% for the bees to even bother with. This is a higher sugar content then nectar. Once the bees are interested, they will take the syrup back to the hive and recruit more bees.

Once the bees are interested, I then have to slowly move the watch glass away from the hive. My first move has to be 5mm. I leave it for 10 minutes then move it 10mm, I repeat this over the next hour until I can start moving it in larger jumps until I am at the feeding station 30 metres away. It took me a few days to get it right.

  Here I am in my hood with my smoker and hive tool. To begin with, I was wearing a hoodie and jeans with gumboots. It has been so hot that now I wear just shorts and t-shirt, sometimes without the hood and gloves.

I haven't been stung yet but in case I do and have an allergic reaction or if I get stung by multiple bees, I have an injection with adrenaline. I need to have it ready at all times!

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.

Cruisin' with some bees

This is one of two hives I drove home from Hamilton with. They were sealed up with gauze but started escaping by the time I got the last hive to its location. There were over 30 bees flying around the back of the station wagon!

I drove home so carefully and had my bee suit an smoker ready just in case.



















I was in Hamilton to learn how to train Bees for my upcoming project.

I met Mark Goodwin who is New Zealands leading Bee expert. He is an absolute Guru!
Check out this site to hear his talk about his research, its really interesting!


Video of Dr Mark Goodwin

About Dr Mark Goodwin



I was very lucky to be able to meet Dr Mark Goodwin. I bombarded him with questions and learned as much as I could from him.

He arranged for me to hang out with his Bee keeper for a day. We saw a lot of hives and inspected them all.

Here he is pointing to the queen.

 I saw Varroa mite. These little guys are a major problem in New Zealand. They attack bees at all stages of their development.

 Here they are on a bee.











This is Sac Brood. It is a virus that attacks bees in their development.













This is an image of a healthy stages of development for a bee.

 This is what Sac Brood does to the stages of development for a bee.








This was a trip of a lifetime for me. I learned so much from some of New Zealand leading experts. The fellowship is providing many learning opportunities for me but it is also providing me with opportunities to network and communicate with people that I would never otherwise had access to.