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Timelapse movie of okno’s open_green during the connected domes workshop.
A selection of the wild plants growing in the okno rooftop garden. Only the plants appearing by themselves, brought by wind or birds, are mentioned. The garden was monitored on wild plants for a period of 2 years (2009-2011).
At the left hand a snapshot of the so-on_hive, populated with Buckfast bees. At the right hand, a snapshot of the okno_hive, populated with European Black bees.
The Buckfast bee is popular among beekeepers and is available from bee breeders in several parts of the world. Most of their qualities are very favorable. They are extremely gentle. Their main drawback is that they are very liberal in their application of propolis to inner surfaces of their hives, thus acting to defeat one of the main purposes of the modern beehive — that combs should be easily removable for inspection.
The European dark bee can be distinguished from other subspecies by their stocky body, abundant thoracal and sparse abdominal hair which is brown, and overall dark coloration; in nigra, there is also heavy dark pigmentation of the wings. Overall, when viewed from a distance, they should appear blackish, or in mellifera, rich dark brown. For breeding pure dark bees according to the standard, details of the wing veins are nowadays considered to be the only reliable distinguishing character.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckfast_bee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_dark_bee
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Honeybees returning to the hive with pollen on their hind legs..
Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for larvae.
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Short screenshotmovie from the webcam pointing into the okno beehive.
Installation of the colony: july 2nd 2009.
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Snapshot of the birth of 2 bees in the so-on hive. Most of the cells are closed and contain pupa’s to be born soon. Open cells contain pollen and honey to feed the larvae.
Within the central brood nest, a single frame of comb will typically have a central disk of eggs, larvae and sealed brood cells which may extend almost to the edges of the frame. Immediately above the brood patch an arch of pollen-filled cells extends from side to side, and above that again a broader arch of honey-filled cells extends to the frame tops. The pollen is protein-rich food for developing larvae, while honey is also food but largely energy rich rather than protein rich. The nurse bees which care for the developing brood secrete a special food called ‘royal jelly’ after feeding themselves on honey and pollen. The amount of royal jelly which is fed to a larva determines whether it will develop into a worker bee or a queen.
Female worker bees :
Almost all the bees in a hive are female worker bees. At the height of summer when activity in the hive is frantic and work goes on non-stop, the life of a worker bee may be as short as 6 weeks; in late autumn, when no brood is being raised and no nectar is being harvested, a young bee may live for 16 weeks, right through the winter. During its life a worker bee performs different work functions in the hive which are largely dictated by the age of the bee:
As the upper part (honey harvesting part) of the hive was set without frames, the bees started to build their own wax constructions for storing the honey.
The three constructions, hanging from the cover of the hive, were build over a period of 48 hours.
The first honey of this unconventional hive was harvested beginning of july, good for ± 3kgs of pure gold!
Saturday we installed the first bee colony on so-on’s rooftop. We = Christina Stadlbauer – the bee-girl, Bartaku – her devoted bee-keeper, Giván Bela – visitor in time, and myself – the affectionate host.
The colony consists of a starters-amount of 20.000 bees, most of them black city bees completed by a few thousand carnica bees. Over time the colony will grow and we installed some devices to monitor their activity and behaviour.
Will they visit their friends, installed in the okno-hives, some 500 meters away? Will they mix and mingle and what will be the taste of the honey they’ll produce: a flavour of curry and lavender or will they go for the sugared city fast food: lemonades and coke?
We’ll keep you posted with bee-stories over spring and summer …
For a complete picture-overview of the first and second attempts of transfer and installation, check: http://thoughtsandtalks.so-on.be/photo-albums/ and click the ‘city bees album’.
In addition a contribution out of Giván Bela’s research:
“The Bee Boy’s Song by Rudyard Kipling”
BEES! Bees! Hark to your bees !
“Hide from your neighbours as much as you please,
But all that has happened, to us you must tell,
Or else we will give you no honey to sell!”
CONCEPT
The Bee Observatory project transforms 2 roof top gardens located in the center of Brussels at about half a kilometer
distance from each other into communicating vessels. The approach is to install hives in both of the gardens,with black honeybees (apis mellifera mellifera), a type endemic to Belgium.
It is expected that the bees will manage to bridge the spatial distance and to associate the locations by going about their business and natural processes within their individual yet overlapping territories. The presence and activities of the bee colonies makes the gardens interconnect and interfere. The emerging inter-space can be perceived as place of encounters and neighborhood.
Observing and monitoring the activities of the hives makes bee information directly available. A translation of this data into more symbolic signals can be accessed through online streaming and public moments.
THE PROJECT
In a first stage, the project idea suggests the transformation of 2 urban roof top gardens into interfering, communicating (synchroniced) entities by installing bees into both spaces. The two roof top gardens are located at about 400 metes of distance from each other at Koolmijnenkai 30 (OKNO) and Vlaamsesteenweg 60, respectively and offer convenient locations for beehives. The “technical” necessity of air channels for free entrance and exit flight trajectories and sunny location for at least parts of the day are met. The inter-visibility between the two places is given and hence emphasizes the “symmunicative” and encountering nature of the installation.
The distance between the locations can be metaphorically bridged by the bee’s presence and their natural activities. Since each colony will be active in a radius of at least a few kilometers from their housing hive, the respective trajectories, areas of floral visits and individual territories will be overlapping and an interference of the hives/gardens takes place. A new space of encounter, the mutual area of existence, can be defined, a new perception of neighborhood can be realized.
OBSERVATORY – DOCUMENTATION
Observing and monitoring the activities of the hives coupled with ongoing documentation of each individual hive as well as the interaction between the different colonies will be performed. Information can be obtained from bee hives through visually observing, by listening or smelling. Changes of the hives can be monitored in terms of weight, size or outside/inside temperature of the habitation/colony and via the honey amount or quality. This data has abundant information value, but can also be used and made available in a more indirect/symbolic way. A translation of the signals/data into something publicly accessible is intended. Direct “public moments” on the roof top gardens in the vicinity of the hives add an interactive facet.
aubergine ‘black beauty’ and ‘orange de turquie’
eggplant (courges) ‘ronde de nice’ and ‘black beauty’
pumpkin ‘red kuri’ and ‘rouge vif d’estampes’
capsicum (paprika) ‘yolo wonder’
tomato ‘marmande’, de Berao’ and cherrytomato ‘black cherry’
chillipepper ‘cayenne’
radish ‘cherry belle’
cucumber ‘russian’
fennel ‘zera fino’
cardon (kardoen) ‘vaulx de velin’
oseille (zuring), broccoli, spinach, phacelia, marigolds and icelandic poppies,
basil ‘canelle’ and ‘big green’