Through the eyes of bees

By Nicola Temple

One of the many fabulous things about the Botanic Garden is that on any given day, you may find scientists out there conducting cutting edge research. There are currently at least seven research programs going on either directly or indirectly with the garden, making it not only a place of beauty, but also a place of scientific discovery. (more…)

“WOW! That’s a lot of bees!”

By Nicola Temple

     I could hear my son’s enthusiastic voice coming from somewhere near the front. He had managed to squeeze through the crowd so he could see, while I stood at the back trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on. There were about a hundred of us gathered around a demonstration beehive in the University of Bristol’s Botanic Garden, listening to the beekeeper talk about maintaining beehives. He’d just pulled out a frame from the hive that was absolutely writhing. We all stepped in for a closer look, and despite having no fear of bees, I have to admit that I was grateful for the mist net that separated us. After all, 15,000 is a lot of bees!

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