I put a camera at the entrance to a bee hive and took slow motion video of these honeybees. Each time I watch the video I see something different and am fascinated by the way that bees fly and control their path. I also just like their behaviors as well as some interesting play with the light. Oh, and you should be prepared to observe how the slow motion also affects the sound.

There’s a good bee blooper at the very end, too.

And here’s another longer video I took later from above the hive:

What do you observe about the bees and their behaviors outside of the hive? What about the way they fly and maneuver? How do they take off and land? What do you imagine they’re all doing? What else do you notice? What do you wonder? How could you study this, either with the video here or in another way?

Epilogue

It’s probably worth noting that I can politely hang out right next to all of these bees. They’re very busy and don’t want to bother me as long as I don’t bother them. In fact, my son, Reed, is so good at calming a bee that he can coax it onto his finger — something he did once when Victoria (the bee) was inadvertently stuck in the house and being chased by Gus (Reed’s cat). Honeybees are not only easy to live with, they’re important to our way of life. You might take a look at some things you could do to help honeybees.

I also have a few other resources:

• This collection of slides I used for a presentation on honeybees.
• A photo album of some of my photos of bees I’ve worked with.