Waggle Dance Workshop.

[Neils]

I know this is a long shot asking on a Scottish Website whether anyone else is pottering off to Brighton on Saturday for the decipher the waggle dance workshop, but you nerver know.

[gavin]

One doesn't potter off to Brighton from these parts, you know! It has to be a well-planned assault, with weeks spent stocking up on provisions for the journey and days spent pouring over train timetables and Megabus websites.

I did make an escape to London yesterday. Rows and rows and rows of lime trees in full flower in Hyde Park yet not a bee to be seen. Was that the lack of nectar due to drought, the lack of both local bumble bees and honeybees, or the overabundance of the trees causing the available pollinators to spread out so much I couldn't see any? It must be a tough environment for bumbles as spare undisturbed ground is at a bit of a premium.

G.

[Neils]

Karin might be best placed to answer this but I was under the impression that London was drowning in a sea of bees.

Mine on a nature reserve has clover and bramble by the bucket load yet nothing in the supers of any consequence so I'm blaming the lack of rain at the moment.

I knew it'd be a longshot, it's a 4 hour drive for me to get there, so I guess I'd better take full notes, HD video and sort something out when I get back then.

[Jon]

I have never been to Brighton nor Edinburgh nor Dundee for that matter, although I did visit Bristol about 3 times in the early 1980s and lived to tell the tale.

[gavin]

Don't think I've ever been to Brighton despite living in Berkshire for 6 years. Edinburgh is a must. Extend your stay to visit the SBA Centenary meeting next September in Stirling to take in Edinburgh. There will be some excellent speakers, one who seldom visits this side of the pond (don't think I'm at liberty to say who yet though).

[Jon]

Might get over. My brother has just started a new job in Edinburgh. It know loads of people who lived or studied there and they all rate it highly. My problem is that I always head west rather than east when I travel.

[Neils]

Edinburgh's lovely. Only other city I've been to for any length of time is Dundee. They have cake named after them. :D

[EmsE]

I'm a big fan of Edinburgh. I lived there for over 8 years before moving to the west and look for any excuse to go back- (The bee diseases workshop being one of them:D).

[Neils]

Well I made it, had a good poke round the lab, very impressive. Kicks off in half an hour or so.

[Neils]

Well that was a bit of a trek but what a brilliant afternoon. Not directly useful from a beekeeping point of view perhaps but educational generally, very well put together. I have a huge pile of notes, some handouts that I need to scan that aren't directly connected to the session itself but might be of interest/use to people anyway and a rather complex looking formula that lets you determine the distance to forage from the waggle dance slightly more accurately that assuming 1second = 1kilometer which is wrong in any case :D

[Adam]

I went to the Hygenic Bee workshop a couple of months ago and saw the observation hives they use.
I was offered a place at Sussex University a long time ago but didn't get the grades.
I recall there was a piece published in a magazine about their waggle dance interpetations; from what I remember they could have done with another year or two of data.

I'd be interested in seeing any hand-outs - would it be possible to post them here?

[gavin]

Check out the Nellie blog (http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/entry.php?156-LASI-Waggle-Dance-Workshop), also featuring now on the front page :)

[Neils]

I do have copies of their hand outs, I was just being lazy on getting them scanned as they were saying they were shortly to go up in the LASI website.

They're interesting but possibly more so for non Beekeepers.

[Neils]

Beekeeping Handout (http://ncsdatasolutions.co.uk/beekeeping/BeekeepingHandout.pdf)
Bees and Flowers Handout (http://ncsdatasolutions.co.uk/beekeeping/BeesandFlowersHandout.pdf)
The Honey Bee Handout (http://ncsdatasolutions.co.uk/beekeeping/TheHoneyBeeHandout.pdf)
Honey Bees and Human Culture Handout (http://ncsdatasolutions.co.uk/beekeeping/HoneyBeesandHumanCultureHandout.pdf)
How Bees Make Honey Handout (http://ncsdatasolutions.co.uk/beekeeping/HowBeesMakeHoney.pdf)
LASI Handout (http://ncsdatasolutions.co.uk/beekeeping/LASIHandout.pdf)
Sussex Plan Handout (http://ncsdatasolutions.co.uk/beekeeping/sussexplanhandout.pdf)
Waggle Dance Handout (http://ncsdatasolutions.co.uk/beekeeping/WaggleDanceHandout.pdf)
What is a Bee? Handout (http://ncsdatasolutions.co.uk/beekeeping/WhatisaBee.pdf)

All the handouts. If you click the links they'll open the file in a new window/tab, if you right click on them, you should be able to save them for later use.

I'll leave them up, it's nice to finally use the webspace I'm paying through the nose for for something :) (if people have files that they want hosting somewhere then drop me a line, if it's for beekeeping I'm happy to help out.)