NEBees.com

At the April meeting of the Blount County Beekeepers Assocation, we caught a glimpse of NEBees.com, but unfortunately that evening the Internet connections were too slow to play the videos. I took a look at the site later and was very impressed. It is produced by Rick Reault and Ron Lagasse. The site is set up to sell beekeeping products, but the short videos (currently on installing bees in a hive, lighting a smoker, the parts of a hive kit, and beekeeper clothing) can be a great help to the beginning beekeeper. Rick and Ron seem to have the video thing down pretty good, and the hope is that they will keep putting them on the site.

The site itself is very neat and easy to navigate. Unfortunately, they don’t have all of their pages populated yet. For instance, they promise a newsletter, which should be good, but it isn’t on the site yet. This site, however, seems to be one worth watching as it grows.

PBS: Tales from the Hive

You won't learn a lot about beekeeping, but you'll get a bee's eye view of the world if you visit the web site for the Public Broadcasting System show, "Tales from the Hive."

This show was produced in 2001 and gives the viewer a lot of information about the biology and behavior of bees. For instance, the site goes inside the hive to examine the role that each type of bee plays in maintaining the hive's existence. The many ways in which bees defend their hives from external and internal threats gets a lot of attention. The picture on the right, taken from the site, shows a bee taking on an invading wasp.

One of the most interesting parts of the site is a discussion of how the show was made. The producers wanted to get as close to the bees as possible -- even when they are in flight -- and they went to some extraordinary lengths to achieve this.

With the renewed general interest in bees these days -- fully justified -- let's hope PBS puts together another show like this one.