Bee numbers are dwindling, especially in the UK, and that’s bad news for pretty much everyone who eats food. A team of researchers from Lancaster University have hatched a plan to boost numbers with 3D printed bee homes, which they hope to distribute to the public as part of a bee-awareness outreach effort.
The researchers have taken advantage of the increased interest in nature during the pandemic and have designed the world’s first webcam-equipped “BeeBox”, which will not only encourage people to show some bee-love, but will also allow researchers to gain insights of bee-life never before seen.
I kept honeybees for a long time. this is very important. more so than honey bees. Bumblebees can pollinate/visit more kinds of flowers than honey bees and there are fewer of them. Honey bees are great for field crops and orchards but they won’t stay inside greenhouses as honeybees will.
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I had last year a few solitary bees in a bee house. I am hoping to get some this year. A few years back I had a bees nest in the wall of my house, yes nightmare. I had a bee keeper ID them as one of the native species of bees (not honey bees) that the queen is the only one to over winter. I waited them out past the frost to seal the hole they made. I really love the idea of supporting our bees, 3d printed or not. We need them and the evidence of the from of my car shows there are way less bugs generally speaking then a handful of years ago.
SCARY.
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