Sonic bee hive examination, 2nd week. First investigation on Tuesday was purely sonic, just connecting the (permanently installed) audio transducers to the pre-amp and then having a listen. Excitingly, there was a lot more activity on both channels. The emptiness in the sound of the initial examination just after installation was replaced by buzzing and the sound of many feeds running around.
Later, we opened the hive and it turned out that the bees started building combs around one of the microphones. This frame is installed near the centre of the hive, next to the busy areas, so it is natural that the bees adopted it. And, luckily, it turned out that it hosts honey, pollen and even breeding, so we will soon be able to hear larvae crawling around! The other frame with the two microphones is located in the upper part of the hive where by now there is no building activity. However, also here, more activity could be listened to, so it seems that the colony is spreading and at least exploring the upper part of the hive.
