MORE THAN JUST A HONEY HARVEST
I’d previously had the opportunity to photograph Aurecon’s indigenous painted Warre hive , which was a fantastic opportunity to learn about honey bees and bee hives while Cormac Farrell, environmental scientist at Aurecon inspected the hive. But this time was different. As the name suggests a honey harvest involves removing the honey comb – something the bees didn’t seem too thrilled about, especially in the rain.

However this corporate event became much more with the confirmation of a new queen in the hive. The previous queen had been discovered dead after being removed by the undertaker bees, so sighting the queen was a positive sign for the health of the hive. And timing could not have been better as we were given the rare opportunity to see (and photograph) the freshly hatched new queen, along with her rivals emerging from their eggs.