LASI holds a succesful first Open Day to the public
The Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI) held its first Open Day on the 20th July 2013. Over a hundred people registered to visit the lab on the Saturday afternoon. After a quick set up by everyone in LASI, making the lab fit for visitors and setting up stations, such as beekeeping and varroa control, planting for pollinators, honey bee queen rearing, and looking at ant colonies, for people to view, visitors started to flood into the garden and the lab. I was pleased by the variety of people showing up; all generations were represented, and ranged from teachers to gardeners and beekeepers to parents with children. Everyone seemed very enthusiastic and interested, wanting to investigate all the stations, ask questions, discuss their own experiences with bees, and listen what LASI researchers had to say about their work on social insects. As a treat visitors were welcome to purchase refreshments in the lab garden, which ranged from tea and coffee to a selection of beautiful cakes and muffins, as well as scones with whipped cream and jam, my personal favourite.
I was set up in the lab garden, at the bee-friendly planting station, helping out Mihail, a phd student who has researched garden- and wild plants, showing which are especially good for bees and other insects. The lab garden is perfect for showing people how beautiful a bee-friendly garden can be, featuring lavender, catmint, borage, dahlias, herbs such as marjoram and rosemary and several other, very attractive plants. The garden was also buzzing with honeybees, bumblebees, and the occasional butterfly, which showed visitors just how alive a garden can be. This made it very easy to show people which plants to grow in their own garden to make it more insect friendly, or give experienced gardeners fresh ideas. It was also nice for me to share the knowledge I had gained in LASI during my internship so far, for instance that lavender and catmint are more suitable for bumblebees, whilst honeybees prefer borage.
I enjoyed having conversations with visitors and also learning from them. One beekeeper told me that she had observed many bees on lime and chestnut flowers. Another lady told me that she kept parts of her garden growing wild and had observed a lot of wildlife in that patch. I also learned from listening to my senior LASI-colleagues talking to visitors. For instance, a good indication for an insect friendly plant is when the stigma and stamen are visible, because when they are not, insects may not be able to access the sexual parts of the flower, and thus they may not visit. This is true for many highly hybridized plants such as some dahlias and roses, where the petal structure is too intricate for insect access, while other varieties with simpler petal structure can be very attractive to insects. Another very interesting fact to me was that many insects do not care about the colour of flowers and will visit anything with a good nectar or pollen supply, and that it is just a coincidence that many very bee-friendly flowers are purple or blue.
There were two talks about LASI and our work on bees by Professor Francis Ratnieks which most visitors listened to, leaving the demonstration stations mostly empty. This was a nice opportunity for LASI researchers to take a break and a cup of tea or a slice of cake, in the otherwise very busy day. Interested visitors also had the opportunity to take a walk to a garden used for research on flower attractiveness to insects. I also liked the inquisitive nature of the children present: one girl asking how many bees can be in a hive, she guessed at 2.000, and got the answer that this is true, but that there can be up to 40.000 bees in a single large hive. It is those very simple questions that children ask, which have amazing answers, that makes one remember how truly amazing nature is.
I think that LASI and all visitors thoroughly enjoyed the open day, as it is a great opportunity for both, one sharing their research with the public, the other hearing about it and getting the opportunity to integrate the new knowledge into their lives.
Chandra Maria Walter