This particular wild nest faces a northerly direction and was very exposed to rain coming with the North-Westerly winds a few days ago.

The bees clustered together, with the bulk of the colony deep within the nest and sheltered by the comb. The outer layer of worker bees took the brunt of the wet and windy weather. They kept their heads tucked in and their wings channelled the water off their bodies to keep the nest dry. Seldom do bees fly in rain.

Welcome to our website. We thought that today, being the Summer Solstice, and with the bees having worked their longest day, it would be the perfect day to launch ujubee.byjanine.co.za.

We love bees and we spend many hours with wild bees watching everything they do. We hope to really learn their way of life by observing them as closely as possible in their natural world. Our main aim is to see first hand how important these bees are to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, look for patterns and hopefully they will reveal some interesting secrets to us.

Our research project has been self-funded for this first year and as we move into our second year of research we would love support from all who love bees and feel that wild bees have the right to live in wild spaces, in their natural habitats and without the interference from people wanting to “commodotise” them for some personal or commercial gain .

We are bee conservationists and we are passionate about our work. See our ujubee facebook page which is a diary of our work.

The photos we are posting are from today. This floral kingdom is hugely dependent on the wild bees pollinating it. Without wild honey bees, this nature reserve’s natural environment would collapse.