Previously we set up the greenhouse (Site1a2g) as an enclosed space with supplemental/augmenting resources (pollen, sugar water, "mud"). Then we released the bees, actually placed the cocoons, on Wednesday morning, the 19th of February. On Thursday, we did our first check of the bees progress. On Friday the 21st we checked the status of the bees, cocoon, and our enclosed space. On Saturday the 22nd, it rained all day. There was little or no bee activity on the 23rd. On Monday the 24th, there was not much activity. On Tuesday the 25th, one bee emerged from the cocoons and we found one be dead in the pollen dish.
On Wednesday the 26th, we examined the greenhouse and saw not bee emergences inside the PVC tube.
We did readout the temperatures inside the box which is on the shady side of the greenhouse versus the temperature on the sunny side. There is a decrease of about 5 deg F at the peak.
It does not appear that the box on the shady side decreases the temperatures enough. We will have to consider another method if we replicate the greenhouse setup. We could keep the cocoons outside the greenhouse and transfer the bees as they hatch.
On Friday the 28 we did another quick check.
Again, no emergence's. Later today we will dissect some of the remaining un-emerged cocoons to see if we can learn anything.
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