Don McLean of Norway, Maine, kneeling in center, uses pine needles, a pine cone and newspaper while showing how to light a smoker and keep it burning, during the Maine State Beekeepers Association Bee Fest at Viles Arboretum at 153 Hospital St. in Augusta. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel AUGUSTA — The first Maine State Beekeepers Association Bee Fest had Viles Arboretum buzzing Sunday about the world’s smartest insect, including how bees communicate.
Workshops throughout the day taught tips for beekeepers and would-be beekeepers, including how to prevent mites from decimating hives, and ways to determine — by looking at your beehive — what bees need to thrive and produce honey. Thomas Seeley, a bee researcher and author of several books on the insect, shared his understanding of five bee behaviors — some discovered by his own research — that individual bees display for the benefit of the superorganism of their hive or colony, rather than themselves. “Honeybees are the brainiest of all insects on the planet.
Their communication skills are amazing,” Seeley told a couple of hundred people who had gathered under a large tent at the arboretum at 153 Hospital St. in Augusta. “These are very smart critters.
” Western honeybees emerge from a hive Sunday during the Maine State Beekeepers Association Bee Fest at Viles Arboretum at 153 Hospital St. in Augusta. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel Viles Arboretum donated use of its facilities for the first Maine State Bee.