Read how a colony of honey bees was relocated from Expo site
HOW A COLONY OF HONEY BEES WAS RELOCATED
Amid the rush to complete the Expo 2020 Dubai site, construction came to a standstill one fine day in November. The reason? Bees.
But no, the bees did not attack anyone.
The work teams were just following a standing order not to harm animals found onsite, but to rescue and relocate them wherever possible.
By sheer coincidence, the colony of Apis mellifera bees (honey bees) was discovered in the Sustainability Pavilion plot of the 4.38 square km expo site. “The bees had nested on the steel rebar within the plot. As soon as we received the notification, photos and videos, we contacted the Beekeepers Association on whether they would rescue the bees and transfer them to a safer place,” Ayesha Al Marzouqi, Associate — Sustainability and Innovation, Expo 2020 Dubai, told Gulf News.
“The work around the beehive was temporarily ceased so they [the bees] wouldn’t be harmed in any way. Rescuing the bees is just one small example and initiative of a bigger picture Expo 2020 Dubai aims to deliver when it comes to sustainability.”
Sustainability is one of the three themes of the Expo 2020 Dubai. Aside from bees, the team has rescued and relocated some animals, including a Schmidt’s fringe-toed lizard and a Cheesman’s gerbil — they were captured, photographed and released into an appropriate environment.
So how were the bees rescued? Zahira Nedjraoui, President of the Beekeepers Association, was called in for swarm removal of the bees estimated to number around 30,000.
“It was not a straightforward removal because they were wrapped around the rebars,” Nedjraoui told Gulf
News. Nedjraoui and a worker who volunteered scooped the bees into the box so they could move them to a safer place. “While doing it, we noticed that the bees started to fan their little wings which is an indication that the queen had been captured and these bees were informing their little sisters that the queen was in the box so they should all move in there,” Nedjraoui explained.
45-minute process
That made the whole process easy which took roughly 45 minutes. The bees were then relocated to the Bee Garden at Sustainable City.
The Expo 2020 Dubai team adopted them through the association’s ‘Adopt A Beehive initiative’. “I was really happy and impressed with their commitment to sustainability through the fact that they adopted the bees,” Nedjraoui said, adding the team’s money will be reinvested into the association to support it.
More than a month later, the colony has doubled in size. “From zero comb, we now have four full comb frames,” Nedjraoui said.