Another Mushroom.

Another trip today to the apiary to feed the brutes, combined with a short fungal foray. It was a little disconcerting to say the least that having fed each of the colonies, all five were being robbed – presumably, it was a mutual free-for-all, though there are other bees a few hundred yards away. It is something I have not experienced before, probably because I make my own floors with very restricted entrances. I took the precaution of pushing grass into the entrances to block them further – thy are now about one inch long by a quarter high, which should be small enough for forty thousand bees to defend. The conventional wisdom is to avoid the occurrence by feeding at dusk as they're settling down for the night but, as I said, I have not had the problem before.
 
In Blipping the mushroom, I tried emulating ScotFot’s pictures with, I feel, a small amount of success though there is a long way to go before I reach his standard of photography. This picture was taken with the macro lens but, I did try emulating it with a zoom lens set to the same focal length and a filter thread fitting close up lens; I was expecting to see some colour fringing but, other than a slightly softer focus, there was no difference. With a set of four of these things costing a little over £10, I don’t suppose I’ll be splashing out the £80 for a doublet that eliminates the fringes, particularly the soft focus was probably mainly due to the zoom lens not the close-up.
 

After taking the pictures, I returned to the bees to find that they’d quietened down somewhat; but I’ll be back tomorrow to check for signs of trouble and, if I find it, I can at least bring one colony home where it will be safe.