Bee Hives Beeside Water

This cache is accessible from the gravel sidewalk.

You can see two white wooden bee hives to the north of this cache at the end of what appears to be a public easement along the irrigation canal. The area between the residential fences and the canal is not open to the public, despite appearances. The beehive owner does not want people walking on his property, so view his beehives from afar (binoculars?)

The irrigation canal flows from April through the end of October, so if you're bringing little kids with you, keep a close eye on them.

You're looking for something camo, a little longer than a 35mm film container -- but you won't see it directly. Instead, look for its hanger. Log and pencil only.

I used to keep bees. I love watching bees as they work away. A hive is an amazing system of cooperation, order, and self-organization!

Bee Trivia:
* Did you know that the queen bee mates just once, and the sperm she receives from the drones on her mating flight are kept alive to fertilize tens of thousands of eggs over her multi-year lifetime?
* The drones (males) don't work nearly as hard as the females. Their purpose in life is to eat what the females provide, then ready themselves for a mating flight with a new queen. Drones are slightly larger than the female worker bees. Drones don't sting. The good life has a drawback, however. During the fall, when the weather gets frosty, the female worker bees force the drones out into the cold to die. Their utility is past and the precious honey can't be spared -- it's needed for the long cold winter ahead.
* Bees do not hibernate. They literally shiver their way through the long cold winter. To keep themselves and the queen warm, the worker bees cluster together in a large ball (about the size of a soccer ball). They shiver, and this movement puts out some heat. The cold bees on the outside of the ball burrow inwards to warm up.
* When a hive gets too crowded, the queen raises up some other queens. These "queen cells" are about the size of an acorn (as the queen is larger than a regular worker bee.) The workers feed these special larvae "royal jelly" and this different diet makes the larvae grow into a queen rather than a drone or a female worker bee. When the new queens are almost ready to emerge, the old queen leaves the hive with about half of the worker bees. This swarm finds its way to a new home within a mile or two of their old hive.
* In the days before the hive swarms, scouts are sent out to find a new hive. They fly up and down trees, looking for knot holes that lead to a cavity. My son and I followed several swarms from my hives. It was very exciting! The bees made a loud buzzing noise, sounding quite fearsome. (Ironically, bees are unlikely to sting when they are swarming.) I watched about 40,000 bees work their way into a cavity in the most orderly way imaginable. They marched around and around getting closer to the hole, like a whirlpool at the bottom of your tub.
* Bees use the sun to navigate. That's why you don't see them at night time. They return to their hive before dark.
* I got about 50 pounds of honey from my two hives each year, but a few years ago both hives died. Perhaps a neighbor sprayed insecticide on his plants. Their death remains a sad mystery to me. (Now I've got chickens -- which take more work to keep than bees. Chickens have more personality -- and I don't have to wait a whole year to get something back for all my labor. It's a rewarding hobby.)

NOTE: This cache was moved from its original location so that cachers wouldn't inadvertently trespass. No need to go north of the bridge railing. Stay on the sidewalk.