with the intention of observation and audio recording we headed for the bee house. after some trouble finding a piezo transducer (whatever happened to musical christmas cards!) we set off with our trusty (and well soldered) contact mic and H2 zoom.. intrigued by the concept of communication across the hive through vibration (stamping little feet and controlled wing beating through legs and into the comb) we attempted to gather some audio through fixing the contact mic on various parts of the observation hive.. the glass walls were a disappointing start, but we soon found some nice recording where the bees were ?licking? the air through a closed (and perforated) access port. then i suited up and Trish grabbed the camera and we got in close with the mic at the entry to the hive. the mass of bees gathering at the entrance could be manipulated like a viscous liquid and through the mic made some amazing sounds (vibrations).