More than Honey

Bees see the world differently. So when we went out last week to film some experiments of Prof. Randolf Menzel and his group from the Free University of Berlin about bee navigation and memory, we thought we need to get the bees’ perspective as well.

Now, bees usually fly in a height of up to 8 or 9 metres (26-29 ft) and with a speed of up to 20 km/h (12 mph). In other words: too low for a helicopter, too fast for a balloon. But just right for a remote-controlled mini-helicopter (un-mini enough, though, to carry a payload of 1,5 kg (3,3 lbs), which is quite a bit for an aircraft that weighs only 5-7 kg (11-15 lbs) itself!).
There are only a handful of them in Europe that are equipped for filming and we were very lucky to get one of them on location!

We got some very nice views from above, despite considerable wind up there. You would be surprised what these bees have to put up with! Also: that they ever reach their destination at all, really.

In between, our carrier attracted some expert attention. We haven’t heard the verdict, though…