Discovery-Summer

The nest of a Japanese honeybee was made on the gymnasium outer wall in August, 2000. The nest was observed by the students (teased temporarily), and one year passed. The situation during this year is reported below.
This nest was discovered on August 8. Since it is readily visible when you go into the school from the school gate, it is not thought that it existed for many weeks before it was discovered. I was not at the school for one week due to personal reasons in late July, and it is thought that the nest was made in this period. When discovered, the nest already had 17 comb sheets. I was surprised by the capability of a bee to complete a big nest in a short period of about one week.
In those days, I had already bred five colonies of Japanese honeybee at the school. There was no change to those colonies, either before or after discovery of this nest. It could not be thought that the breeding group absconded and that this nest was formed by that swarm. Two possibilities could be considered. One possibility presupposes that it was made by a swarm from either of the five groups. I have shown clearly that Japanese honeybee in an urban area swarms in July. This colony may be attributed as an example of colonies which swarm in July.
The second possibility presupposes that the nest was formed by an absconded colony, or a swarm from outside of the school. A nest of Japanese honeybees was located in the attic of a house near the school, and in the past extermination was requested. Although it is possible that it came from this source, it is thought that this is a remote possibility. Anyway, the colony which left a nest in the summer, made a new nest in an open space.

Autumn

At the end of August, the giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) came flying to the school. It appeared at the five colonies every day. The honeybees took the fight posture. When individual giant hornets approached the nests, many bees came out to the entrance and the honeybees threatened the giant hornet. When the giant hornets appeared in a group, the honeybees waited inside until the giant hornets had gone.
The giant hornets were not seen at the open nest on the gymnasium. If a group of giant hornets come to an open nest, there is no way that the nest can be protected. It seemed that the giant hornets did not notice a nest at a height of no less than 13m.
In the autumn, the tall goldenrod bloomed. Many bees worked and honey was stored in preparation for winter. Surprisingly, the size of a nest did not change.

Winter

As soon as the temperature dropped, the bees gathered on the under part of the nest and it seemed that the number of bees decreased significantly. Many bees had fallen on the ground below the nest in the morning, when the lowest temperature was below 0℃. When the temperature of a bee falls, it is anesthetized by the cold and this is why they fell from the nest. When the number of bees decreased, I was apprehensive about this nest being able to last until spring. Probably because the stored honey decreased gradually, the lower part of the nest changed, and the nest became small.　

Spring

Spring came at last. Although the number of bees had decreased, the colony overcame the winter safely. This colony generated a swarm on April 26, at the same time when swarms were seen coming from many other colonies. This swarm concentrated and attached to a nearby KUSU（Cinnamomum Camphora）tree and this swarm was captured safely. When Spring came, the activity of the bees also increased and the number of bees returned quickly. When the rainy season came and it was rainy and sultry, the bees also spread out over the whole nest and came to cover the nest. This means that they returned to the first discovered state of August.
With a nest in an open space, the colony was able to survive to spring in spite of the winter conditions during which a cold wind beat directly on the nest. From this observation it has been shown that the low temperature winter environment does not prevent survival and continuation of the nest

A nest formed on the outer wall of a gymnasium (2000 August)	Enlargement (2000 August) It consists of 17 comb sheets.65x60cm.
Nest in winter. (January, 2001) Many bees concentrate in the lower part of a nest.	Nest, one year after being formed. (July, 2001) It is hot and bees cover the whole nest

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