Quite often you can find hives in gardens and forests. However, finding a hive in a cello is rather unusual. In urban landscapes, hives can form in non-residential buildings, especially under awnings and attics. However, bees rarely build hives on musical instruments! In a unique case, a university professor installed a cello belonging to his wife so that a swarm of bees could build their own cello hive.

Bees are pollinators, which means that they help plants live and reproduce by transferring pollen between different types of flowering plants. They carry pollen on their legs and body from one flower to another, helping to create so-called "genetic diversity" by distributing different genes across many plants and flowers.

Dr. Martin Benczyk, a professor at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, encouraged a swarm of bees to set up a hive inside his cello. His wife is a professional cellist and he used the restored instrument to study the vibrations and sounds produced by pollinating insects. Dr. Benczyk has recorded the sounds of bees for a musical soundscape. With this account, he sought to educate people about the declining population of pollinating insects.

In an interview with the BBC, Dr. Benczyk said: “Bees need cavities. We've run out of enough hollow trees in this country to make a living, and it's like a sacrifice to give honey bees such a beautiful, gorgeous object to thrive. ” The cello was kept in the professor's garden at West Bridgeford.

He added: “When we put them in a cello, they all crawl to the very top, start building their structure, the honeycomb on top, and go down. In a few weeks the whole cello was filled with honeycombs.

For someone who did not like bees as a child, it is ironic that Dr. Benchik used his wife's cello to create a hive. His father was a beekeeper and as a child he hated being stung by bees, so he preferred to watch 20,000 swarming insects from a distance. The cello stored in his garden was later carefully transported to Pierrepont Hall at Nottingham Trent University.

The beehive overturned by the cello can now be seen by visitors. The installation is part of Nottingham Trent University's 4-year B-Good project. The project is designed to understand the behavior of bees and to encourage sustainable beekeeping. Dr. Martin Benczyk looks after the hive with access to the street. Bees do not fly far from the hive and prefer to stay within a 3 mile radius.

The cello hive attracts many visitors.

Although the cello hive caught the attention of visitors, few know what inspired Dr. Benchik to get the idea. The idea came from an association with an artist named Wolfgang Buttress. The latter designed the famous multi-sensory sculpture located in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, called The Hive.

The hive consists of aluminum rods and rods and resembles a huge honeycomb. This structure is 56 feet high and weighs approximately 44 tons. There are about 1000 LED lights inside the structure, which light up in sync with the intensified hum of the nearby hives. This hum is combined with the soundscape of violins, cellos and other musical instruments.

Mr. Buttress created The Beehive with a team of landscape architects, musicians and Dr. Benchik. He and Dr. Benczyk developed ways to use accelerometers to transmit vibration messages from honey bees to sculpture. The sculpture was presented at the 2015 World's Fair in Italy and then housed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.