After his death in 323 B.C., Alexander the Great was embalmed in a coffin filled with honey.
From: http://casswww.ucsd.edu/personal/ron/CVNC/byline/bugs_96mar.html
Archive for November, 2007
Alexander the Great Embalmed in Honey
Posted in Bee Lore, Beetwixt & Beetween on November 13, 2007| Leave a Comment »
The Oldest Alcoholic Beverage Discovered in Scotland!
Posted in Bee Lore, Beetwixt & Beetween on November 13, 2007| Leave a Comment »
The oldest alcoholic beverage, mead, a drink made from fermented honey and water has been found in an Iron Age tomb in Scotland.
From: http://casswww.ucsd.edu/personal/ron/CVNC/byline/bugs_96mar.html
Bee Diseases – Nothing New!
Posted in Bee Lore, Beekeeping on November 13, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Bee-keeping shows up in Greek mythology. Aristaeus, apparently the dicsoverer of beekeeping (https://beelore.com/2007/07/22/aristaeus-discoverer-of-beekeeping/) lost his hives to disease. He compelled Proteus (a shape-changer, who was also the wise god of the sea) to tell him how to avoid such a loss in the future.
Apparently more diseases have been described for honey bees than any other insects. The earliest written descriptions were made by Aristotle around 325 B.C.
From: http://casswww.ucsd.edu/personal/ron/CVNC/byline/bugs_96mar.html
Bee Wars!
Posted in Bee Lore on November 13, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Over the centuries, bees have been used many times as weapons of war. In the thirteen century, residents of the Aegean island of Astipalaia hurled beehives onto pirates storming the castle gates. During World War 1, Belgians trapped in an apiary used bees against the Germans.
Honey, too, has been used as a weapon. Certain members of the heath family produce grayanotoxins, chemicals that act as breathing inhibitors and hypnotics. Honey from these plants is referred to as toxic or “mad ” honey. Three squadrons of Pompey’s Roman troops were slain while under the influence of toxic honey provided by local tribesmen. In small amounts, toxic honey has been used in alcohol, as an additive to increase its punch, and in medicine.
From: http://casswww.ucsd.edu/personal/ron/CVNC/byline/bugs_96mar.html
Breaking the Law of Aerodynamics
Posted in Bee Law, Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology on November 11, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know (the laws of aerodynamics), so it goes on flying anyway!
After Mary Kay Ash American businesswoman who founded Mary Kay Cosmetics (1963). b.1915
She Labours for Others
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present on November 11, 2007| Leave a Comment »
The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labours, but because she labours for others.
Saint John Chrysostom. Archbishop of Constantinople, 347-407
Was You Ever Bit by a Dead Bee?
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on November 9, 2007| 1 Comment »
Eddie: Say, was you ever bit by a dead bee?
Beauclerc: I have no memory of ever being bitten by any kind of bee.
Slim: Were you?
Eddie: You’re all right lady. You and Harry’s the only one that ever—
Harry: Don’t forget Frenchy.
Eddie: That’s right. You and Harry and Frenchy. You know you gotta be careful of dead bees, if you go around barefooted. Cause if you step on ‘em they can sting ya just as bad as if they was alive, especially is they was kinda mad when they got killed. I bet I been bit a hundred times that way.
Slim: You have. Why don’t you bite them back?
Eddie: That’s what Harry always says. But I ain’t got no stinger.
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From: “To Have and Have Not” (1944).
By: Jules Furthman (1888–1960), U.S. screenwriter, William Faulkner (1897–1962), U.S. author, screenwriter, and Howard Hawks.
With: Eddie (Walter Brennan), Beauclerc (Paul Marion), Slim/Marie Brown (Lauren Bacall), Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart)
By answering Eddie’s nonsensical question correctly, Slim earns entree into Harry’s and Eddie’s tight-knit group.
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I once met a beekeeper who said it was possible to inject sufferers of arthritis with stings from dead bees to help ease the ailment. However, I have never tried it! Odd as it seems, dead bees can sting you – particularly if , like Eddie, you tread on hundreds of them with bare feet!
Along the Garden Wall
Posted in Bee Present, Bee-ology on November 9, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Along the garden-wall the bees
With hairy bellies pass between
The staminate and pistillate,
Blest office of the epicene.
T.S.Eliot (1888-1965)
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I love this short poem by Eliot.
It articulates the relationship between bees and flowers in such elegant, simple and poetic language.
Bee Lore 