How a swarm locates a new nest site when less than 5% of the community know the way remains a mystery. Curious to find out how swarms cooperate and are guided to their new homes, Tom Seeley, a neurobiologist from Cornell University, and engineers Kevin Schultz and Kevin Passino from The Ohio State University teamed [...]
Archive for December, 2008
How Do Swarms Find a New Home?
Posted in Bee Law, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping on December 16, 2008 | 2 Comments »
To have your Head Full of Bees
Posted in Bee Lore, Beetwixt & Beetween on December 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Meaning: “Full of devices, crotchets, fancies, inventions, and dreamy theories. The connection between bees and the soul was once generally maintained: hence Mahomet admits bees to Paradise. Porphyry says of fountains, “they are adapted to the nymphs, or those souls which the ancients called bees.” The moon was called a bee by the priestesses of [...]
To Have a Bee in Your Bonnet
Posted in Bee Lore, Beetwixt & Beetween on December 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
To be cranky; to have an idiosyncrasy; also, to carry a jewel or ornament in your cap. Thought to originate from the following poem: “For pity, sir, find out that bee That bore my love away - ‘I’ll seek him in your bonnet brave…..” Herrick: The Mad Maid’s Song. From: http://www.bartleby.com/81/1590.html Extracted from: The Dictionary of Phrase [...]
The Fable of the Bees by Bernard de Mandeville (1670 – 1733)
Posted in Bee Law, Bee Lore, Beetwixt & Beetween on December 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits consisted of a poem, The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves Turn’d Honest, along with an extensive prose commentary. The poem had appeared in 1705 and was intended as a commentary on England as Mandeville saw it ============================================================= A Spacious Hive well stock’d with Bees, That lived [...]
Swarm Coordinator, 2009
Posted in Bee Present, Beekeeping on December 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Last week we had the Annual General Meeting of our local branch of beekeepers (The Weald Branch, Kent, UK). The post for Swarm Coordinator came up – and I put my name forward and was voted in! So all the hard work this year catching swarms might well turn into a walk in the park [...]
