Last week I bought (because I couldn’t rent it) the film by Sue Monk Kidd called “The Secret Life of Bees”. Here is her entry on Beelore and Symbol from her website <HERE> (which tells you more about the book and film). I love the idea that she wrote the book with a pot of [...]
Archive for the ‘Bee Present’ Category
The Secret Life of Bees: Bee Lore & Symbol
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beetwixt & Beetween on May 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Why Neonicotinoids Are Bad for Bees
Posted in Bee Law, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping on May 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
A third of UK bee colonies have been lost over the last two years and there have been many explanations given for this. There is strong evidence that neonicotinoids – a class of pesticide first used in agriculture in the mid 1990s at exactly the time when mass bee disappearances started occurring – are involved in the [...]
Five Hives in Our New Apiary
Posted in Bee Present, Beekeeping on May 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
In February we moved our five hives to a new apiary. Four have queens – and Faith is, unfortunately, Queenless. Today (for the second time), I put a frame from Liberty into Faith to see if we can create a new queen before the workers die off. The photograph shows the new apiary – which [...]
Fly Parasite Turns Honeybees into “Zombies”
Posted in Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping on January 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
American scientists have discovered that a fly parasite can turn honey bees into confused zombies before killing them, in an advance that could offer new clues to why bee colonies are collapsing. So far, the parasite has only been detected in honey bees in California and South Dakota, American researchers reported in the open access [...]
2011 in review
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present on January 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 23,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many [...]
The Bee by Edwin Curran
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beetwixt & Beetween on December 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The singing bee comes like a little ship, And docks beside a rose for cargoed wine, Its gossamer paddles spinning in the air A little plane upon the flower vine. It anchors in the bell upon its quest, And lulls its motor in the crimson bower, Then with its honey glides on to the west, [...]
Christmas Bee Snowflake
Posted in Bee Present, Beetwixt & Beetween on December 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Snowflakes are beautiful decorations on Christmas Day. Why not make your own? Rowse Honey have a lovely site with two designs. All you need is a pair of scissors and a grownup to help you. Make a few if you like. You can colour them in too, or add some glitter to make them even more [...]
The Beehive Ark
Posted in Bee Present, Beekeeping on October 5, 2011 | 3 Comments »
I came across this amazing beehive design at a Woodfair recently. Please find the full story of this unique design for a top-bar hive below the photograph with the designer’s contact details if you want more information: My initial inspiration to create a curved hive was from the curved structure of honeycomb created in top-bar [...]
Bees Don’t See Red!
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beetwixt & Beetween on June 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
What colors creatures see has long interested scientists, and aside from us, more is known about what colors bees see than any other living thing. Like us, bees are trichromatic. Whereas we base our color combinations on red, blue, and green, bees base all their colors on UV, blue , and green. Just as color [...]
Best Bee Animation Ever!
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beetwixt & Beetween on April 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The following animation takes my vote for the best animated bee movie ever: Here is some background on Dot’s story (running away from her world as it is being destroyed – and saved by a bee!). It also gives some great insights into the world’s smallest film (even though it is a subtle advert for [...]