Here you will find a collection of stories from the world of the honey bee – both past and present. The site’s main purpose is to act as a place to gather the stories from the folklore and ancient myth associated with bees – Beelore will guide you to some of these stories. Bees also have a magical, other-worldly quality about them – and Beetwixt and Beetween covers stories that are perhaps a little mystical, magical or downright unexplainable. There are also some natural Laws that the bees follow – probably not even knowing they are laws! You will find them under Bee Law.
As well as my interest in bee lore, I also find real inspiration from the bees in the present. Keeping them; studying them; harvesting honey from them. Even the name “bee” has such present and direct assocation with the command “BE”! Bee in the present! or Bee in the Now – which is surely one of the basic principles of all religions worldwide. Bee Present will take you to these stories.
I hope that my reflections on bees and life will be interesting both to those of you who know me and those who do not. I also hope that they are also interesting (and reasonably accurate) for the odd beekeeper who ventures onto the site! As a fellow beekeeper, I have classified some under Beekeeping and here I keep a blog for my beekeeping persuits. I know that that bees don’t read – particularly the many books that have been written about their behaviour. But if a bee did take up reading, I hope it would also find the site interesting! There are also a few stories on the biology of the bee – which I have put under the Beeology label.
For those who find inaccuracies in any of the details above or who want to reflect on their own ideas and suggestions – or even steer one of the storylines, please feel free to leave a comment or two!
Although this site looks like a “blog” – but isn’t only a blog. It is really the cross between a blog and a book. There is one BEELINE (or Tag) which is better read from the bottom upwards…..or back to front. It will make more sense then! The line for this story is Bylaugh – which is where my fascination for the honeybee all started. So this particular line is a storybook in its own right. If there are any would-be publishers who like the Bylaugh Storyline – please also get in touch with me on the form below!
We used to have a picture at the top of the blook from detail from “Metamorphose II”, a woodcut in three colours by Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898 – 1972). Between 1938 and 1940 Escher created a thirteen foot “woodcut strip” called “Metamorphose II” which shows a gradual progression of transformation. The woodcut was in black, green and brown, printed from twenty-three blocks on three combined sheets. The word “metamorphose” becomes a springboard for the images.
Escher described it as follows: “Placed horizontally and vertically in the plane, with the letters o and m as points of intersection the words are gradually transformed into a mosaic of black and white squares which in turn develop into reptiles. Now the rhythm changes…by and by each each figure simplifies into a regular hexagon. At this point an association of ideas occurs: hexagons are reminiscent of the cells of a honeycomb, and no sooner has this thought occurred than a bee larva begins to stir in every cell… and so forth, continuing with images of birds, fish and even a city, and then back to abstract shapes and letters.”
The segment shown was the piece moving from hexagons to cells of a honeycomb to bee larvae to young bees hatching to a bee flying! What a dynamic picture in such a small space!
We now have a picture of honeycomb with freshly laid eggs from the Queen – in anticipation of Spring and a new year of bees born in the hive!
My hives are named “Bee” “here” “now”! 🙂
Love it! Hope they have survived and thrived over the past few years!
Beelore
Bee Lore is one of the most remarkable blogs about bees I have come across so far. I love to get lost in all your stories! Very inspiring. Also, I very much admire the header picture you have chosen. Well done, Mr. Escher. Thank you, Bee Lore!
Hi
I am looking for a mentor I live in Tonbridge and would love to start Bee Keeping but I would like some hands on expirence first Can anyone help me
Regards
Alison
Alison,
Yes I can help. If you have not found anyone else, then please write back and I can give you an hour or so at my apiary which is quite close by.
Beelore
Hi Alison – did you ever start beekeeping?
Bee Lore is one of the most remarkable blogs about bees I have come across so far. I love to get lost in all your stories! Very inspiring. Also, I very much admire the header picture you have chosen. Well done, Mr. Escher. Thank you, Bee Lore!
+1
Thank you so much, Ceilla! I have finally got enough honey in the hive to start to write more of the Blook – so watch this space!
What do you think of HU man BEEing?
Why not, Deborah!. Did you know your name means “bee” in Hebrew?