Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beetwixt & Beetween on January 23, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Quoted by Mohammad Ali.
This is a graphic image on Mohammad Ali’s technique on how to box. Isn’t it strange how we need to refer to the insect kingdom (and not the kingdom of mammals) to describe the extremes of grace and power!
Picture from: http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on January 22, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The genetic blueprint of the honeybee was published in 2006. It revealed surprising links with mammals, including humans.
Honey bees apparently have an internal “biological clock” which is more like those of mammals than of flies, the research has revealed. The clock governs many activities, including time sensing, navigation, labour division, and the famous bee “dance language” which the insects use to communicate information about food sources.
Facts from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6084974.stm
Picture of Bee County Courthouse, Texas, USA from: http://www.texasescapes.com/SouthTexasTowns/BeevilleTx/BeevilleTxBeeCountyCourthouseDome1206BarlcayGibson.jpg
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beetwixt & Beetween on January 22, 2008| Leave a Comment »
In 2006, scientists identified the oldest known bee, a 100 million-year-old specimen preserved in amber which was found in a mine in northern Myanmar (Burma).
Posted in Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping on January 21, 2008| Leave a Comment »
A fantastic picture of a Queen Bee holding court
with her daughters:
The daughters care for her by feeding and grooming their Queen.
They also give her drinks of water.
The queen is a pampered mother!
From: http://www.liberty4hbees.com/ – a fantastic site showing children beekeepers!
See also my recent entry: https://beelore.com/2008/01/20/the-melissae-and-aphrodite-in-ancient-greece/
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee-ology, Beetwixt & Beetween on January 20, 2008| 19 Comments »
At the temple of Aphrodite at Eryx, priestesses were called “melissae”, which means “bees,” and Aphrodite herself was called Melissa, the queen bee. At the Ephesian temple of Artemis, the melissae were accompanied by transgendered priests called “essenes”, meaning drones. Bees are classified as members of the hymenopteran order, meaning “veil-winged,” recalling the hymen or veil that covered the inner shrine of the Goddess’s temple, and the high priestess who bore the title of Hymen, presiding over marriage rituals and the Honey Moon.
The Birth of Aphrodite (Venus) by Botticelli
Pythagoreans worshipped bees as Aphrodite’s sacred creature, who in their honeycombs create perfect hexagons; their endless symmetry seemed to suggest to them an underlying order in the cosmos. Demeter is also known as the mother bee, who governs the cycles of life. In ancient Greece, the dead were often embalmed in honey in large burial vases, crouched in the fetal position for their next birth.
Stories from: http://www.philomuse.com/kingfisher/lab/bees.htm (A Garden of Bees)
Picture from: http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/gallery/aphrodite.jpg
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on January 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »
And the Lord taught the Bee to build its cells in hills, in trees, and in men’s habitats; then to eat of all the produce and find with the skill the precious paths of its Lord: there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colours, wherein is healing for men; verily this is a sign for those who give thought.
Translated from The Holy Koran sura ‘The Bee’ in ayyats 68 and 69.
Posted in Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on January 17, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Bees sting only when they are provoked, for to do so means their death. So if you have a lot of angry bees around you, the best thing is to move away!
However, if a bee lands on you and is angry enough to sting you, then just before they sting they will arch their back and rub your skin with their tiny tail and leave a small amount of pheromone – which attracts other bees to sting in exactly that place! If you are quick, you can feel the bee rubbing itself on your skin and knock it off before it stings you! If you can prevent it from leaving the pheromone – even better. I am told that this is why bears hate bees so much – because one stung, the bees keep stining in the same vulnerable area….so there is a multiplier effect. Clever bees!
If one does manage to sting you, then the sting has barbs, which allows the sting to enter the skin and stay there. Unfortuantely this literally rips out the insides of the honey bee – which (unlike a wasp), will kill the bee. It also leaves a small venom sack attached to the barb that will, over time, self-inject imore venom nto the skin (it has a tiny muscle that will go on contracting even though the bee has fallen away!) I have found that if you get stung, then you should scrape off the small black barb from the wound as soon as you can with of one of your fingernails or a hive tool. It greatly reduces the effect of the sting – because the venom sack does not have a chance to inject all its venom into the skin.
Below is a diagram of how the bee-sting works.
Diagram from: http://www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/th16.htm
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee-ology, Beetwixt & Beetween on January 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The Queen of a hive of bees on Mount Hymettus rose up to Olympus to make an offering of honey to almighty Zeus. Zeus, delighted, swore that he would give her anything she asked for.
“Wise and powerful is Almighty Zeus!” said the Queen Bee. “Grant me, I pray you, a poison sting, so that when the humans come to steal my honey, I may kill them.”Zeus was angry then, for he loved the race of men, but he could not break his promise. “You shall have your poison,” he said, his brow like thunder. “But to use it will cost you your life. If you plunge your sting into the flesh of humankind, there it will stay, and you will die from the loss of it.”
And the moral of the story is: evil wishes come home to roost.
Posted in Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping on January 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »
I visited my only hive today – Faith. The orchard where I keep it has Barnaby Sheep in it. They have eaten too much of the bark from many of the apple trees – so those trees will probably die in the Spring. But the bees were fine. I hefted the hive and it was heavy still with bees and honey. I took off the top-cover. What joy. I really miss working the bees in the winter months. I saw a few bees flying (doing their winter cleansing flights). Bees are very clean and go out of the hive to get rid of their droppings. I saw some damage to the entrance to the hive – looked like woodpecker – but it did not warrant stirring the bees up to change the entrance block. Oh – and I found one of my old entrance blocks lying on the ground from when I took taway he empty hives of Hope and Charity……. I am going to try to buy two new colonies in the Spring – if anyone reading this has a good source of nucs, please post me a comment!
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on December 13, 2007| 3 Comments »
Bee bread or bee pollen is the main source of food for most honey bees and their larvae. It is fed to all larvae except those that are destined to become queens; the queen larvae are fed royal jelly instead. Bee bread consists of honey and pollens which are gathered by the worker bees. A recent study of bee bread showed it contained 188 kinds of fungi and 29 kinds of bacteria. Bee bread is sometimes referred to as Ambrosia. Bee bread is used in naturopathic medicine traditions and as a nutritional supplement, although exposure may trigger allergic or anaphylactic reactions in sensitive people.
Bee Lore 
