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Bee Diseases – Nothing New!

November 13, 2007 by beelore

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

Posted in Bee Lore, Beekeeping | Leave a Comment »

Bee Wars!

November 13, 2007 by beelore

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

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Breaking the Law of Aerodynamics

November 11, 2007 by beelore

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

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She Labours for Others

November 11, 2007 by beelore

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

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Was You Ever Bit by a Dead Bee?

November 9, 2007 by beelore

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.

===============================================

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!

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween | 1 Comment »

Along the Garden Wall

November 9, 2007 by beelore

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)

======================

I love this short poem by Eliot.

It articulates the relationship between bees and flowers in such elegant, simple and poetic language.

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The End of a Bee’s Life

October 19, 2007 by beelore

“Most of the bees come to their end in the open fields. With wings frayed from the winds the summer workers reach the limit of their strength and expire.  Bees that die within the hive are carried outside by the workers – yet this is a rare occurrence.  As many observers have reported, dying bees will use their last remaining strength to creep beyond the landing board.  A Law of the insect city apparently leads the exhausted bees to leave the interior of the hive and so save their fellow workers the task of removing their bodies.  The queen seems to be guided by the same instinct, leaving the hive when her end is near.  For cleanliness is one of the unwritten laws of the insect city. It is inherent in the bees. ”

From: ‘The Golden Throng’ by Edwin Way Teale – republished by Alpha Books of Dorset in 1968.

Posted in Bee Law, Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween | Leave a Comment »

What a Relief!

October 19, 2007 by beelore

Mum came out of the house just at that moment.  We shared the excitement with her.  “Look!” I said “What do you think it is?”  “It is a swarm of bees!” Mum said. Bees!  There was a scientific explanation for all those mysterious happenings.  And it lay in the fact that all these strange things that had happened in the past few minutes had been caused by this large ball of buzzing bees.  What a relief!

Posted in Bee Present, Bylaugh | 1 Comment »

Bee Afraid, Bee Very Afraid!

October 19, 2007 by beelore

They’ve built barriers, shone flashlights and even burned their rubber-soled shoes.  yet try as they might, African farmers struggle to keep elephants from trampling their land and destroying their crops.

The answer, finally, may be found in the sound of a swarm of buzzing bees.  “They really bolted,” says Lucy King at the University of Oxford, whose team played 4-minute recordings of bees to 17 herds of elephants in the Buffalo Springs and Samburo national reserves in Kenya.  “One herd even ran across a river to get away.”

King successfully deterred 16 of the 17 herds by playing them recordings from speakers hidden in a portable fake tree trunk.  Some herds put more than 100 metres between them and the buzz.  The average “safe” distance for the elephants was 64 metres, compared with just 20 metres to avoid white noise (Current Biology, vol 17, p R832).

King decided to act after hearing that elephants avoid trees containing beehives.  One game warden told her of seeing a large bull elephant being stung up its trunk.  “It went completely beserk, apparently,” she says.

Although the recordings work well, the equipment needed to play it is expensive.  King believes a cheaper, more sustainable solution is to use real beehives, with the honey they supply providing additional food and income for farmers.  She is conducting field trials using real hives to discover what effect they have on elephants, and just how sweet the benefits are for farmers.

From: New Scientist, 13 October 2007, page5

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beekeeping | 1 Comment »

The Edinburgh Beekeeper’s Funeral

September 24, 2007 by beelore

I have a very old friend who lives in Scotland.  He told me of an uncle of his who used to keep bees in his roof garden in Edinburgh.  Unfortuately, his uncle died and the day of his dead uncle’s funeral, arrangements were made for a hearse to take his body to the local church.  The story goes that the bees swarmed and followed the hearse down the road to the church.  What a beautiful send-off from the bees!

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween | 2 Comments »

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