Tuesday, April 19, 2011
We all enjoy the sweet stuff, but bees are responsible for much more of our diet.
Honey, wax, even meade are all familiar bee products, but these remarkable little creatures give us so much more than the obvious; bees are tremendously important to agriculture and the foods we enjoy. Commercial beekeepers are perhaps less concerned with direct bee-related products such as honey, and far more interested that as they collect pollen—from which they make their life-sustaining sweet goo—they pollinate a wide variety of plants that feed our country and much of the world. As pollinators, worker bees fly from flower to flower collecting pollen, some of which they tuck into a sort of pocket or basket on their hind legs or abdomen, but some pollen they transfer to other plants, thereby ensuring a healthy crop. Bees are not the …
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Fulfilling their roles, these bees really are busy.
While there are some similarities to our own society that make empathy easy, in most ways their world is so vastly different than ours. Theirs is a matriarchal society in which the comparatively few male bees serve one single purpose. They do no work at all, have no stinger and live simply to propagate. Once their purpose is served they are driven from the hive, which results in their death. All other bees in the colony are female, and each has a specific purpose or job. Some are worker bees who collect and bring back nectar. Others make honey. Some fan the sweet rich liquid with their wings to aid in evaporation. Some tend the eggs and larvae or Queen, while still others guard the hive against intruders. The only thing the workers do …
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
“The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.” —Henry David Thoreau
Beekeeping, or apiculture, is equal parts art, science and passion. One might be hard-pressed to find an individual involved in beekeeping who doesn't have strong feelings about it. Modern day apiarists, much like their ancient forefathers, continue to study the habits and needs of bees in an effort to improve on their methods of caring for hives and producing products. These improvements have resulted in the preservation of the colony when harvesting honey, wax and other bee products. A change came about with the development of moveable hives in the 17th and 18th centuries, despite beekeeping dating back to at least 13,000 BC. The passion that drives beekeepers to continue to learn has resulted in an understanding of bees that keep them …
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
“Let come what will, I mean to bear it out, and either live with glorious victory or die with fame renowned for chivalry: He is not worthy of the honey-comb, that shuns the hives because the bees have stings.”
—William Shakespeare
Spring can be both a blessing and a curse, particularly for those with seasonal allergies. As a gardener, an outdoor enthusiast, an animal lover and a longtime allergy sufferer, I know all too well the sniffing, sneezing, puffy eyes, itchy ears, sore throat, drippy sinuses and over all malaise that accompany all we love about spring. The bright leaves and buds on the trees; the lawns greening back up after a winter of lying dormant; the lovely aromas of blooming flowers make some of us miserable. One of the ways some people find relief from seasonal allergies is by consuming locally grown honey. Studies show that honey harvested from local bees can be as effective as allergy shots. Bees harvest pollen—from which they make honey—from a …
Roxana
3:44 pm on Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Wonderful!! I'm a holistic, urban beekeeper here in the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles. I learned how easy it was from a local group called the Backward Beekeepers. Backwards is the new forwards! more ›