The Honeybee Conservancy

In Ancient Greek mythology and religion, the term Melissae sometimes referred to honey nymphs (also called Meliae) and later became a term that also encompassed several sects of priestess, including the Delphic oracle.  Letters to the Melissae is a series of posts on the spiritual, mythological and folkloric legacy of the ancient relationship between honeybees and human beings.  Photo found here.

Honey at the Table

It fills you with the soft
essence of vanished flowers, it becomes
a trickle sharp as a hair that you follow
from the honey pot over the table

and out the door and over the ground,
and all the while it thickens,

grows deeper and wilder, edged
with pine boughs and wet boulders,
pawprints of bobcat and bear, until

deep in the forest you
shuffle up some tree, you rip the bark,

you float into and swallow the dripping combs,
bits of the tree, crushed bees – - – a taste
composed of everything lost, in which everything lost is found.

- Mary Oliver

Read the rest of this entry →

“That buzzing-noise means something. If there’s a buzzing noise, somebody’s making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you’re a bee … and the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey … and the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it.” ~~ Winnie the Pooh

I love Pooh.  Really, I do.  But as Piglet says, “Pooh hasn’t much Brain.”  So, as National Honey Month comes to a close, I’d like to point out a few other amazing things that honeybees do that give us humans more reasons to love them.  As if making honey (the only food produced by an insect that is eaten by man, by the way) and doing the lionshare of pollinating food crops wasn’t enough! Read the rest of this entry →

As you know, September is National Honey Month.  Here are five “honey hacks” to help you make the most of your honey.

1. Has your honey crystallized? Crystallized honey can be liquefied by slowly heating it for up to a minute.
2. Out of sugar? Use honey!  Since honey is up to twice as sweet as table sugar, use half the amount in honey.
3. Cooking with honey? To help honey slide off your measuring spoon, simply coat it with vegetable spray first.
4. Have a minor skin burn? Research shows that honey is an effective treatment for minor burns. It’s antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties may promote healing. So if consider reaching for some honey in lieu of burn creme.
5. Out of moisturizer? It’s said that Cleopatra maintained her beauty with honey and milk baths.  Honey is a humectant, which means that it attracts water and, as a result, is an ideal skin moisturizer.  Apply honey to your face and let it sit for about 15 minutes.

Photo by jfschmit

September is National Honey Month. It’s an ideal time to celebrate honey and indulge in your craving for this sweet and viscous food known as “liquid gold.”  While indulging, why not focus on local honey, or honey made as close as possible to your home?  Here are five potent reasons to step away from the generic honey bear at your local supermarket and instead reach for a jar (or more!) of local honey. Read the rest of this entry →

Honeybees are crucial pollinators responsible for every third bite on our dinner plate. A recent survey revealed that our humble honeybees are sicker than ever.

Honeybee deaths this year were much higher than last year.

And last year marked record-low honey production. Honey production dropped 12 percent, to 144 million pounds.

More than 50 billion honeybees have perished within the last year in the United States. Scientists call it Colony Collapse Disorder. When honeybees get sick, they will not return to the colony. Nature designed these social creatures not to infect one another when they get ill. The queen bee is the only insect left in the hive; helpless, she, too, dies quickly. Read the rest of this entry →

1. To produce two pounds of honey, bees travel a distance equal to four times around the Earth.

2. Honey is one of the few sweeteners that contains health-promoting vitamins and minerals.

3. The antioxidant pinocembrin is found only in honey.

4. Honey is an ancient food, preceding sugar. In fact, honey was found in the tomb of King Tut and, amazingly, was still edible since honey never spoils.

5. There are hundreds of varieties of honey in the United States, each with its unique flavor.  Artisanal honeys carry the flavor of the flower from where their nectar derives. vary from orange blossom honey (light and great in tea) to eucalyptus honey (darker, spicy undertone) to bamboo honey (japanese knotwood. Dark and sweet.  My personal favorite!)