Have you seen the beautiful film, “The Dance of the Honey Bee”? Filmed by Peter Nelson, a beekeeper and cinematographer, it recently won the Miro Inspiration Challenge. This rich film captures in slow motion the movement of honeybees both inside and outside of the hive. Even the rapid beating of the honey bee’s wings –typically between 200-230 times per second — is slowed down for the viewer to watch. Take a moment to enjoy the film…
NYC Beekeeping, which offers free beekeeping classes and takes part in extensive outreach, is hosting a talk on Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 2:00 pm with Professor Tom Seeley. Dr. Seely, a Professor at Cornell, will speak on the topic of his new book “Honeybee Democracy: How Bees Choose a Home.”
Charles Henry Turner
Born on February 3, 1867 to former slaves, Dr. Charles Turner rose to become one of the preeminent entomologists in the United States. Dr. Turner earned his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Cincinnati and later became the first African-American to receive a Ph.D in zoology from the University of Chicago.
Dr. Turner published nearly 50 scholarly papers and is the source of a number of groundbreaking breakthroughts including the discovery that insects can hear and that ants use light and smell to travel to and from their nests. He also discovered that honey bees have color vision and are able to recognize patterns and shapes. His seminal work pre-dated that of Nobel prize winner Karl von Frisch.
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” Buddha
Sometimes you just know something, you know. And when there isn’t any scientific evidence to prove it, you just have to wait until the science catches up. Well, it looks like they’re finally catching up.
I have posted about what might be causing colony collapse in the past. Over the summer, Italy’s rebounding bee populations after banning neonicotinoids seemed very promising (Leave me the birds and the bees, please …). It’s the theory that made the most sense to me then, and still does. At the very least it seems to be a significant contributing factor in colony collapse, IMHO.
Thank you to our Donors! The Honeybee Conservancy is deeply grateful to the following individuals for their generous gift towards the “Sponsor A Hive” program:
Sydney M.–in memory of Sara Stone-Willis, who had been so active in saving bees in the San Francisco Bay Area
“Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about.” -August in The Secret Life of Bees
For several years now, people have been wondering what, exactly, is happening inside the hives of honeybees. Colony collapse disorder has been decimating hives, confounding beekeepers, and even causing a low-level panic in the general public. Just a few moments ago, the New York Times published an article announcing a modicum of success in solving this mystery, “Possible Cause for Bee Die-Off Found,” by Kirk Johnson.
Entomologists and military scientists have found a fungus that is apparently working in tandem with a virus to somehow compromise the bee nutrition.
Lots of questions still to answer … but let’s hope this is a first step in identifying the problem or problems and working toward a solution.
It’s well past time to unravel this particular piece of complicated life inside the hive!
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.
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.
It is high summer in our little porch garden. The tomatoes are ripening and the peppers are coming in. The potted rosebushes are still blooming, bless them, and there are hips forming on the Rugosa. The bees, those Golden Sisters, are busy, and so are we – packing a million and one things into each bright-as-butter day. When I chance to see them in and amongst the tomato and pepper flowers, or reveling in the heart of spicy white rose, I say hello. I tell them about my life. Telling the bees. Read the rest of this entry →
I walked to the back 40 this morning with my two teenage sons and our very excited family dog to pick blackberries. As I reached into the thorny bush to gently massage a clump of juicy ripe berries, I was struck with the thought of how quickly nature heals herself if we let her.
Several years ago, one of our neighbors had a bulldozer come in and make 3 large piles of logs and brush out of 6 acres of beautiful native forest. I grumbled about it to my wife on more than one occasion and was excited when they wanted to sell. We bought it, and forgot about it. I’m sure our other neighbors grumbled about us not brush hogging it like a responsible land owner does.
This year we have a bumper crop of wild blackberries covering the land. You can’t even see the ground, as the brush is so thick. Where there was once disturbed soil, there is now fertile and productive growth. The microbes and worms in the soil are recovering nicely and the erosion has stopped.
Unless we interfere, over time that area will once again be an old growth forest with tall majestic trees.
What does this have to do with honey bees?
Nature is quite consistent. She never gets discouraged and always recovers.
The honey bees are recovering from our ignorance and interference. There are beekeepers who are prospering. They are the ones who listen to the bees and respond with as little manipulation as possible.
But what about the beekeepers who have been taking the government handout/bailouts? I suspect that if we were to look closer we would find that those beekeepers aren’t working with nature but against her. The irony is… they are being rewarded for over managing or even mismanaging their hives.
At Beelanding were not offering bailouts but rather, information, ideas, workshops, hands-on experience, and a bee friendly bee hive. What we are doing here takes work and experimentation. I’ve been thinking what kind of handout I can offer. Hmmmmm….. seems like the best I can do is to offer you a cool glass of blackberry mead, when you pay us a visit.
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