Category Archives: History
World Apitherapy Day
March 30 is World Apitherapy Day. It is celebrated on this day because it’s the birthdate of one of the most important early promoters of happy bee stings – a chap named Filip Terč, whom you see glaring at you … Continue reading
Posted in Apitherapy, Culture, or lack thereof, History, Stings
Tagged Filip Terč, rheumatism, Slovenia
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About time
Ever wonder why it’s called Savings Time? Ben Franklin, America’s first inventor/publisher/scientist/states-man/postmaster proposed the idea back in 1760 as a way to save money. You see, his father had been a candle maker so little Ben realized from an early … Continue reading
Keeping ahead of the sheep
Democracies often work better than dictatorships. Democracy is based on crowd decisions, or, in the trendy new parlance, crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing really came of age with the internet – put your question, issue, project, or some politician’s dirty laundry … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, History, Swarms
Tagged crowd sourcing, Henry David Thoreau, Honey Bee Democracy, Tom Seeley
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Invasive bee hives
Dutch bee hives in Manhattan? Of course. Four hundred years and counting. New York was known as New Amsterdam by its first settlers, the Dutch from Holland who arrived on lower Manhattan Island in 1614. That’s even before the Pilgrims … Continue reading
Posted in Bee Biology, Culture, or lack thereof, Ecology, History
Tagged invasive species, Manhattan bees
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Time to say goodbye – or maybe not
Bees have made the cover of Time. Missing bees, that is. The cover announces “A World without Bees” and promises to disclose “the price we’ll pay” if we can’t stop the bee losses. I’m not sure exactly what triggered this … Continue reading
80 Years in the Bees
What would it be like to keep bees for 80 years? You could ask 92-year-old George Birks, who started back in the 1920s. The price of a loaf of bread was 9 cents; a pound of sugar was 7 cents; … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, or lack thereof, History, People
Tagged Adamson, England, George Birks
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Fire in the Shop
A couple of weeks ago, a warehouse fire destroyed a bee outfit’s shop at an old kibbutz in Israel. A dozen hives were lost, along with processing equipment and supers. The kibbutz was founded in 1934 by progressives from Poland … Continue reading
Mount Everest’s Beekeeper
Today is the 60th Anniversary of The Conquest of Everest. It was 1953, Queen Elizabeth was just about to begin her first day on the job as queen of the world’s imperial empire. In 1953, a typical TV was a … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Commercial Beekeeping, History, People, Strange, Odd Stuff
Tagged Mount Everest, New Zealand, Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay
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Rattled Flowers
Charles Darwin was a famous geologist before he published his revolutionary evolutionary treatise. He was also a well-rounded naturalist. It was Charles Darwin who discovered that some bumblebee species gnaw into the side of deep-throated flowers, cheating their pollination obligation. … Continue reading
Posted in History, People, Pollination, Science
Tagged Charles Darwin, evolution, yellow rattle
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The History of British Columbia Beekeeping
I found some time to read a book, A History of Beekeeping in British Columbia from 1950 to 2000, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Like most prairie dwellers, I have trekked out through beautiful British Columbia as often as possible. … Continue reading
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