Deafening silence

Slight interruption to the normal lack of service on the blog by the arrival of Child Number Three (20 May, 3.7kg, Lalita). She demands more attention than bees, blogs and beer. Just.

Beelore

Waaaaay the most interesting and informative beeblog I have come across so far: http://beelore.com/

A World Without Bees

Sadly, one of the colonies has died, which temporarily leaves me bee-less (the other colony is in more competent hands than mine). A world without bees...

Montana Wildlife Gardener

A real rant, and quite a good one: 

http://montanawildlifegardener.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/my-garden-rant-guest-rant-honey-bees.html

Bad Things for Bees

From The Independent 30 March 2012. For the more technically minded, the diagram shows that Things Are Very Bad, and (top right) Some Things Are Really Awful. The yellow hexagon means "Beware Pirates." For a less scientific interpretation, see  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/new-pesticides-linked-to-bee-population-collapse-7601198.html 

Not a lot of people know that

Sir Edmund Hillary

With his brother Rex, Hillary became a beekeeper,[1][6] a summer occupation that allowed him to pursue climbing in the winter.[7] His interest in beekeeping later led Hillary to commission Michael Ayrton to cast a golden sculpture in the shape of honeycomb in imitation of Daedalus's lost-wax process. This was placed in his New Zealand garden, where his bees took it over as a hive and "filled it with honey and their young"

Not a lot of people know that.


Text info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary Pic from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067128/. Sir Edmund looks an awful lot like Michael Caine. Shome mishtake, surely?

Iran does something good

Take a look: http://www.mellifera.ir  There is a button to show the site in British English (yes, British English) for those whose Farsi is a little rusty.

Apocephalus borealis

The author, Sandy Simpson, Polmont Horticultural Society, of an article referring to yet another threat to bees: apocephalus borealis. Seen in The Falkirk Herald 

Cornsheds and beekeeping

Although unified in their musical tastes, as songwriters and interpreters The Cornshed Sisters display a healthy disregard for unity of subject matter (reminiscent perhaps of Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell or Richard and Linda Thompson). In these songs the ladies tackle water babies, beekeeping, marriage, soothsayers, men in sequined suits, making pies out of people and the axis of love and bombs. And, there’s some unusual stuff too.  http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/144229-cornshed-sisters-announce-april-uk-dates.html  

PS I did not crop this photo, honest. 

Travels in Blood and Honey

Knowing just how bally hard it is to make money from writing, here's another plug for Travels in Blood and Honey - bearing in mind that I have not actually read it. 

The author even left a comment: "The Times (http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/non-fiction/article3060779.ece) says ‘a sheer delight; a beguiling, bittersweet story of a lively love affair with a traditional world, as ancient as apiculture, in transition to new nationhood’. Beecraft magazine calls it 'insightful'. I think it's brilliant ;-)" 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Travels-Blood-Honey-Becoming-Beekeeper/dp/1904955908