The Feminine Monarchie -or- The Historie of Bees never fails to fascinate. The first edition was published in 1609, and republished as seen below in 1623.
The Beekeeper's Dictionary includes facsimiles of the frontispiece pages from the 1623 edition. In 1634, Butler published a version using his own modernized spellings.
The 2017, Northern Bee Books published a version of The Feminine Monarchie -or- The Historie of Bees based on the 1623 text, edited and curated by John Owen.
From The Conversation in 2024, an article headed Honey bees are suprisingly abundant, research shows – but most are wild, not managed in hives.
Mainly the article tells me that we don't know much about unmanaged colonies because, er, well, they're unmanaged.
https://theconversation.com/honey-bees-are-suprisingly-abundant-research-shows-but-most-are-wild-not-managed-in-hives-224807
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https://impress.games/press-kit/afootgames/the-beekeepers-picnic |
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https://honeyshow.co.uk/ https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/ |
According to Hello! magazine (yes, it's still going), Joanna Gaines is a beekeeper. Who?
The image below, from the web page, may help you identify Joanna...
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| https://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/855743/joanna-gaines-poses-with-her-rarely-seen-children-as-she-shares-amazing-new-update-on-family-life-together/ |
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Image: Thanet Beekeepers Association YLAH Coordinator |
Yes, for the beekeeper who has [nearly] everything - and for the beekeeper's Friends, Family and Significant Others who are desperate to think of something as a present... Available to purchase from Mellifica - and soon also from Northern Bee Books https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/
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This story smells iffy, to say the least. Were any people in Nigeria actually exterminating, or trying to exterminate, bees? No, but let's not let a headline stand in the way of a story, eh?
https://www.arise.tv/nigerians-warned-against-exterminating-bees/
If you have any idea what "Quectel supports commercial beekeeping with LTE module" means, please let me know... There's probably a good story in there, buried by technology.
https://www.iotinsider.com/news/quectel-supports-commercial-beekeeping-with-lte-module/
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| https://www.quectel.com/ |
Yes, for the beekeeper who has [nearly] everything - and for the beekeeper's Friends, Family and Significant Others who are desperate to think of something as a present... Available to purchase from Mellifica
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| https://uk.news.yahoo.com/bees-ways-cope-warming-earth-131617350.html |
Aristotle, of Stagirus, Thinker
Baden-Powell, Agnes Smyth, Established the Girl Guides
Beckham, David Robert Joseph, Footballer
Clarkson, Jeremy Charles Robert, Farmer
Coleman, Zendaya Maree Stoermer, Actor
DiCaprio, Leonardo Wilhelm, Actor
Fenty, Robyn Rihanna, Singer
Fonda, Henry Jaynes, Actor
Freeman, Morgan Porterfield, Actor
Hemsworth, Christopher, Actor
Hillary, Edmund Percival, Climber
Hippocrates, Asclepiades of Kos, Thinker
Holmes, William Sherlock Scott, Detective
Johansson, Scarlett Ingrid, Actor
Johnson, Dwayne Douglas, Wrestler
Knowles, Beyoncé Giselle, Singer
Lively, Blake Ellender, Actor
McPherson, Graham 'Suggs', Singer
Milne, Alan Alexander, Writer
Plinius Secundus, Gaius, Politician
Sheeran, Edward Christopher, Singer
Tolstoy, Lev Nikolayevich, Writer
von Trapp, Maria Augusta Kutschera, Singer
Washington, George, Politician
Fascinating presentation yesterday evening from Steve Riley, author of The Honey Bee Solution to Varroa.
In a nutshell, the thesis is that treating bees with miticides is creating selection pressure for treatment-resistant mites while simultaneously creating selection pressure for varroa-susceptible bees.
As Steve confirms, this is hardly news.
The point he and others make is that it is possible to select for mite-resistant bees by close observation of behaviour, and - over time - stop treating with miticides.
The book "explains the practical steps beekeepers can take to identify and select for easily observable Varroa-resistant traits in their colonies. The science behind the bees’ mechanisms for controlling their mite populations is explained, in what is a bee-led solution to the biggest challenge facing the European honey bee."
Available from Northern Bee Books and Amazon
The obvious, curious point: the thief must have been another beekeeper.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/beehive-bandit-makes-off-57-190935708.html
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| Mr Jon Zwiers, looking crestfallen |
The first official Army bees have taken up residence at the headquarters of Standing Joint Command in Aldershot – and they are already creating quite a buzz.
Plenty more in the press about Vespa velutina nigrithorax... My conclusion: we may win a few battles, but the war is already lost.
Apart from the tariffs, get this: 1,000 barrels of honey (about 300 tonnes) every year!
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/sask-beekeepers-hope-avoid-sting-100039670.html
A new game you know you want to play...
Apparently, Washington State University entomologists think that commercial honey bee colony losses are projected to reach between 60% and 70% in 2025.
Crikey.
More here https://abcnews.go.com/US/honey-bee-colonies-face-70-losses-2025-impacting/story?id=120191720
More here: https://news.wsu.edu/news/2025/03/25/honey-bee-colony-declines-grow-as-wsu-researchers-work-to-fight-losses/
Why do I think "stoner" when I see this photo? Anyway, it turns out that (a) Branden does all the beekeeping and (b) Her Indoors doesn't like honey.
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Ann Chilcott, Scottish Expert Beekeeper |
Finished reading Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov. Not sure if I enjoyed it, exactly...
In an article headed "The fight to save the native Welsh honeybee," it struck me that there probably isn't a native Welsh bee:
1) 'Wales' is a political construct created by people, not bees
2) Great Britain might have had an identifiable strain of bees, the British Black Bee
3) A rule of thumb is that species within a genus cannot successfully interbreed, but all A mellifera can interbreed successfully
So being a Linnaean curmudgeon, I don't think there is a native Welsh honeybee.
https://nation.cymru/feature/the-fight-to-save-the-native-welsh-honeybee/
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| Photo by Carwyn Graves |
Sad story: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/beekeeper-devastated-after-300-000-drowned-during-horrific-new-year-s-day-flooding/ar-AA1xtwQG
One of the greatest questions facing humanity: fencing veil or pepperpot?
Pic from the Wisborough Green Beekeepers' Association, www.wgbka.org.uk
Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, is a contender for the next UK Archbishop of Canterbury.
If proof were available that god exists then faith wouldn't be necessary, and the entire pyramid of piffle would collapse.
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| https://associatestimes.com/dominica/dominica-nathaniel-lovells-la-vie-miel-secures-first-place-at-uk-national-honey-show |
This photo, in the Edinburgh Evening News, is captioned "Ross taught himself everything there was to know about bees"
Why everything there was to know about bees?
A right royal round-up in Hello! magazine: https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/724089/king-charles-unconventional-hobby-shares-with-princess-kate/
Slightly odd ad campaign from Hilltop Honey: https://lbbonline.com/news/hilltops-beehive-wearing-honey-heads-star-in-new-campaign
https://lovehilltop.com/
Who'd have known Newfoundland has an insectarium? Originally the hive was purely for observation (see pic) but Andrea Doucette and Lloyd Hollett now also sell honey.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/collecting-honey-sticky-business-someones-083000776.html
Beekeeping in Peru, here https://uk.news.yahoo.com/climate-funds-helped-perus-women-024335199.html
The figures: $27,000 investment, the beekeepers run 89 colonies, producing $13,000 a year. Put another way, each hive cost about $300, each hive produces about $140. That's a good ROI.
Women workers from the 'Hojuelas de Miel' beekeepers association use a brush to remove bees while harvesting honey in Chilal de la Merced, in the rural region of Cajamarca, Peru, on July 22, 2024 (Cris BOURONCLE) (Cris BOURONCLE/AFP/AFP)
https://www.facebook.com/hollysgardenkitchen/posts/queen-bee-julie-aka-mum-has-lots-of-honey-for-sale-from-our-hives-in-the-orchard/843580427768874/
Mickael Isambert, a beekeeper in Saint-Ours-les-Roches in central France, lost 70 percent of his honey and had to feed his colonies sugar to help them survive after a cold, rainy spring.
"It has been a catastrophic year," said Isambert, 44, who looks after 450 hives.
Read more https://uk.news.yahoo.com/bees-starving-disastrous-french-honey-140411280.html
