Bees, hives and honey etc: symbolism, significance and refer

#BeeToo

It is not just Prince Harry who was buzzed by a bee: Prince Charles and Camilla were bothered by a big bee during a visit to New Zealand in 2015:

Telling the bees and three great writers

The telling of the bees is a traditional European custom in which bees would be told of important events in their keeper's lives, such as births, marriages, deaths or departures and returns in the household. If the custom was omitted or forgotten…then it was believed a penalty would be paid, such as the bees leaving their hive, stopping the production of honey, or dying.

This custom is mentioned in many books, including some by authors featured on here.

I posted about Rudyard Kipling’s short story The Mother Hive. He also wrote a poem called The Bee-Boy’s Song, which begins:

"BEES! BEES! Hark to your bees!
Hide from your neighbours as much as you please,
But all that has happened, to us you must tell,
Or else we will give you no honey to sell!"

John Buchan’s book The Blanket of the Dark mentions an old wise woman called Madge who lives in the Cotswolds and tells her bees everything. Her honey is the best in the area.

As for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he tells us in His Last Bow that Sherlock Holmes takes up beekeeping in his retirement. Holmes even writes a book about it:

“’But you have retired, Holmes. We heard of you as living the life of a hermit among your bees and your books in a small farm upon the South Downs.’

‘Exactly, Watson. Here is the fruit of my leisured ease, the magnum opus of latter years!” He picked up the volume from the table and read out the whole title, Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen.
‘Alone I did it. Behold, the fruit of the pensive nights and laborious days when I watched the little working gangs as I once watched the criminal world of London.’”

Surely Holmes would have talked to his bees the way he did to Watson!

Bee-friendly plants and flowers for the recent wedding

“Prince Harry and Meghan Markle went one step further in announcing the spectacular flower arrangements for their big day, as they aimed to tie the knot and save the bees at the same time.

The couple chose a high society florist to design their day, using plants and flowers from the Crown Estates and Royal Parks chosen particularly for their pollinator-friendly properties.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/royal-wedding-florist-revealed-harry-meghan-plan-save-bees-queens/

Bees as a symbol of royalty

There are some connections between bees and French royalty.

From transformer:

“Louis is a shortened version of Clovis. He was the first king of the Francs a tribe that lived in current northern Germany.”

Bees are associated with Clovis and Napoleon Bonaparte:

“The eagle and bee, emblems of the First and later Second Empire, have become so familiar that it is easy to forget their origin and meaning.

Golden bees, being found in 1653 in Tournai in the tomb of Childeric I, father of Clovis I and founder of the Merovingian dynasty in 457, were considered the first emblem of the kings of France. They represented a sign of immortality and resurrection.”

www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/the-symbols-of-empire/

The bees on Napoleon’s mantle are very similar to the Merovingian bees from Childeric’s tomb:



So does the bee buzzing around Harry mean that he will be the next king?

Bees and the possible next monarch

Prince Charles is very interested in this bee frame, and greets one of the bees in person:

Bees in the Buckingham Palace garden

Bees were introduced in 2009. They live on an island in the lake. There are four hives. The honey goes to the royal kitchens, and the Queen is said to enjoy eating it.

“…he replaces the queen — bee that is — with a new one each May. ‘They’re less likely to swarm when there’s a younger queen because she gives off a substance that suppresses the instinct.’ All this is happening in a secret part of the garden, not visible to the hundreds of thousands of paying visitors who flock to Buckingham Palace.“



Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028696/A-unique-insight-Her-Majestys-favourite-honey--backyard.html#ixzz5HL7AZgHB

There could be something very symbolic about the old Queen and the new young Queens.

Why would they suddenly decide in 2009 to start keeping bees at Buckingham Palace?

I found a name diana Birchall; Mrs Elton in America remains me of diana and Elton friendship

Mead

“To create meade is a challenge. You have to introduce it slowly, because the formic acid will kill the fermentation process. A lot of meade out thre is wine that has had honey added to it. If that helps!”

Have you ever made it yourself Avacyn ? Have you even tasted it? It sounds delicious, but I can’t drink alcohol so will probably never try it.

I see that there is pure mead, mead with various fruits and spices etc.added and as you say wine with honey added, which is not real mead.

I like these advertisements:

There is Diana Birchall picture on google the same lady who wrote mrs Elton in america.
There is a sporty Katy Birchall who writes princess tales. There is Peter birchall who is royal photographer follows Camila around. All these names come up connected to bees tales.
The picture above come up as diana dressed as 🐝

The book about bees

As I said in the Sussex thread, I saw someone reading a book called In Praise of Bees by Elizabeth Birchall on the bus. I got a copy from the library; it was interesting and informative but I couldn’t see anything really relevant to this forum. It was Lavendel who found some connections just by using Google!

Anyone who wants to get a lot of background information about bees may find it worth getting.There are many reviews and articles online. Here is the book again:

@unseenl;, die bienenastich -cake or bee sting cake is an traditional german cake. A cake was made by young bakery apprentices to celebrate using bees to chase away attackers in their village.
Its a delicatessen here. I love and taste.

What i find interesting is the connection to king artur or könig artur flour.
Thinks keep getting new twists.

———————-
Maede

Has german origin too. Mäde is a family name from the region where queen Charlotte was born.

Mäde or maede mader is connected to bees, products from which wine is made by farmers. meade is another alternative.

Yes it is. Mäder ist person who cuts grass in high german.

Bienenstich cake is so common here. The backer here has them often. I can send you a package 😇. I love the mandel . They taste like honey .

Made is german name too connected to bee pollen .

I just read about an old honey - german drink before wine. King lof the franks ludovico loved it. Back then it was the only drink.

I don't see evidence of that - yet. What I have found:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Monarchs_(AHL)

An American hockey team.

Also, from Wikipedia:


SOURCE: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester

So, there is more going on, it would seem.

Swarm the bee man

A few comic book characters have appeared in the Sussexes thread. Now we have a bee man with a bizarre back-story. From WiKi:

“Swarm (Fritz von Meyer) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as a former Nazi sympathizer and has been mainly featured as an enemy of Spider-Man. His entire body is composed of bees surrounding his skeleton...

Fritz von Meyer was born in Leipzig, Germany and became one of A d o l f H I t l e r's top scientists. Escaping capture after World War II, he became a beekeeper or apiarist in South America and discovered a colony of mutated bees. Intrigued by their intelligence and passive nature, von Meyer attempted to enslave the queen bee, but failed and the bees devoured him, leaving only his skeleton. The unique qualities of the bees caused his consciousness to be absorbed into them, allowing von Meyer to manipulate the hive to do his will, although some of his skeletal remains are inside the swarm itself. His consciousness merged with the swarm to the extent that they become one being, calling himself/their-self ‘Swarm’".