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A nice peaceful place for the Apis mellifera, and you. Placed with permission of the land owner.
The western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female (or "queen"), many sterile females or "workers," and small proportion of fertile males or "drones." Individual colonies can house tens of thousands of bees. Colony activities are organized by complex communication between individuals, through both odors and the dance language. The queen mates with 5 to 45 drones during her nuptial flights in her first two weeks, and spends her time in the hive until the spring when she leaves the hive with 2/3s of the worker bees leaving the hive for the next generation. The average lifespan of a queen is 3 to 5 years. Drones are (haploid) produced from unfertilized eggs. The queens, workers are (diploid) formed from fertilized eggs. The US Dept of Agriculture has estimated that there are about 139,500 to 212,000 beekeepers in the US. 95% are hobbyists with less than 25 hives and about 4% are part-timers keeping 25 to 299 hives. Together the two account for about 50% of the bee colonies kept and 40% of the honey produced. Millions of acres of US fruit, vegetable, oilseed, and legume seed crops depend on insect pollination, including honey bees. Almond crop is entirely dependent on honey bee pollination. The following crops are 90% dependent on honey bee pollination: apples, avocados, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, and sunflowers. Other crops pollinated by honey bees: alfalfa, cokes, kiwi, melons, and vegetables.Livestock feed: dependent on insect pollinated legumes (alfalfa, clover, etc.). 1/2 of alfalfa comes from California & approximately 220,000 colonies of honey bees are used to pollinate the alfalfa fields. Honey is a natural sweetener with trace amounts of vitamins and minerals. It also has antioxidant properties; the darker the honey the greater the amount of antioxidant properties it has. The honeybee hive is perennial. Although quite inactive during the winter, the honeybee survives the winter months by clustering for warmth. By self-regulating the internal temperature of the cluster, the bees maintain 93 degrees Fahrenheit in the center of the winter cluster (regardless of the outside temperature). Drambuie is a Scotch Liquor made with honey. Mead is a wine made from honey.Mead is the most ancient fermented beverage. The term “honey moon” originated with the Norse practice of consuming large quantities of Mead during the first month of a marriage.Honeymoon is derived not only from the idea that the first month of marriage is the sweetest, but also from the fact that “In many parts of Europe it was traditional to supply a newly married couple with enough mead for a month, ensuring happiness and fertility.” The beer that the first Anglo-Saxons drank was a brew of water and honeycomb in a clay pot, with the addition of herbs for flavoring. Honey is one of the oldest foods in existence. It was found in the tomb of King Tut and was still edible since honey never spoils. The honeybee is not born knowing how to make honey; the younger bees are taught by the more experienced ones. One bee colony can produce 60 to 100 pounds of honey per year. The practice of honey collection and beekeeping dates back to the stone-age, as evidenced by cave paintings. Honey has been delighting humans for more then 40 centuries. Honey has been used for millenia as a topical dressing for wounds since microbes cannot live in it. It also produces hydrogen peroxide. Honey has even been used to embalm bodies such as that of Alexander the Great. Honey is one of the oldest foods in existence. It was found in the tomb of King Tut and was still edible since honey never spoils. The antioxidant called “pinocembrin” is only found in honey. Honey is hydroscopic and has antibacterial qualities. Eating local honey can fend off allergies. Honey has the ability to attract and absorb moisture, which makes it remarkably soothing for minor burns and helps to prevent scarring. Honey speeds the healing of open wounds and also combats infection. Honey contains vitamins and antioxidants, but is fat free, cholesterol free, and sodium free. Modern science now acknowledges honey as an anti-microbial agent, which means it deters the growth of certain types of bacteria, yeast and molds. Honey is nature’s energy booster! It provides a concentrated energy source that helps prevent fatigue and can boost athletic performance. Honeybees are endangered by habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation; non-native species and diseases; pollution, including pesticides; and climate change. This cache has been placed with permission of the property owner. Please respect the land, and enjoy. You won't need to bee concerned with skeps, or hives.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[No skeps, or hives]
1. bayl bar bs gurfr va gur tneqra
2. Ybbx qbja