Europe was a veritable beehive of activity when it came to the medieval honey trade. A study just published in the Journal of Medieval History examines the historical context of the honey industry in the Middle Ages.

Authored by three scholars from King’s College London, the study uncovers how trade, taste, and ecology intersected in the production and consumption of honey during this time. Drawing from a variety of primary sources, the researchers reveal how the trade in honey was a vital part of medieval commerce.

Honey was being produced in practically every part of medieval Europe. The article notes that “everywhere in this region had some form of beekeeping adapted to social, ecological and physical environments, ranging from wicker hives (skeps) in England to the large bee ranches of central Castile, and from the log hives of western Germany and France to tree beekeeping in the vast forests east of the Elbe.”

The study centres on two particular important centres of honey production – Iberia and the Baltic region. Catalonia and Portugal would become major exporters of the product. The study uncovered 163 contracts for shipments of honey out of Catalonia between the years 1342 to 1484. A little over half of those shipments went to Egypt, but other exports went to France, Italy, Cyprus, and even the Syrian city of Damascus.

While Egyptians were voracious consumers of honey, so to were Italians. Francesco Datini, the famous Merchant of Prato, ordered a shipment from Valencia of 9000 litres of honey in June 1397. Several other trade networks also emerged, with honey going from Portugal to England, from Bulgaria to Italy, and from Hungary to Austria. Meanwhile, the Baltic region was also a major centre of honey production, but their trade was mostly local.

The study also notes that in Europe and the Middle East, there was much demand for honey. It was widely used not only as food but in cooking, brewing mead and even in medicines. While many wealthy people consumed honey, it could be found throughout society. For example, the nunnery of the Holy Cross, located in the northern German town of Rostock, kept track of their purchases of honey between 1421 and 1461. On average they purchased over 112 litres of honey, with some years going well over 200 litres. With the nunnery having between 30 and 40 residents, this would mean they were on average, using at least 3 litres a year per person. This is about six times the amount of honey an average American uses.

One of the main reasons that honey was traded so widely was that many places could export different qualities and styles of the product. The researchers commented:

Medieval consumers also recognized and appreciated the wide variety of honeys available and the ecologies they represented. The preference for some honeys over others, the prices special honeys could command and their ability to withstand transport costs over long distances show the extent to which taste played a role in this trade. The honeys which were most attractive for long-distance trade were those which came from floral and herbal landscapes, and areas with a high prevalence of trees like chestnut which imparted recognizable flavors. These honeys found ready markets across the Mediterranean and northern Europe, even in regions that had their own highly developed apiculture, and they existed alongside domestic products. Honey was a sought-after commodity whose consumption was embedded in the cultural fabric of the later Middle Ages.

The article, “Trade, taste and ecology: honey in late medieval Europe, by Alexandra Sapoznik, Lluís Sales i Favà and Mark Whelan, is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Medieval History.

Alexandra Sapoznik, Lluís Sales i Favà and Mark Whelan together run the project Bees in the medieval world –

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Honey trade was widespread in late medieval Europe, study finds – Medievalists.net

After three years in the United States Air Force, he worked 65-plus years for The A. I. Root Company from Advertising Manager to General Manager, to Vice President, to President, to Chairman of the Board, and as a valued member of the Board of Directors. He was also the Executive Publisher of Bee Culture Magazine for many successful years during his time in The A. I. Root Company.

John was on Medina City Council for 14 years with the last 10 years as President and 37 years on Medina General Hospital with 10 years as Chairman.

John was President of the Honey Industry Council of America from 1962-1963 and 1976-1977, President of the Ohio Agricultural Council from 1973-1974, President and Chairman of the Board for the Eastern Apicultural Society of North America, Inc. in 1978 and Chairman of the Board from 1983-1984, as well as Key Advisory Commission of the Agricultural Technical Institute for nine years (1984-1993). There are numerous other organizations that John served in over the years.

Ground-dwelling Tillyardembia was probably picky about which trees it climbed for pollen. Fossils reveal that the earwig-like insect Tillyardembia (illustrated) transported pollen from plant to plant about 280 million years ago. ANDREV ATUCHIN

By Sid Perkins

The oldest known fossils of pollen-laden insects are of earwig-like ground-dwellers that lived in what is now Russia about 280 million years ago, researchers report. Their finding pushes back the fossil record of insects transporting pollen from one plant to another, a key aspect of modern-day pollination, by about 120 million years.

The insects — from a pollen-eating genus named Tillyardembia first described in 1937 — were typically about 1.5 centimeters long, says Alexander Khramov, a paleoentomologist at the Borissiak Paleontological Institute in Moscow. Flimsy wings probably kept the creatures mostly on the forest floor, he says, leaving them to climb trees to find and consume their pollen.

Recently, Khramov and his colleagues scrutinized 425 fossils of Tillyardembia in the institute’s collection. Six had clumps of pollen grains trapped on their heads, legs, thoraxes or abdomens, the team reports February 28 in Biology Letters. A proportion that small isn’t surprising, Khramov says, because the fossils were preserved in what started out as fine-grained sediments. The early stages of fossilization in such material would tend to wash away pollen from the insects’ remains.

This fossil of Tillyardembia (left) is one of six found with clumps of pollen (right) attached to the insect’s body. ALEXANDER KHRAMOV

The pollen-laden insects had only a couple of types of pollen trapped on them, the team found, suggesting that the critters were very selective in the tree species they visited. “That sort of specialization is in line with potential pollinators,” says Michael Engel, a paleoentomologist at the University of Kansas in Lawrence who was not involved in the study. “There’s probably vast amounts of such specialization that occurred even before Tillyardembia, we just don’t have evidence of it yet.”

Further study of these fossils might reveal if Tillyardembia had evolved special pollen-trapping hairs or other such structures on their bodies or heads, says Conrad Labandeira, a paleoecologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., also not part of the study. It would also be interesting, he says, to see if something about the pollen helped it stick to the insects. If the pollen grains had structures that enabled them to clump more readily, for example, then those same features may have helped them grab Velcro-like onto any hairlike structures on the insects’ bodies.

Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: The oldest known pollen-carrying insects lived about 280 million years ago (sciencenews.org)

By Scott Solomon, Rice University

The sun temple built by pharaoh Nyuserre in the Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt 4,500 years ago has the earliest known depiction of beekeeping. But remnants of beeswax in pottery fragments from 9,000 years ago in Turkey suggest that beekeeping has an even longer history going back to the very start of agriculture.

Beekeeping is a huge industry, thanks to the role that honeybees play not only as crop pollinators but also in their production of honey and other products, like beeswax. (Image: Olha Solodenko/Shutterstock)

History of Beekeeping

It’s not hard to imagine why ancient people would want to keep bees around. Honey was one of the only available sweeteners in the ancient Near East. Beeswax also had medicinal and practical uses, for example as parts of tools and as a waterproofing agent.

Also, as modern beekeepers know, bees are relatively easy to work with. Unlike many other stinging insects, the European honeybee, Apis mellifera, is relatively reluctant to sting. That’s especially true when a bee fills up with honey, which honeybees do instinctively when they smell smoke.

While some have argued that this behavior comes from the bees’ natural inclination to abandon their hives at the first sign of a wildfire, Cornell University bee biologist Tom Seeley believes it may be exactly the opposite—honeybees may engorge themselves with honey so that they can survive inside the hive for a long period of time after a wildfire, which could easily burn all of the flowering plants that they depend on for nectar.

Whatever the reason, beekeepers have always taken advantage of the fact that honeybees become docile at the smell of smoke.

This article comes directly from content in the video series Why Insects Matter: Earth’s Most Essential Species. Watch it now, on Wondrium.

Bees Have Expandable Sacks

The anatomical feature that allows honeybees to fill up on honey is the crop. The crop is the frontmost section of an insect’s gut that, in honeybees and some other insects, functions like an expandable sack. The crop is located in the abdomen and is surrounded by muscles that relax to allow it to fill with honey but can also contract if the bee wants to share honey with another member of its hive.

Bees also use their crop to fill up with nectar when visiting flowers, which they later regurgitate inside the hive and fan with their wings to reduce the water content through evaporation, turning it into honey.

So the crop is fundamental to the lifestyle of the honeybee and, by extension, to the role that honeybees have played throughout human history.

How Bee Eyes Work

Bees are very good at locating flowers thanks to their acute visual abilities. Let’s take a closer look at one of the individual ommatidia that make up the compound eye of a honeybee.

An individual ommatidium is an elongated structure that tapers toward the base. At the top is the lens, which is made of two separate components. The outermost portion is the cornea, a clear, hexagonal structure. Below that is a crystalline cone, shaped like an upside-down pyramid.

Together, the cornea and cone focus light into the inner portion of the ommatidium called the rhabdom, which is lined by photoreceptor cells. Each of the photoreceptor cells inside an ommatidium is capable of responding at a particular wavelength of light.

A bee’s vision is also trichromatic like human vision, but the three colors that bees can see are different. Honeybees have photoreceptor cells attuned to green and blue as we do, but instead of red (which is a lower wavelength), bees have a third kind of photoreceptor cell that detects ultraviolet.

So compared to human vision, which can detect light of wavelengths between about 380 and 740 nanometers, honeybees can see wavelengths between 300 and 650 nanometers. So compared to us, a honeybee’s vision is effectively shifted towards shorter wavelengths of light.

Advantages of Bee Vision

To see how bees view flowers, we have to view them under ultraviolet light. (Image: Immephotography/Shutterstock)

Because bees are important pollinators for many plant species, the flowers of many bee-pollinated plants evolved to have colors that bees can easily see. This is the reason why so many bee-pollinated flowers are purple, violet, or blue. Some plants also have flowers with ultraviolet colors, which bees can see but are invisible to our eyes.

To read the complete article go to;

Why Beekeeping Is an Efficient Industry (thegreatcoursesdaily.com)

Fr. Michael Rennier 

How beekeeping satisfies the soul

Keeping bees is both a meaningful and sacred hobby … and deeply connected to the liturgy.

This past year, our family became apiarists. We got hold of a few colonies of honeybees and set them up in two hives side by side in front of a field of clover.

The bees have the run of 20 acres of a little wild and wooded valley tucked a few miles north of the Missouri River. They’re free to roam where they will, gathering nectar from wild clover, grape vines, and dogwood.

We’re not particularly talented beekeepers. One of the colonies seems far more motivated than the other – each takes its personality from their queen – and we don’t quite know how to fix it, but so far they’ve survived and even rewarded us with some of their extra honey.

Bees play a vital, if unseen, role in making the world beautiful. They have a complicated relationship with flowers, which tempt them in with bright, colored displays and sweet nectar only to secretly send them along with pollen stuck to their legs. I don’t think the bees are complaining, though.

Neither should we. After all, bees are the hidden laborers who, by spreading that pollen around, fertilize the flowers and make plants capable of producing fruit. Without bees, we wouldn’t know what an apple tastes like. Fruit would barely exist at all.

For example, the Central Valley in California, an area the size of Delaware, produces 2.3 billion pound of almonds every year, but those enormous orchards wouldn’t manage to produce even a fraction of those almonds without the help of bees. Beekeepers actually drive their colonies in on flatbed trucks for the week to help out.

Today it’s a widespread hobby and something of a big business, but it wasn’t long ago that beekeeping was a more specialized pursuit of monks and priests. Priests have always been interested in beekeeping – which is why I wanted to take it up also – not because of the insatiable desire for honey but because bees also make wax.

The reason we use beeswax candles for sacred liturgy

Beeswax makes the cleanest burning, brightest candles, which don’t produce a smell and don’t create a lot of smoke that leaves the ceiling and walls dirty with soot. Beeswax also burns longer than, say tallow candles made of animal fat.

Today, even though candles still burn on church altars every day, they’re an afterthought because we have electric lights. It used to be the case that candles not only provided an element of beauty and a comforting atmosphere, they were also vital to actually illuminating interior spaces.

To this very day, candles that burn on Catholic altars are required to be contain beeswax as the main ingredient.

There’s an interesting reason for this: Priests have always been aware that beeswax is a pure substance. Only the worker bees produce wax, and worker bees don’t mate with the queen. All their lives, they remain celibate and virginal. This is why candles – think, for instance, of the Paschal Candle – are symbols of Christ. They provide sacred light, as they burn the wax is consumed in sacrifice, and they’re made of virgin material.

The mystical quality of bees

Bees, it turns out, are highly theological. Maybe this is why they prompt endless poetic odes. Emily Dickinson, for instance, writes constantly about them;

The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.

As I watch our industrious little bees buzzing around their hives, I’m constantly amazed at their perseverance, the way they take pollen, a yellowish dust that most of despise and think of as the cause of sneezing misery, and use it to blanket the fields with flowers. Whatever pollen sticks to them, they turn into beauty.

We should all be more like bees. Dispensers of beauty. Or more like candles. A light cutting through shadows. These metaphors cling to me and I cannot help but hear in them the voice of God.

Perseverance, self-sacrifice, beauty, purity – all are habitual virtues I desire to practice with ever-greater dedication, and in this way transform my days into a continuous act of love. Each of us is a seed-sower of flowers in the fields.

Our History With Bee Pollen

Ambrosia – The Food Of The Gods

Our story starts over 100 million years ago. Our world was very different. Two huge land masses dominated, Gondwana in the South and Laurasia in the North. The landscape would have appeared very different to our modern world – towering conifer forests, the first flowering plants had just started to bloom; dinosaurs ruled the land, flying reptiles ruled the sky and giant marine reptiles ruled the sea. Our descendants were little more than small, nocturnal mammals living in the shadow of the mighty T-Rex, Iguanodon and Triceratops.

The first flowering plants hailed the introduction of the hero of our story – the bee. The oldest record we have of a bee, dates to over 100 million years ago, preserved perfectly in amber, and bees had probably been around for over 30 million years previously.

Humans and bees

Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have been in a relationship with bees. Nine thousand years ago our first interactions with bees were recorded on the walls of caves, and every civilization since has understood the benefits of this association. From honey to wax, royal jelly, venom, and bee pollen, the nutritional, medical, and health benefits of bee products are well documented and understood.

Honey might be the most obvious bee-human link, but bee pollen was even more venerated.

A powder that gives life

The ancient Egyptians called bee pollen “the powder that gives life.” The nutritious mix of nectar, flower pollen, enzymes, honey, wax, and bee secretions was placed in their tombs to nourish them in the next life. Bees were seen as the servants of the gods, delivering messages and healing powers.

In ancient Greece, bee pollen was called Ambrosia – the food of the Gods. It was said to be imbibed with the power of immortality and eternal youth. Its health benefits were well established and both the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, and the philosopher Pythagoras prescribed bee pollen for its healing properties.

The Romans considered bee pollen to be a panacea. Roman soldiers carried dried pollen cakes with them to provide sustenance.

The ancient cultures of China, India, and the Far East have the same references to the power and therapeutical benefits of bee pollen. To many, it was a necessary dietary staple. Native Americans, like the Romans before them, carried bee pollen in bags around their necks to give them energy on long journeys.

In New Zealand, the Māori have a long tradition of using bee pollen for food. In 1881, the Reverend William Colenso stated, “another highly curious article of vegetable food, was the pungapunga, the yellow pollen of the raupo flower.” The pollen was regarded as a delicacy and used to make pua, a type of steamed bread.

A complete food

Bee pollen is regarded as one of the most complete foods in nature. It certainly has all the right ingredients, containing 30 percent protein, all the amino acids required for our diets, and an abundance of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, hormone precursors, carbohydrates, and fatty acids. It contains more amino acids, gram for gram, than fish, beef, cheese, or eggs.

Researchers at the Institute of Apiculture in Russia have shown “honeybee pollen is the richest source of vitamins found in nature in a single food”.

It is so complete as a food that we can survive on roughage, bee pollen, and water alone.

Millennia after early civilisations correctly identified its nutritional power, pollen is once again becoming an important part of the human diet. Modern researchers have analysed its constituents and work continues to comprehensively map its nutritional and medical benefits. Bee pollen is linked to reduced inflammation, improved immunity, and wound healing, and is said to relieve the symptoms of menopause and help digestive issues, weight control, and depression. Whilst all the therapeutic benefits of bee pollen are still being researched, it is clear that bee pollen supports optimum nutrition.

The ancient Greeks saw it as the source of eternal youth; today we rightly regard it as a superfood.

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2111/S00024/our-history-with-bee-pollen.htm

Beehives as weapons — and more weird facts about food

Daniel Neman is a food writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Containers for food, it turns out, have been used in battle going back all the way to the Stone Age.

I am speaking here about beehives. Our earliest ancestors covered beehives in mud and threw them into enemy caves. Romans put them into catapults and hurled them at their foes.

And before there were cannonballs, sailors would throw beehives on other ships’ decks. The word “bombard” even comes from the Ancient Greek word “bombos,” which means “bee.”

These days, of course, people are more interested in the honey than the hives. Honey is so popular that a whole industry has sprung to fraudulently source it.

More, people are more interested in the honey than the hives. Honey is so popular that a whole industry has sprung to fraudulently source it.

The United States increased the tariff on Chinese honey in 2001. Ever since then, Chinese honey producers have been shipping their product to other countries in order to illegally hide their true source. It is estimated that nearly 100 million pounds of honey each year, or about one-sixth of all the honey sold in this country, is in violation of the law.

Meanwhile, even domestic honey is frequently mislabeled. The problem is that bees fly wherever they want, and while the producer may assume the bees are spending all of their time among orange blossoms, only scientific analysis such as DNA tests can confirm how much of the nectar actually came from clover, or even poison ivy.

Sometimes, honey on the shelves isn’t even honey at all. It’s just corn syrup with yellow food coloring.

Fortunately, the book has some happier news involving vanilla.

To read the complete article go to:

Neman: Beehives as weapons — and more weird facts about food | Food and cooking | stltoday.com

Jennifer Bonnell

Environmental History, Volume 26, Issue 1, January 2021, Pages 79–101

https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emaa059

Abstract

This article examines the debates that surrounded incidents of honeybee poisoning in the southern Great Lakes region in the 1880s and 1890s. Drawing upon the records of beekeepers and allied entomologists from Ontario and neighboring states, it analyzes the history of insecticide use, knowledge development, and risk calculation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here, beekeepers emerge as an important and largely overlooked collective voice in the history of insecticide controversies, contributing as they did to legislation, education, and advocacy efforts on both sides of the US-Canadian border. Their actions in response to a cogent threat to their livelihoods mark them as early advocates for environmental protection. Deeply familiar with the amenities and threats of surrounding land uses for their honey crop, late nineteenth-century beekeepers pressed for prudent insecticide use and “bee-friendly” horticultural practices more than half a century before the more familiar insecticide controversies of the postwar period. By the turn of the century, these efforts had borne some success in reducing incidents of honeybee poisoning. As the frequency, quantity, and toxicity of insecticides increased in the early twentieth century, however, powerful fruit-grower interests left Great Lakes beekeepers (and their bees) to shoulder the risks of an increasingly toxic countryside or to fold their operations, as many chose to do. For environmental historians, their fight presents an early example of the effects of agricultural industrialization, and its associated environmental consequences, on minority producers and the animals they kept.

Early Insecticide Controversies and Beekeeper Advocacy in the Great Lakes Region | Environmental History | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

Translated By Roger Marshall
08 November 2020 · 11:00 CET

Honey. / Photo: Antonio Cruz

And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ (Ex. 3:17)

Although honey is a sweet substance made by bees and is therefore not an animal but an animal-based product, we shall nevertheless focus on them in this article due to their prominence in the Bible. In Hebrew there are several different words for honey.

One of them is debash, which, along with váar refers to the honey made by bees (1 Sam. 14:25, 27, 29; Song of Songs 5:1); another is tsuph, which literally means “to flow”, and denotes the hexagonal cells in the honeycombs, which are usually full of honey (Pr. 16:24; Psalm. 19:10); the next term used is nópheth, which is used to refer to the honey that drips from the honeycomb (Psalm 19:10); (Pr. 5:3; 24:13; 27:7; Song of Songs 4:11). All these Hebrew terms were translated into Greek as meli. Which means “honey” as a foodstuff.

Honey was always considered an excellent delicacy, especially on account of its delightful sweetness (Gn. 43:11; 2 S. 17:29). The Hebrews would obtain it from the honeycombs and ate it directly (1 Sam. 14:26). The manna that they ate during their wanderings in the Sinai desert had a taste which reminded them of honey (Ex. 16:31). Bees would often build their hives in the clefts of rocks, in trees and even in other quite bizarre places, such as the carcasses of certain animals (Dt. 32:13; Jud. 14:8; 1 S. 14:25; Mt. 3:4).

In the New Testament, the austere John the Baptist fed on wild honey (meli agrion) and insects such as locusts (Mt. 3:4). The chosen people of God also had to eat this honey, which flowed out of the rocks, while trekking through the desert (Dt. 32:13; Psalm 81:17). In the same way, the abundance of the Promised Land is indicated by the metaphor that “it flowed with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3). The excellence of the honey is also a metaphor to highlight the qualities of the beloved wife, when it is said of her, for example, that “Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue” (Song of Songs 4:11).

However, as honey is prone to ferment, being an organic product, it could not be burnt as an offering to God (Lv 2:11). Though this did not prevent it being offered to the priests for their own sustenance (2 Chronicles 31:2-5) And finally, in the New Testament we read that the disciples Jesus met on the road after his resurrection gave him “a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb” (Lc. 24:42).

Apart from the peoples of the Bible, honey was highly appreciated by many other cultures, such as the ancient Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. There are cave paintings from the Mesolithic period (8000 to 6000 BC), in which there are human figures collecting honey, in the Cueva de Araña in Bicorp (Valencia, Spain) for example [1]. It was considered by many to be a highly prized sacred product, and therefore used to pay taxes.

Ancient jars have been found containing honey, which was still perfectly edible, from the time of the Pharaohs. To the best of our knowledge, the Egyptians were the first nomadic beekeepers, as they used to transport their hives by boat on the Nile, in search of different types of flowering plant. In Israel, recent archaeological excavations in Tel Rehob, in the Beth-Sheán valley, have uncovered hives used in ancient times, dating from the times of the Israelite kings (10th to the 9th centuries BC). The hives, made from large cylindrical rods made of mud, are the only elements which occasionally make it possible to date archaeological excavations in the Ancient Middle East.

As bees often produce three times more honey than they need to live, human beings soon discovered that they could benefit from the excess, which was how beekeeping originated. This technique served to domesticate the insects, later providing them with artificial hives, and sedating them with smoke while they collected the excess honey. The different types and tastes of this highly esteemed product are due to the different types of flowers from which nectar is extracted, and to the types of bees that produced it. The pollination that the bees and other insects carry out is indispensable for the maintenance of the planet’s eco-systems.

Honey is a sweet viscous fluid whose colour ranges from light yellow to dark brown, and is produced by bees belonging to the Apis species, from the nectar secreted by flowers or other types of vegetation. The intense sweetness of honey is due to the large amount of sugar it contains, such as glucose, fructose, maltose, isomaltose, sucrose, turanose and nigerose. It also possesses enzymes like amylase, catalase, acid phosphorylase, peroxide oxidase: it also contains amino acids, vitamins and minerals such as iron and zinc.

The inspired psalmist wrote the following words: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb”. (Psalm 19: 7-10)

The time that is devoted to reading and meditating on Holy Scripture does not only serve to enrich a person spiritually, but it also makes for the sweetest, most delightful moments of life. As the prophet Jerremiah would say, if we “eat” the Word of God, it will give us joy, because the Most High will speak directly to our hearts (Jeremiah 15:16).

Notes:
[1] Grimberg, Carl, 1983, Universal History, 1 «The dawn of civilization»,
Published in: Evangelical Focus – Zoe – Sweeter than honey

https://evangelicalfocus.com/zoe/8844/sweeter-than-honey

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Research on honey’s antibacterial qualities could push this ancient remedy from alternative medicine into the mainstream.
By: Allison Whitten

Ancient humans liked to put weird things on open wounds: animal poop, moldy bread, and a gooey substance produced by bees. But modern science suggests the gooey one — honey — is a powerful killer of bacteria that cause infections. As scientists race against the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance, some expect honey to make a medical comeback thousands of years later.

About 15 years ago, the science evaluating honey as an antibacterial finally gained some legs, according to Dee Carter, a microbiologist at the University of Sydney. Carter has been studying the antibacterial effects of honey for almost 25 years. Since then, researchers have discovered multiple mechanisms that make honey a top-notch bacterial assassin — depending on the type of honey.

Sweet Bacteria Killer
Today, you can find over 300 types of honey produced around the world. They differ by the type of flower the honeybees visit to extract nectar. Once the nectar reaches their stomachs, it doesn’t stay long; honeybees take turns regurgitating the sugary mixture to fill their honeycomb. (Also, bee enthusiasts want you to know: Despite what you may have heard, honey is not bee vomit, since the nectar never technically reaches the digestive tract.)

The process creates a complex substance where the high acidity, sugar content and viscosity make it difficult for bacteria to thrive — but the most lethal element is hydrogen peroxide, according to a 2012 study. Carter explains that all honeys produce hydrogen peroxide to varying degrees because of an enzyme in the bees’ spit, which mixes with the nectar during all that regurgitation. Their saliva contains glucose oxidase, and when exposed to water it breaks down glucose in honey and forms hydrogen peroxide, a commonly used antibacterial substance.

But there’s one type of honey that researchers have paid the most attention to, because its bacteria-killing arsenal goes beyond hydrogen peroxide. Manuka honey comes from honeybees that feast on the nectar from manuka flowers in New Zealand. Carter says manuka honey’s antibacterial properties stem from a special chemical in manuka flowers called dihydroxyacetone, or DHA. In honey, DHA becomes methylglyoxal (MGO), which is a sugar that attacks undesirable bacteria. Humans and other organisms have a well-developed enzyme system that protects them from MGO, while bacteria don’t fare as well.

Applying to Wounds
Just like the way ancient humans used honey, scientists have primarily focused on using honey to treat wounds.

“There is a lot of scientific evidence that shows that honey allows complex wounds to heal,” says Edwar Fuentes Pérez, a biochemist at the University of Chile.

This is good news, because bacteria can run amok in complex wounds like ulcers. Carter says these wounds are more likely to have multiple bacterial strains living together inside something called a biofilm, which is a self-produced matrix of bacterial slime. These types of wounds require strong topical antibiotics to treat. Researchers are finding that honey is one of the best options.

“Most antibiotics will slow down wound healing, and they will cause cellular damage as well, whereas honey seems to actually kill the bacteria and promote healing,” says Carter.

To read the complete article go to:
https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/honey-as-a-wound-treatment-scientists-are-exploring-its-potential-healing

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The angry bees attacked in the direction of the stick, giving Charity enough time to escape.”
By: NEENA GAYNOR

As my family enjoys a quiet President’s Day at home, I’m reminded of one of my favorite George Washington stories. The “sweet” account was originally printed in the Sunday School Advocate in 1917.

During the summer of 1780, the War for Independence was raging and American soldiers were in desperate need of a victory. George Washington and his weary troops were stationed just outside of Philadelphia, where it was believed an attack by the Red Coats was imminent. A few miles away was the humble Crabtree family farm, home to a young Quaker girl, Charity. She and her brother had become orphans when her beekeeping father, a Patriot, died in service.

Soon after, Charity’s brother also left and joined the American forces. Charity was not without her own patriotic devotion, just read how the Sunday Advocate describes her: “Despite her prim Quaker ways, no eyes could spark with greater fire at the mention of freedom than those that smiled so demurely above her white neckerchief and plain gray dress.”

Charity was determined to keep her family’s farm in working order during her brother’s absence, so she tended the honey bees as her father would have. The Crabtrees kept bees near the front of their farm in skeps, or the baskets that are traditionally thought of or drawn in historical or folk images, not the Langstroth boxes used most commonly in America today. One day while out with her bees, she heard the pounds of a galloping horse. A wounded man dressed in citizen’s clothes approached her. When the horse stopped in front of Charity, the man fell out of his mount. Charity helped move him to a grassy area as he conveyed the secret of an attack approaching Washington and his troops.

He gave her instructions to take his horse and the message to General Washington. As she prepared to go, more thundering horse hooves neared. Cornwallis’ army had her cornered before she knew it, but the quick thinking girl reached for a stout stick and beat the top of her bee skeps, then threw the stick at the soldiers. The angry bees attacked in the direction of the stick, giving Charity enough time to escape.

She was successful in relaying the message to Washington, and it is reported that he later said to Charity, “Neither you nor your bees shall be forgotten when our country is at peace again. It was the cackling geese that save Rome, but it was the bees that saved America.”

Neena is a Kentucky wife, mother, daughter, and beekeeper who does life in Owensboro. Her first novel, The Bird and the Bees, is a Christian contemporary romance set to be released in April 2020. Visit her at wordslikehoney.com.

http://kentuckytoday.com/stories/god-bless-america-and-the-honey-bees,24347

Company Sergeant Major James Hamilton Savage persuaded the Nazi guards in Stalag 383 to allow him to set up beehives behind the barbed wire fences.

Nick Drainey

The long forgotten story of a beekeeping Scottish prisoner of war has been unearthed by researchers at Scotland’s Rural College.

Despite refusing to “slave” for Hitler and being forced to endure a bitter march across Europe after his capture, Company Sergeant Major James Hamilton Savage persuaded the Nazi guards in Stalag 383 to allow him to set up beehives behind the barbed wire fences.

The first hive came from the village and his grandfather began making hives from Red Cross crates sent to the camp and when bees swarmed above the camp CSM Savage caught some to put in the subsequent hives.

His incredible story came to light after librarians discovered a record of the former head of beekeeping at the West of Scotland Agricultural College, now the SRUC.

CSM Savage was captured and taken Prisoner of War in St Valery en Caux in northern France in 1940 after the 51st Highland Division were left behind following the Dunkirk evacuation.

There followed a forced march across Europe to Poland, where he and hundreds of other NCOs refused to work for Hitler. They ended up being moved to Stalag 383 near Hohenfels in Bavaria, where his love of bees flourished.

In 1942 the Captive Drones Association was started by CSM Savage – he had first learned beekeeping from his father in Ayrshire but was able to get books through the Red Cross. President of the association and close friend was Captain (Rev) Kenneth Grant who went on to become Bishop of Argyll and the Isles after the war.

His grandson, Trevor Pocknell, who lives in Northamptonshire says the Nazi’s “could have just shot him” when he refused to work for Hitler. “It ended up being 10s and then 100s of NCOs who the Germans just couldn’t get to slave for them. They completely refused and went through all sorts of ordeals – being chained up and thrown into prison but they wouldn’t change their minds. They ended up being put into Stalag 383 in Bavaria – a prisoner of war camp for NCOs who refused to work for the Germans.”

But they ended up keeping bees in the rather unusual camp. “They organised themselves very well – it has been called a barbed wire university because all sorts of education went on. They talked the Germans into provided things in exchange for cigarettes and things from their Red Cross parcels.

“My grandfather was taken out to meet a beekeeper in the neighbouring village of Hohenfels. The beekeeper wasn’t impressed to start with because grandad was a soldier but when he realised he was a knowledgeable beekeeper they got on like a house on fire. In fact, the German provided the first hive and bees.”

The first hive came from the village and his grandfather began making hives from Red Cross crates sent to the camp and when bees swarmed above the camp CSM Savage caught some to put in the subsequent hives.

“He would have learned from his father and he further educated himself because they were able to get books through the Red Cross and the YMCA. The British Beekeeping Association helped them in every way they could including in examinations – my grandfather was teaching the other beekeepers.”

The prisoners, however, only got to taste a little of the honey with their meagre rations. Most of it stayed with the bees to help them survive winter and the PoWs gave some of their sugar rations to them as well. Rather than a source of food, beekeeping was something to keep them occupied, says Trevor. “It was keeping them interested in something rather than mulling over their situation. They were basically in there for the whole of the war.”

When war ended it was recorded that he hid in a coal heap with other PoWs, worried about reprisals from the Germans. “The Germans were running scared and they moved everyone out of the camp. The prisoners would have been worried about their fate.”

He left the military after the war and went to West of Scotland Agricultural College where he was employed as a lecturer in beekeeping, eventually becoming the Head of Beekeeping. His work there was informed by his experiences in Stalag 383. Trevor says: “He not only learned these things, he developed new ways of separating queen bees and building hives. He passed that on to his students.”

Trever said the wider family only became aware of the exploits of CSM Savage when he began researching it long after his death. He had actually joined The Queens Own Cameron Highlanders in 1922 and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in Palestine in the 1930s – despite chest and knee injuries in an ambushed lorry accident he covered Capt. C.S.Clarke in a counter-attack, using a Lewis gun. Trevor says: “The reason I got into it is because my grandad did a brain dump of the family tree which my mum wrote on to a piece of paper. It is that piece of paper with grandad’s memories which is what started me. I found the odd error in his memory but largely he was correct – very clever man.”

Although he died in 1985, his grandson still has fond memories of him and says despite the horrors of war which he endured, particularly the capture at St Valery and cruel march across Europe, he was “soft spoken and never had an angry word”. He added: “He came across as a very loving, family man – always happy and always friendly. He was always very clever and intelligent; he could make things with his hands, he could do everything.

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 Bee Vectoring Technologies Receives U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  Approval for its First Active Ingredient/

Approval marks the first ever EPA approval for application of a plant protection product by bees

Mississauga, ON Canada – Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (the “Company” or “BVT”) (TSXV: BEE) (OTCQB: BEVVF) announced today that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved Clonostachys rosea CR-7 (CR-7) for use as a fungicide on commercial crops.  CR-7 is the first registered active ingredient for the Canadian-based company and the first active ingredient approved by the EPA for application via bees, known as “bee vectoring,” in which BVT is a global leader.

Sold under the brand name VECTORITE with CR-7, the product is labeled for numerous high-value crops, including strawberries, blueberries, sunflowers and almonds.  With this approval, BVT is positioned to officially launch and begin to generate revenue with VECTORITE with CR-7, starting with this year’s fall and winter blueberry and strawberry season in the U.S.  The registration permits BVT to make positive crop protection claims when selling VECTORITE with CR-7.

“Not only is this a critical milestone for BVT in terms of the commencement of scalable commercialization and revenue, but it represents a groundbreaking shift in how plant care products can be applied,” said Ashish Malik, CEO of BVT.  “By using commercially reared bees to deliver biological products, growers can protect crops, increase crop yields and enhance their sustainable growing practices by reducing the use of chemicals and other costly and increasingly scarce resources including water, fuel and labor.”

BVT is pursuing regulatory approval from other key countries and, because the EPA serves as an affirmative model for regulatory agencies outside the United States, these review processes should move faster and more easily.

“According to industry statistics, to establish the high levels of safety and efficacy required to bring a new crop protection product to market costs, on average, more than US $280 million and 11 years of internal research and development, university crop trials, and grower demos. This registration is a valuable and substantial asset for BVT, and brings considerable credibility within the industry.” said Michael Collinson, Chairman of the Board of Directors for BVT.  “The BVT team has succeeded in developing a novel and effective alternative solution to traditional chemical pesticides and has done so at a fraction of the average industry cost. We are incredibly pleased to have accomplished this feat and are both proud and excited to put the BVT solution into the hands of farmers in the U.S. and are looking forward to future approvals in major agricultural regions around the world.”

The EPA’s registration makes VECTORITE with CR-7, Registration Number 90641-2, available immediately for sale as a registered fungicide for use on the labelled crops.

Ephesus and the Cult of Artemis

From the dawn of human society, the nature and origin of the bee have awakened the curiosity and interest of man. For thousands of years, honey was the only sweetening material known, and it is quite natural that in ancient times, the little busy creature who produced this sweet food should have been regarded with reverence and awe (Ransome, 19).

CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz

LONG BEFORE people developed agriculture and lived in settled communities, honey gathered from the hives of wild bees was valued as a precious, almost magical commodity. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is native to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea, and domestication of the honeybee as a pollinator was vital for the growth of many fruit crops^[1] in the region. It was so valued, for example, that the hieroglyph for “bee” (a profile drawing of the insect) came to be used as the symbol for the ruler of Lower Egypt.

Ephesos (above). Circa 550 BC. EL Hemistater (13mm, 6.86 g). Bee / Two parallel narrow rectangular incuses (struck from a single punch). Triton X, lot 289;. Good VF. Extremely rare, one of only two published. From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams

Images of the bee as a symbol appear very early in the development of ancient Greek coinage. In particular, the prosperous city of Ephesus in Ionia (on the Aegean coast of Turkey) adopted the bee as its civic emblem. Ephesus was the location of a famous temple of the goddess Artemis^[2] (one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.) The high priest of the temple was known as the “king bee” (living in a fiercely patriarchal society, Greeks believed the queen bee was male) and the priestesses were called melissae (honeybees). There are nearly a thousand different known types of bee-and-stag coins from Ephesus, and unpublished new varieties appear frequently^[3]. One of the earliest known examples, a rare electrum hemistater (6.86 grams) dated to c. 550 BCE brought $25,000 USD (against a $10,000 estimate!) in a 2015 auction^[4].

Ephesos. Circa 550-500 BC. AR Obol (0.63 g). Bee / Incuse square punch. Cf. Karwiese series III, 6 (hemiobol)

Bees have two pairs of wings, but conventional ancient representations of the bee, as viewed from above, typically only show one pair. A little archaic^[5] silver obol of Ephesus, c. 550-500 BCE, is a remarkable exception, showing all four wings^[6

Ephesos. Circa 480-450 BC. AR Drachm (3.46 gm). Bee with curved, outlined wings; curls to either side / Quadripartite incuse square. Karwiese Series VI, 2A, 32; Head Period II, pl. 1, 11; BMC Ionia pg. 48, 7ff; Rosen 571.

Early in the classical era (c. 480-450 BCE), bees on silver drachms of Ephesus were drawn with curved wings and curly antennae, giving the insect a rather whimsical appearance^[7].

Ephesos. Silver Tetradrachm (15.10 g), ca. 350-340 BC. Kallikrates, magistrate. E-Φ, bee. rev. Forepart of stag right, head turned to look back; in left field, palm tree; in right field, magistrate’s name: KAΛΛIKPATH[Σ]. Kinns obv. die O125; SNG Copenhagen -. Well struck and well centered. Excellent metal and delicately toned. Nearly Extremely Fine. Estimated Value $750By the fourth century BCE, Ephesian die-cutters, growing in skill and confidence, were engraving far more “realistic” bees: note the stinger, the jointed legs and the accurately segmented abdomen of the insect on a tetradrachm dated c. 350 – 340 BCE^[8]. Popular with collectors, these classic coins are inscribed with the abbreviated name of the city (E-Φ) on the obverse, and alongside the stag on the reverse the name of a current “magistrate” (civic official or mint director?) is spelled out.

In 356 BCE, the crazed arsonist Herostratos destroyed the Temple of Artemis, and over the following centuries, it was repeatedly rebuilt and demolished. Caught up in the complex politics of the Hellenistic era, the city stubbornly continued to issue civic coinage bearing the bee and stag down to about 133 BCE^[9]. Coinage is conservative!

The bee disappears from Ephesian coinage after Ephesus becomes part of the Roman empire as the capital of the province of Asia. The image of the Emperor normally appears on the obverse of Roman provincial coins, so there was no place for the bee.

Other Towns and Cities

A number of other Greek cities adopted the bee as an image on their coins, perhaps because they had economic ties to Ephesus or hosted a local cult of Ephesian Artemis.

The side view of the bee (similar to the Egyptian hieroglyph) is extremely rare on ancient coins but it does appear on a tiny hemiobol (0.26 grams) from an uncertain Ionian mint^[10], along with a turtle on the reverse.

“Charon’s Obol”. 5th-1st century BC. AV 12mm (0.23 g). Bee / Incuse of obverse. VF.

Bees also sometimes appear as decorations on ancient “coin-like objects” or tokens, such as a thin gold disc of uncertain date that appeared in a 2007 US auction^[11]. One theory is that such discs (“Charon’s obols”) were magical artifacts buried with the dead to pay Charon, the boatman who ferried souls to the afterlife.

In 202 BCE, Ephesus established an alliance with the Phoenician city of Arados (now Arwad, a small island off the Syrian coast south of Tartus). Arados later marked this event by adopting the bee and stag design for its coinage^[12]. Coins of Arados can be distinguished by the name of city ARADION, inscribed in Greek on the reverse. This alliance evidently continued for decades.

The small town of Gentinos in the region of Troas (northwest Anatolia) used a bee and palm tree on its fourth century BCE local bronze^[13]. Praisos, on the island of Crete, placed a bee with a rose on the reverse of a rare silver hemidrachm circa the fourth to third centuries BCE^[14]. Another Cretan town, Elyros, depicted a bee with an unusually detailed representation of the veins on the wings on its silver drachm, c. 300 – 270 BCE^[15]. The obscure town of Iulis on the Aegean island of Keos placed a bee on the reverse of its third century BCE bronze coinage^[16].

THRACE, Deultum. Tranquillina. Augusta, AD 241-244. Æ (19mm, 3.25 g, 7h). Draped bust left, wearing stephane / Beehive set on base; base decorated with pentastyle temple façade, pellet in pediment. Draganov, Deultum, – (Obv. 150/R- [unlisted rev. die]); Jurukova 427; Varbanov 2959. Good VF, black-green patina.The beehive, often used as a symbol of industriousness and harmonious social organization in the modern world, is surprisingly rare on ancient coins. The city of Deultum in Thrace (now Burgas on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria) placed a beehive on the reverse of scarce local bronze coins issued during the chaotic mid-third century. Examples that have appeared in recent auction include Maximinus I^[17] (235-238 CE) and Tranquillina^[18] (wife of Gordian III, 241-244).

Deseret

Mormon Gold, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1849-1860. 5 Dollars 1860. Fr. 59. / Of the highest rarity.

We cannot end this article without mentioning a famous and very rare “modern” coin that depicts a beehive. Struck by Mormon authorities at Salt Lake City in 1860 using gold mined in Colorado, fewer than 100 examples of this $5 Mormon gold piece are known. A well-worn example sold for over $36,000 in a recent European auction^[19]. The design of a beehive among flowers surmounted by an eagle appears on the current state flag of Utah.

* * *

An old gentleman once gave me some advice that has been of benefit to me all my life. He was a money lender. I went to him with my father to borrow $500, in order that I might go into business as a partner with the man I was working for. My father was to sign the note with me. When I told why I wanted the money, Mr. Beekman said something as follows:

A.I. and his wife, Sue.

“My young friend, I have money to let and lending money is my business. With your father for security it will be all right, but I want my money to do good and not harm. I should like to give you a lit le advice, but judging from past experiences with young men I fear it will do no good.”

I urged him to go on.

“Well you have doubtless heard hard stories about me. Perhaps you have heard me called hard names. It is because if I loan money at a reasonable rate I must have it back according to agreement. I should go bankrupt myself if I did not insist on this. If I understand it, you have already had a good job and fair pay.”

I assented.

“Well, even though I have money lying idle and want to have it earning something, I would advise you, at your age, to stick to work and earn the money instead of borrowing. By the time you have earned $500 or something like it, you will know beter how to take care of it and might be able to start in business alone.”

He then turned to my father and remarked that, “Boys in their teens seldom listen to any such advice.”

Right here I surprised both my father and Mr. Beekman by saying:

“Mr. Beekman, I not only thank you from the bot om of my heart, but I am going to take your advice.” As father and I drove home, he said I had lifted quite a lit le from his mind by the course I had taken. In a year or a lit le more, the man with whom I had intended going into business ran away leaving debts right and left unpaid.

When I first commenced business, the inspiring motive was not love for Jesus Christ. It was simply love for a bright young woman about 18 years old who lived off in the country across the river.

That was not a very bad incentive, I admit, but if it had been Jesus Christ it might have included the other love also. Her father feared I would never make a living. Said I (I guess it must have been one moonlight night when we stood by the gate), “We will see.”

Jewelry shop on Medina’s Town Square.

So when I opened the jeweler’s repair shop I solicited repairing of all kinds. I fixed doorlocks, umbrellas, parasols, coffee mills, etc. If someone suggested he had better perhaps throw the implement away and buy a new one, I would say, “Oh no, don’t throw it away, I will fi x it and it shall not cost you very much. If I had nothing else to do I would work a couple of hours on an old coffee mill and charge only five cents. I made the charge so low because I did not think the article was enough value to warrant more than a five-cent charge. I was bound to build up business, and I did it, too.

No matter where you are nor how you are situated, if you are lame, blind or deaf or even if you are sick, you can be helpful to those about you and gain the apprenticeship in that great trade of helping others. “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Let that be the moto of your life, and Jesus Christ will see that you are well paid. Yes, “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.” Now, go and look after your wife’s clothes wringer this minute lest this advice simply go in one ear and out of the other without having accomplished anything.

Handmade chains

There were two other jewelers in our lit le town of Medina, and the two at the time were almost “one to many.” There was some merriment about my starting a third watch-repairing establishment, but I borrowed a ladder, hung up my sign on a suitable post in front of the window of a vacant store; and before I got down from the ladder I had a job cleaning a watch; and I do not believe I have ever been out of a job since that time. In fact, I tried so hard to keep up with my work I was soon obliged to work evenings as well as all day.

Interfering in a Horse Trade

One Summer day a stranger came in from the West with a covered wagon. He was leading a pretty little pony which he wanted to sell, to enable him to get to his destination. In those days “horse jockeys” were common things, and some of those fellows loafing around the street planned to beat this poor man out of his pony. They offered him a good price but wanted to turn in a gold watch. He brought the watch to me and asked if it was really a good watch. I told him that it was a low carat gold, something that jewelers knew at that time as Philadelphia gold. Then he asked me if it was worth $50.00. I told him $15.00 would be nearer its actual value.

Well, the trade was broken up, and then for the first time in my life I learned that it might be sometimes a lit le dangerous to but in and break up a horse trade. After a while the man who owned the watch marched into the store with a crowd of toughs and gave me a blowing up. He said I was only a backwoods farmer who had never learned the trade and that my whole place was only a one-horse institution anyway. I remonstrated with him and told him the plain truth about his watch, but it only made him the uglier and more abusive. I was so indignant, that I trembled all over and my voice shook so I could hardly talk.

After the crowd had gone and left me alone, a lady came in and I remember how I calmed myself down and tried to talk naturally to my customer. She had a lit le piece of jewelry that in those days was called a microscopic photograph. She said she had had it repaired several times, but they always got the mot o twisted or slanting. She cautioned me to be sure to have the moto stand horizontally as I held it up toward the sky, then she went out saying she would call for it later on. Without any thought of what was coming, I held that lit le piece of jewelry up to my eye and gazed towards the sky through the big glass window. What do you think it was that she called a mot o. This is what I read as if it were painted across the sky:

“But I say unto you, love ye your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you.” I recalled having heard the same words before when I at ended Sunday school as a child, but it had been so many years since that I had forgoten all about it, and then in those days I had not seen the beauty and grandeur of those precious words. Now that I was a man and vexed in spirit I took in their full import. I saw the application at once, and the words were like a drink of cold water to a person stranded in the desert.

The Smooth Stranger

A smooth-tongued chap came into my store one day with a piece of common iron rod, for a cane. On the end of this rod was a coating of silver perhaps as big as a silver dime. He informed me that he had a secret for silver plating that would put silver on iron or any other metal in any desired thickness in a few minutes and that the silver tip on his iron rod had been put on by this process.

I became very much excited and scraped up all the money I could get a hold of, to raise $50.00 to buy the secret. I made a bargain before witness, however, that if, after reading over his recipe, I did not consider it reasonable, he was to let me off or coat the other end of the iron rod in a like manner right before me, and show me how it was done. He was going to put the money in his pocket, but I told him to hold on. When I came to read the secret I found that it was something known to jewelers for years and what was familiarly known as the cyanuret process. My indignation arose at once and I told him before witness that he was a swindler, a liar and a thief. Maybe I was not Christian like but I did not profess to be a Christian at the time. He told me quietly to be careful what I said and was so gentlemanly about it that I began to fear I had made a mistake. Finally I told him I would give him $100 if he would coat the other end of the rod in a like manner by the same process.

He very smilingly told me it would afford him the greatest of pleasure to show me my mistake and to accept my apology, and bowed himself out with such composure that I was in great trouble for fear he would succeed. He said he would go to the hotel and get his apparatus. I watched nervously for his return.

In about half an hour a neighboring jeweler came to my back door with $25.00 in his hand saying he had got it all ready to hand to an agent for a silver plating process, the agent representing that I had just paid him $50.00 for a shop-right for the same thing. My neighbor said he had almost handed the agent the money, for the man seemed so honest and straightforward, but to be perfectly sure he excused himself for a few minutes and went out of his back door, across into my door.

I was in a fighting mood by this time and together we started for my neighbor’s shop. The man stood in the door, but when he saw us both coming at a rapid rate, he put off with such a lively speed that we gave up the pursuit.

The Man Who Wanted to Trade Back

One time an elderly gentleman came into the store to buy a watch. He had never carried a watch and was therefore entirely inexperienced in such maters. After spending an hour or more, I supplied him with one that seemed to suit him. He paid the price asked and went home apparently well pleased.

The next day he came back and the conversation was something as follows:

“Mr. Root, suppose I decide I do not wish to keep the watch just now after all. How much money must I pay you to trade back?”

“Why, the watch runs well, does it not?”

“Oh yes, at least I suppose it does. Yes, it is just with your clock to the minute. There is no trouble with it so far as I know, but I should like to know just how much money I must pay you to take it off my hands.”

It was something of a struggle I confess. I had worked hard, perhaps two hours to make the sale and I did not at all relish taking the watch back and giving him his money. However, as I had sold the watch at a small profit I concluded that the most gentlemanly way would be not to make any change, as it was returned in perfect order, therefore I told him he could have his money back without any charge for my time if he decided he really did not want it. I therefore counted out the exact sum and laid it before him on the counter.

You should have seen his face as he burst into a laugh and put the watch back in his pocket. Then he explained to me the whole circumstance. It seems that he had decided on the purchase without saying a word about it to his grown-up children and when he exhibited it to them and told them he had patronized a town jeweler without having someone experienced in watches to go along with him, they declared he had been swindled outright, and that the watch could not be worth half what he paid for it. He insisted that the man he traded with looked honest, and he said he believed he was honest. Finally one of the sons said:

“Now, look here, father, you go right back to the jeweler tomorrow and ask him how much money you will have to pay him to trade it back. If he does not admit by his reply that he swindled you to the extent of five or 10 dollars we will conclude with you that he is an honest man.”

They worried him so much that he concluded to test his new friend to that extent. The children, of course, had to own up that they were beaten, but they declared that it was a most remarkable thing to find a jeweler who would “swap back” without a bonus. Well, he exhibited that watch with great pride to all his friends and acquaintances, and he told the story enough so that it brought others to my store to buy watches. Dear friends, it was a beter advertisement for me than any notice I ever put in the papers, and yet I did not know it at the time. “Oh ye of lit le faith, wherefore do ye doubt?” A man who is honest and fair and upright not only has the love of God in his heart to cheer him on his pathway through life, not only has the confidence and esteem of his fellow men, but he actually makes more money.

Attitude Toward Business Competitors

Some time later, before my conversion, another jeweler and I had a newspaper controversy, and I occupied column after column in our county paper telling the people how good and smart I was and how bad and how unfortunate my brother jeweler was. Both of us paid for these newspaper notices at so much a line, and threw away our money that way, besides throwing it away in selling things at a price less than we could afford. Does a Christian ever get into such jangles? If he does, it seems to me his Christianity is rather weak.

Close up of chains.

Customers who wanted to buy articles of some value would go first to one store and then to the other. One rainy day, after my conversion, when trade was dull, someone wanted a piece of plated ware worth 10 or 15 dollars and, in order to get me to lower my price, the woman mentioned the fact that Mr. W. had a beautiful one that he had offered at so much. What ought a Christian to do? I prayed God to show me and the still small voice said, “Do good to those that hate you.” Mr. W. doubtless hated me because I had tried to injure him in the past and had tried to get away his customers and break down his trade in every way I could. I told the customer that it was not unlikely that Mr. W. had got something nicer than I had and perhaps he had succeeded in geting it cheaper than I bought my goods, that I was quite willing she should trade with him for he was a young man just starting in business and I should be glad to see him get along well. The lady looked up in astonishment, but I assured her that I really meant it, and at my advice she bought the goods of my neighbor.

Do you think I felt bad because I had lost the sale? Not at all. God sent into my heart a flood of peace and happiness that was worth more than all the money I ever received in all my life. I kept this up until my neighbor finally concluded that true religion was something worth having, and God crowned it all by enabling me to lead that man to the feet of the Savior.

Did my business suffer meanwhile? Bless you, no! No man’s business suffers because he takes a friendly interest in the business of his rival, and delights in turning trade into his hands. I know that I have not kept up that spirit through all my religious life. If I had I should be a happier man than I am now, and very likely I should be a richer man in dollars and cents.

Although I was in the jewelry business for 18 years, to tell the truth I was never much of a friend to jewelry of any kind. I do not know that I wish to criticize the taste of others, but whenever I received money for jewelry it gave me no such satisfaction as it did when I received it for a beehive.

Medina Public Square

I have always been an enthusiastic admirer of old Dame Nature’s mysterious ways and workings.

In August, 1865, a swarm of bees passed over us near our place of work. One of my employees, remembering that I had expressed a wish for a swarm of bees, jokingly asked what I would give for them as they were circling slowly along in midair. Thinking it impossible for him to get them in their position, I offered him a dollar for them securely boxed.

A Saleratus box

He shortly returned with them in an old saleratus box and asked me where I would have my property taken. After a hasty consultation, I decided upon what I then thought would be a splendid location for them, that is, an unoccupied third-story room of our manufactory.

In the evenings my instructor in the mysteries of beekeeping (the person who hived them) raised the box, an operation, by the way, which seemed to me almost equal to facing a lion in his den, and showed the busy multitude gathered into a compact cluster in the top, and he informed me that my swarm was not a large one, although the countless number seemed to me an immense multitude.

That evening other books and papers had to be laid aside in favor of anything pertaining to bees and bee culture. Our book stores contained nothing on the subject and I had to content myself with what I could learn from the agricultural papers.

The next day, as the bees seemed busily engaged, I supposed them all right. The third day they were still at work, that is, they were doing something. Later on in the day I went up to see how they were getting along, congratulating myself that there must be some pounds of honey by this time, and thinking that I should have to get my glass jars ready. But, where before had been the busy stir and bustle was now all still. On raising the box, what a deserted appearance! Not a bee, not a particle of comb. They were all gone—effectively and surely beyond my reach.

In my ignorance of their habits, I had placed them before a west window, with the sash raised, exposing them to the full heat of the afternoon sun and after waiting two days they had probably concluded they could suit themselves better.

The bees were gone, but the interest they had awakened still remained, and I had learned a few facts about bees.

One morning, soon after, I told Mrs. Root that I had important business in Cleveland, 30 miles away. She supposed it was something connected with the jewelry business, but it was really to go to the book stores and hunt up whatever I could find on bees. In those days it took a whole day to go to Cleveland in a stage coach and another to get back. In the bookstores I found three good-sized books, Langstroth, Quinby and one by C.B. Miner. I selected Langstroth and then sat up pretty much all night at the hotel reading it.

Reads Langstroth on the Honey Bee

I cannot remember that I ever got hold of anything in my life that gave me such keen pleasure and enjoyment as did Langstroth’s wonderful revelations of the mysteries of the beehive. Years before I had read Robinson Crusoe with much interest and enthusiasm, but now I found “truth stranger than fiction.”

Very soon I collected all the agricultural papers that contained articles on beekeeping. My sister, who was clerking in the jewelry store, told my wife that it was really too bad, the way I “pumped” every old farmer in regard to what he knew about bees. She said, after they had given me all the information they possibly could, they looked so weary and troubled and evidently wanted to get away so badly that she really felt sorry for them.

I soon got in touch with Mr. Langstroth, and in that way found out about the Italian bees. I learned that a bee journal had been started and that it had been kept going for three years, but had then been discontinued for lack of patronage. I scraped up an acquaintance with the editor, Samuel Wagner (one of God’s noblemen), and by my enthusiasm induced him later to recommence the publication of the American Bee Journal, at Washington, D.C.

Brand new Langstroth hive

Of course, I soon had another swarm of bees, although it had seemed to me for a time as if I should never think as much of any others as I did of the first. About this time I was warned that the whole business was impossible. To take a hive of live bees apart and put them back was sheer madness. Everyone thought I had gone crazy. My new bees I brought home on a stick. A helper taking one end, we carried them by hand the whole mile, as it was hot weather. I placed them upstairs over a wood-house to be out of the way, as “The Ohio Farmer” recommended keeping them on the second floor. The next morning before daylight, I was watching for the first bee to sally forth.

Because of the new surroundings this first bee made a few tours of inspection about its new abode before leaving for the field. It was soon followed by another and then by two, three or half a dozen, until there was quite a scene of activity, all hovering about, with their heads turned toward the hive to mark its location.

After having been called to breakfast several times, I finally concluded that the bees would work just as well without being watched.

I had already manufactured a Langstroth frame hive and had taken pride in having it well made just as he had recommended in his book. I began to feel very anxious to see how much better the bees would work in the improved hive than in the one they were then occupying

First Job of Transferring Bees

Mr. Langstroth’s directions for transferring were rather brief for a beginner, but I had unbounded confidence in my skill with bees after having read so much on the subject, and so I intended to transfer them as soon as they had become used to their location. By afternoon, however, they seemed so much at home that I concluded that the thing might be managed almost without their knowing it. It is true, it was a hot day, and Mr. Langstroth had cautioned about handling honeycombs in hot weather, but I could not bear to think of my bees being any longer without the great conveniences (?) of movable-frame hives.

I had provided a bee-hat, a clumsy wire-cloth affair, so I commenced by blowing a litt le smoke into the hive. I then turned the hive bottom up, removed the sliding bottom-board and put on an empty box. I felt considerably elated at my success, as they seemed perfectly thunderstruck and of course docile. For a decoy hive to catch returning bees, I had used my new hive, as I supposed they would go right in and begin work. But it was so unlike their former home that they only flew around in dismay and refused even so much as to look inside.

The book was near by with a heavy chisel across it to hold it open, and it informed me that the next thing was to drive them into the box, which I did systematically. I removed the box and bees to a smooth board and shut them in tightly, so that they might not fly away as my first ones had done. I discovered later that bees must have ventilation.

The next thing, according to the book, was to pry off one side of the hive with a stout chisel. All right, but the hive was screwed together with heavy screws so badly rusted that I could not get them out, and as a last resort the combs had to be taken out at the bottom and at one side where there had been a pane of glass. As it was August, some of the combs did get a little bruised, so much in fact that I called to my wife for a large pan and poured the honey out of the hive into it, bees and all, as some of them remained in the hive. These were strained out and carried back to lick each other off , as the book said they would do, and I busied myself in tying combs into the frames.

I was thinking at the time that there seemed to be a great many bees about, but supposed it to be those that were out foraging. I felt quite relieved after getting the last piece of comb into the frames, and I put them safely in the hive where it had stood all the time.

A.I. Root

The next thing was to put the bees in. On opening my box, the bees shut up there looked as bad as whose which had been strained out of the honey. I put some of them in front, but they would not crawl in (fly they could not). Finally I dumped the whole mass on top of the frames and poked them down through, but they only crawled out again, down into the dirt. A part of them that were better off would persist in clustering up by the window on the roof overhead, in short, anywhere except in that Langstroth hive.

Finally, by night, after much time and trouble, I had some of them in the hive, the robbers having licked them off and also having licked their hive out clean. These robbers were also on hand the next morning bright and early, but I closed the entrance nearly, and as there was not much in the hive I managed with great care to keep them off for two or three days. But I noticed the bees were continually crawling all over the hive and they seemed disconcerted, until one morning I discovered a cluster of them apparently almost dead, on the under side of a bench a few feet from the hive. These I placed on the alighting board and was very surprised and elated to see a strangely shaped, long, black bee stalk majestically from the midst of the cluster to the entrance and go in, and then there was rejoicing both by the bees and by myself as I knew that I had actually seen that famed personage whose existence was so much doubted by many, a queen bee.

After I found that my bees had their queen, my anxiety for them was relieved, and I had no doubt that under my careful management they would yet come out all right. To make sure, I fed them the honey I had strained them out of, thinking it would be better for them to take it back after they were strong again. Of course, the frames had to be taken out occasionally to see that they were all right and to get an occasional glimpse of that mysterious queen once more.