Buzz

Every time I wear my bumblebee necklace (shown above) or my bumblebee drop earrings from Fossil, generously given to me by my friend Ann, I always, always, always get compliments on them. One of my guests at the restaurant last night made me bend over the table so she could get a better look at the earrings. Another diner last month told me her husband had been admiring them all through lunch because he is a bee keeper. If I hadn't been so busy, I would love to have picked his brain about that.

I think bee keeping is amazing and mysterious! The more I hear about it, the more I would love to try it...except that I never, ever want to be stung by a bee again. I've been stung only once, and it wasn't a big deal, but I have a feeling that bee keeping involves getting stung--maybe not often, but enough to scare off most people like myself from taking up the hobby.

I have always loved the phrase "go tell the bees" but never knew what it really meant. Google to the rescue! "Bees were believed to be the souls of the dead returning to earth or on their way to the next world. This probably led to the widespread custom of "telling the bees" when the owner died. If the bees were not asked to stay with their new master or mistress, it was believed they would die or abscond" (Brain P. Dennis).

Some more bee folklore: If a bee flies into your house, it means that someone is coming to visit. If you kill the bee, the visitor will bring you bad news.

Through the writer Neil Gaiman's blog, I found this cool post with photos about a bee keeper who had his bees make a hive in a bell jar.