The whole fabric of honey bee society depends on communication~
on an innate ability to send and receive messages, to encode and decode information.
~The Honey Bee~
Bees are a sisterhood of workers,devoted to each other and to the work that is so important to them. Bees have a unique kind of communication called the "Waggle Dance" This type of communication is very sophisticated and unique to the Honey Bee.
Sadly something is going on world wide with our bees…they are disappearing and the scientists do not know why. It is becoming increasingly more important to raise bees and help, if even in a small way. Here is a little segment on a tv special that was done recently, explaining the sad situation. Hopefully the Beekeepers and the Scientists can unlock the mystery of CCD (colony collapse disorder)
Ok….so I bet you are wondering where the contest part is?
Leave a comment with your favorite good or bad bee story. If you do not have a bee story, then a simple Buzzzzzzzzzz….will do. The contest prize will be a skein of my new Bambino yarn in Tupelo honey with a Marie Antoinette pattern, a braid of Tupelo Honey angora blend roving and this sweet little Bee pin made by Rachel Badeau .
I will use a random calculator to pick a winner on Halloween (Friday). I am looking forward to hearing from you!
Lastly, for you Manise, my friend, a favorite little bee ditty…. "Community" (send them scurrying…)
The Woolen Rabbit 
I’ve been keeping up on the all bee news via Martha Stewart. She’s been urging folks to keep bees. Despite our suburban house and small yard, we are seriously considering it. I’m so glad you posted the great videos and are working to get the bee news out too.
I’d love to have the yarn, and the pattern and I love the color and the pin and bees…
I’m currently kniting a bee skep tea pot cozy.
I don’t have a bee story, but a wasp one. I really don’t like wasps. Brand new pug puppy named Elliot, happily bouncing in the yard. Stuck his wrinkly face in the grass for a deep sniff of dandelion and got a wasp sting. The wasp was hanging on his lip, stinging him over and over and the puppy was running and running and I was trying so hard to catch him so I could help. Finally got Elliot and squashed the mean old wasp. Puppy began to swell, and I called my husband, who was working a Denver Bronco game. It was a Saturday evening and the vet was gone for the weekend. He talked to the paramedics who said Benedryl was fine and the worst it would do is make him sleepy or hyper, but should give him relief. Several hours of sleepy puppy later, Elliot recovered from a very fat lip. This is nothing compared to his brother pug and the spider’s nest story…
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My grandson, who is only 8 months old, went to his first Halloween party this past weekend with myself and his mother. Part of the festivities was a costume contest. He was so cute in his pumpkin outfit that I had made for him. We thought he was sure to win until we saw another little girl dressed up as a little honey bee. She was only 6 months older than my grandson but was she a little (bee) charmer. She had my grandson flirting with her while we were waiting for the judging to bee completed. Needless to say the bee won over the pumpkin. We have pictures of them both and it is too adorable. Just thought you would bee interested. Buzzzzzz…..
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I used to date a beekeeper. His skin and clothes smelled like honey. He wasn’t as sweet as I thought he was. Now the smell of honey makes me sick.
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When i see the first bees of the year it is always a delight, and that continues all summer as the chubby, hairy bumble bees meander around the flowers in the garden. To be sat outside with my wheel, in the sun, watching the activity is heavenly.
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My bee story is that my boyfriend’s family business is an apiary – and we actually moved to Buffalo for a few years so he could be a beekeeper! (That’s over with for now, but he does go back occasionally to help out.)
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We have friends who keep bees, and this year they found a wild colony on their property. They give us honey. Yum.
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No bee stories here, so buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
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I don’t have a bee story worth sharing… my experience is that local honey helps significantly with my allergies tho!
Bzzzzzzzzzzz.
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Our first house had a very deep yard…350 feet. It was my job to cut the grass in large part and we had just been through a bit of a drought, so we did not have to cut the grass for a while. Well, the time had come and I had to cut the grass. I walked about 300 feet to the back shed where the lawn mower was kept. I opened the doors and out came “something” – bees…all into my very long, curly hair and into my shirt – OMG…I had to get away…I ran from the back of the yard yelling and trying to shake them away…as I ran, I shook out my hair and pulled off my shirt, trying to get away from them…what a sight for any neighbours hearing me scream – with my hair and shirt flying…that is my story (3 bee stings, by the way – which is pretty good, all things considered!)
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I love wildflower honey — thank you, bees.
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Bzzzzzz, no real bee story here. Though I finally got a nice picture of a bee on a flower this summer.
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I’ve been checking your website for the last 2 months hoping to get my hands on some of your Tupelo Honey alpaca/merino/silk. Every day I’d check your store to see if you had any available. It is the most exquisite colorway I’ve ever seen! Are you going to have any available sometime soon? I wanna some 🙂
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I don’t mind at all the bees in my garden as I know they’re doing good. But when I almost hit my head on a low hanging hornet’s nest in our crab apple tree, I just had to destroy it. In my mind, there’s good bees and bad bees. Love the yarn!
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Bzzzz, indeed! Sadly, no good bee stories… though I’ve worked in an ER, so I’ve got plenty of really unfortunate ones! Yikes!
Monnie
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How about the time my not-yet-ex-husband and I were driving when a bee flew in the window and stung him in the balls! The women in my family have this disease where we develop nervous laughs in response to watching others in pain………but I really did try and hide my delight!
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Buzzzzzzzzzz.
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Memories – going to a farmer’s market with my grandfather to buy comb honey – wonderful stuff and I miss it… now I have to find comb honey – on real, not the man made comb.
Thanks for the memory.
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Buzzzzzzzzzz – don’t have any bee stories really unless you count learning I was allergic to bees by running over one in bare feet when I was around 9. Luckily I don’t have any breathing problems with them, but I did have to use crutches to get around for almost 3 weeks because of how swollen my foot was.
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buzzzzbuzzzzbuzz
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Buzzzzzzzzzz
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Buzzzzzzzz! Never been stung but my sons have horror story’s! They are fun to watch from a distance. We have much beauty in our world!
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Sadly I have a bad bee story – I got stung at the end of a camping trip, seemingly out of nowhere. Nothing major happened, but man did it hurt 🙂 I’m happy to say that’s the only bad experience I’ve had with bees – for the most part I like them and of course the honey they make!
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No bee story but I do have one with yellow jackets. I was about three, so it clearly left an impression on me. My mom and her friend were sitting on the front porch chatting. I went over and sat down on a chair next to them. Next thing I knew, my mom was yelling at me and grabbed my wrist and pulled my up and out of the chair. She opened the door, shoved me in, yelled for my dad and slammed the door again. It turned out that no-one had sat in that chair for a while and a nest of yellow jackets moved in. Me sitting down started them swarming. My mom got me out so fast I didn’t get a sting at all. I remember watching my mom with the broom sweeping them off my dad as he dealt with them.
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i love bees, but they do not love me!
i’m allergic 😦
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Bzzzzzzz! The very first book I ever listened to was “The Secret Lives of Bees.” One of the best by far and of course now I’m hooked to listening and knitting at the same time.
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I love beezzzzzzzzz! Bumbles are my favorites! I have only been stung a few times in my lifetime. My sister as a child was not so lucky. She kept trying to touch them on my mother’s lavender bushes. And always looked so surprised that she was stung followed by wailing. Sort of like it hurt her last feeling in the world. My older dog’s face swells up with bee stings. Benadryl usually helps.
Thank you for the link to the Bee Song! Now off to play it and watch my family scurry like roaches out of the room-hehe- so I can watch your You Tube clip in peace!
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Oh, I have one about a wasp or yellow jacket who flew off with a big slice of roasted turkey as we were sitting down outside to eat one summer evening. We all could not believe our eyes as we watched this little flying insect pick up a turkey slice and carry it away!! I absolutely love your Tupelo colorway!
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Buzzzzzz!
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Bzzzzzzzz. Still remember the summer I was walking in the forest, barefoot of all things, with an apple and managed to step on a yellow jacket nest. They chased me almost a quarter mile and got me quite a few times. Hoping to get honeybee hives some day though as I hear beekeeping is calming….as is knitting. Love this colorway.
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Two of my favorite books have bees in them:
The Secret Life of Bees and The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
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This summer I stayed in France at a friend’s family. They live in a lovely place, quite and green. One Saturday afternoon I decided to work out a little bit in the pool, which was a deathtrap to many insects. But it didn’t bother me much, and after I came out, took a shower and went to read a little bit in my room. I kept hearing “bzz-bzz”, and thought there was a fly trapped in the room. Only later, when I took out my hair pin, did I understand that the bzzing was coming out of my hair. I got completely hysterical and ran to the bathroom, trying to remove whatever it was from my hair, which is quite thick and literally “a home for the buzzing bees”, as the Hair musical song goes. Eventually I managed to remove the poor bee, who unfortunately didn’t survive. I felt so bad. It must have been drowning and caught in my hair, and my panicky response didn’t help it either.
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I LOVE the roving!
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My neighbor down the street raised bees for several years. He had CCD, got more bees, then had it again, and moved soon after that to NH. Ever since? Some bees must have escaped CCD because they are out there pollinating my garden every year, when previously, I had no honeybees for years.
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Not really a story, but I find it interesting how some people (like my DH) are horrifically allergic to the stings, and some people (like me) barely get a welt. When I was a kid I stepped on a group of bees accidentally and my grandparents were worried we were going to the hospital, but I just had a little puffiness on the bottom of my foot which was gone after about an hour with some ice.
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Think bees are beautiful, but really can’t have them sting me anymore!!
The best time was a number of years ago while living in PA, we were ripping out some rotted lumber that had been used to terrace the yard in the back and they were loaded with bees. I ended up getting stung on the ear! Could have passed for a boxer, and had to be in NYC for work the next day!! Creative scarf work saved the day!!!
Do still love the honey in my tea!
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BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, no exciting bee story except the one I sent you regarding the escape of all those bees from the truck in New Brunswick. The rescue was incredible and it was wonderful most were saved.
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We used to live next door to a bee keeper. It was fun to buy honey from him, knowing the bees had probably visited the flowers in our yard.
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no exciting story but I do get to see a fair number of dogs with bee stings!
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Alas, no bee story, but I do love bees, particularly bumblebees and honeybees. Without them we would have no more flowers, fruit, or veggies. I really enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees, too. That Tupelo Honey color is just gorgeous!
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My favorite memory of bees is while my family (5 kids ages 1-7…at that time and my husband)were exploring on the island of Crete…It was raining and we came around a corner on a twisty, tiny road in the mountains…there was a beekeeper, in full garb, calmly working with his hives…blooming thyme all around the hives and the smell was amazing. We sat at the side of the road and watched for about 15 min. Even the kids were still. It was just the most peaceful thing in the world to watch those few stolen moments. I don’t think the beekeeper even knew that we were there.
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Buzzzzzzzzzz I love the roving!!!
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Fond memories of Australian native bees…. I grew up on a farm in South Australia. A beekeeper kept his bees in our paddocks (fields). As a payment to us, he would give us some huge barrels of honey and some honeycomb. The River Redgum honey was nice (from bees near the river on our land), and so was the sweet “Salvation Jane” honey (made by bees who loved the weeds called salvation jane).
Love your yarns too!!
Colleen
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I don’t have any bee stories. I was stung exactly once – just enough to know I’m not allergic.
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No bee story here but I love your honey bee stole.BZZZZZZZZZZ
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Each year we host a “swarm” in one of our old apple trees. We are honored! We call the beekeepers and they arrive with their smoke and their carrying ‘hive” and a cooler of home brewed beer (for the celebration that follows a safe transport!)They teach us how to handle the bees and how to maintain a calm demeanor and it is all so satisfying! Would you like some pics?! I love your yarns and your blog and I wish that we could have met in Rhinebeck!
best, Jody
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Did you know that on cold spring/fall mornings, you can pet bumblebees? They often sleep on outdoor plants and if you go outside before the sun has warmed them, you can pet them. They are incredibly soft! When my son was three, we did this one morning and it’s one of my favorite memories. I hope he remembers it too. :o)
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No bee story, but a bee poem:
To make a prairie
it takes one flower
and one bee
and reverie.
The reverie alone will do
If bees are few.
But you need more than one bee to make honey, so I too hope someone finds the answer! And finds a cure for whitenose syndrome too.
Bzzzzzz!
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Bzzzzzzzzzz. No bee story, per se, but we DO have a hive in a tree on our property! We WANT to be beekeepers, along with chicken keepers, and sheep keepers, and…you get the picture!
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I appreciate the efforts and labors of bees.. i just don’t like that they sting. My story? I’m a huge klutz, if my continuously reinjuring my poor ankle hasn’t tipped anyone off to that, this confession will. One day, back in third grade, I was late for school. Very late. it was late november. I clearly remembering being bundled up in my ugly blue ski jacket (no not still bitter that it was ugly blue and not the pretty pink my friend had) wearing mittens and a hat. Since I was very late, i was also running. Being a klutz, running is v. bad. Well, running ended up the way it usually did, with my tripping over something (could have been uneven pavement or just a shadow on the sidewalk) and landing on all fours. Beyond skinning my knees, my hand found the last living bee of the year with the stinger in my thumb. Hated the buggers since.
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Good Bee Story: “I’ve never been stung by a bee” 🙂 Only once by a wasp (and that was in England, our wasps are a lot smaller than the ones over here!). I’ve read The Secret Lives of Bees and want to see the movie that is coming out soon. That is rather sad that they are disappearing.
Love the yarn btw – hope I’m lucky!
denise@deniseschulz.com
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