"honeybee" news and stories

It is amazing how easy it is to find artisanal honeys in Paris. On my last trip, I found a store that not only offers a gorgeous array of honeys but also medicinal products made from honey, everything from throat lozenges to anti-aging moisturizing creams and soaps. From the second I entered Famille Mary at No. 35 rue Cler, the shopkeeper asked how he could help me and if I had any ailments. He pointed me towards a wall stacked with the largest variety of honey-made products I had ever seen.

The storekeeper at Famille Mary picks out specific honeys and honey-made items that address health issues relating to your specific body, such as stress, insomnia, blood flow, digestion, menopause, memory, vision, and weight gain. In essence, the store is a pharmacy full of sweet honey-made medicines developed in laboratories by doctors and apiarists (beekeepers).

Not only does Famille Mary create remedies to treat existing health problems, but it also concocts candies, pills, toothpastes, and syrups to prevent health ailments from arising in the future. The products are made with propolis, a natural resinous material collected by bees from tree buds. Propolis is believed to prevent cataracts and promote heart health. Three of the most bizarre medicinal products from Famille Mary can be found after the jump.

Seeing sunflowers makes me smile. They are so bright and cheery. Now, however, I have even more of a reason to smile about sunflowers.

I had heard about the mysterious disappearance of the bees. As mentioned previously on this blog, Haagen-Daaz has done a good job spreading the news. They have a wealth of information on their Help the Honey Bees Site. Not surprisingly, most of their campaign revolves around buying ice cream. I love ice cream and support the cause, but what else could I do?

The Great Sunflower Project gives you a great opportunity to help out in another way. Sunflowers attract bees that subsequently pollinate the plants we eat. If you register by June 15, The Great Sunflower Project will send you sunflower seeds to plant in your garden. They then ask that you monitor the bees that visit your sunflowers. Don't worry, they make it easy by giving you lots of helpful hints on how to effectively monitor your backyard visitors. They will use your information to help get a big picture of the state of bees in urban areas.

Is it really bad to say at this point that bees scare me and I'm not sure I want extra bees in my yard? Probably, but I think saving fruits, vegetables, and one of the loves of my life, honey, wins out over my fear of bees. I also don't need to plant the sunflowers right next to my porch swing.

Check out The District Domestic for more on the plight of the honey bee and what you can do to help.

The production of honey is being threatened by an unknown ailment affecting honeybees across North America. Called Colony Collapse Disorder, bees are literally dropping dead while the cause of the illness remains unknown.

Researchers are scrambling to find out more information since this doesn't just affect the production of honey, these bees also contribute to the pollination of crops which means this could have a serious affect on a number of agricultural industries. In some cases, commercial beekeepers have lost more than 50% of their bees.

This industry has certainly faced it's share of hardships. A parasitic bug called the varroa mite has been responsible for devastating hives over the past few years, though researchers are now wondering if this mysterious ailment is to blame for some of the bee deaths they previously pinned on other causes.

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