August 4, 2011

The News in Beehives.

1. "Lochearnhead beehive thieves strike again."

2. "Bees are ingenious at cooling their hives down."

3. "Amy Winehouse, the talented and troubled singer who died last week in her London apartment... did her own thing. She worked a flamboyant retro look that embodied a reckless rocker style – the beehive, the eyeliner and the attitude were strongly influenced by Ronnie Spector (known as the original bad girl of rock ‘n’ roll) from the popular ’60s girl group The Ronettes – and established her signature look."

4. "[S]ome chefs are... installing rooftop beehives. The idea appears to be mainly to give the ailing bee population a boost... While obtaining honey isn’t [chef Bill Clarke's] chief objective, he has some ideas for where it might go, including a honey ice cream and a honey and peach-glazed chicken."

5. Sarah Palin's "hairstyle is set to bring fresh attention to her Alaskan home town. The high-volume do, similar to a 1960s beehive look, is the inspiration for a new TLC reality show, Big Hair Alaska. The two-part programme will focus on the appropriately named hair salon, Beehive, which is responsible for Ms Palin's signature up-do."

6. And here's a bonus, non-news, I-can't-resist reference to "My Dinner With Andre" — Andre describes an experimental theater exercise called a "beehive"...

"You see, we worked together for a week in the city before we went off to our forest. Of course, Grotowski was there in the city, too, and I heard that every night he conducted something called a beehive, and I loved the sound of this beehive, so a night or two before we were supposed to go off to the country, I grabbed him by the collar and I said: "Listen, about this beehive: you know, I'd kind of like to participate in one. Just instinctively I feel it would be something interesting." And he said: "Well, certainly. In fact, why don't you with your group lead the beehive instead of participating." Well, you know, Wally, I got very nervous, you know, and I said: "Well, what is a beehive?" He said: "Well, a beehive is at eight o'clock a hundred strangers come into a room." And I said: "Yes?" And he said: "Yes, and whatever happens is a beehive." And I said: "Yes, but what am I supposed to do?" He said: "That's up to you." I said: "No, no! I really don't want to do this. I'll just participate." And he said: "No, no. You lead the beehive!" Well, I was terrified, Wally. I mean, in a way I felt on stage. I did it anyway."

20 comments:

edutcher said...

Big Hair Alaska?

We have passed over into surreality.

Roger Sweeny said...

Not only do bees cool their hives down, they also warm or cool themselves by shunting blood to different parts of their little bodies. The biologist Bernd Heinrich wrote a great little book called Bumblebee Economics.

Shouting Thomas said...

The Devine Miss Sarah has undergone a makeover in the past few weeks.

No comment on that?

I don't like the new, naked lipstick style, but the rest is pretty cool.

ricpic said...

...the ailing bee population...

I know this is the conventional wisdom concerning bees but based on the number of bees that swarm my lilies, salvia, phlox and coneflowers, especially coneflowers, I just don't believe it.

traditionalguy said...

Sarah has toned down the glamour look.

She already has everyone's attention. What she shows now is an authentic look of a woman her age.

She wants to evoke trust and not fascination. That change may help her with other women too.

But she remains busy as a bee. And her honey is all natural.

Gabriel Hanna said...

Bees to me are facinating. I hope one day to keep them, but it's hard when you are renting.

Most fascinating facts, to me:

1) Beekeeping as we know it was invented in the late 19th century. A beekeeper experimented with removable frames until he found the exact maximum spacing that bees wouldn't fill up with wax and bee glue. There was no technological revolution here, just one guy having enough patience to work it out. Up until that point, for thousands of years, people who kept bees killed the whole hive getting the honey out. This innovation made industrial production of honey possible and honey affordable for everyone. Makes me wonder what other low-hanging technological fruit may be out there.

2) Bees may seem to be the Platonic ideal of socialism, all the castes working together for the benefit of all, etc, etc. But if you leave honey out where bees can find it, eventually they figure out that robbing other beehives is easier than producing honey themselves. The perfect exemplar of socialism, again.. Beekeeper have to watch carefully for signs of robbing.

3) Beekeeping has its own scientific journals and there are any number of magazines for the amateur and commercial beekeeper. My favorite question from a newbie: How do you know if a bear has been at your beehives. The answer: You find your fence trampled and your bee boxes smashed and honey and wax everywhere. Bears are not subtle.

laddy said...

Big Hair is just another slam against us bitter clingers not living on the coasts or in large inland metroplexes.

traditionalguy said...

The Yellow Jackets are practicing today to be ready to sting the ACC and that other school over in Athens.

Hope springs eternal.

gerry said...

Gabriel, I watched once as a beekeeper "dropped" a swarm from a tree in a parking lot at a shopping center into a large box. The hive was saved from extermination.

ricpic: the bee population in my part of the country has been decimated by a fungus or something. It is so bad that when I am cutting the grass I'll stop or cut around a bee tending clover blooms. The number is slowly growing.

MadisonMan said...

The blabbermouthing on hair styles for female politicians is annoying.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

Rooftop beehives?

My grandfather, a beekeeper, gave me my first Dadant box (which we built together) and 12,000 bees as a 5th birthday present. At that point I had been working beside him with his bees for two years (April birthday).

Nearly six decades later there are five hives out back.

Urban beehives, however, are sheer idiocy, especially for chefs (and I have a brother-in-law who caters events such as the Kentucky Derby).

Bees fly at least two miles to forage. Within two miles of the average urban restaurant rooftop the primary source of sugar will be partially-empty, cast aside pop bottles.

Yum. Great honey. But it's local.

Sometimes a religious belief leads people to do really stoopid things. This is one of 'em.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Big Hair Alaska. Ok to make fun of the rubes in their strange culture out in the sticks.

Dirt Ball Detroit. Showing the decay and corrupted lives of inner city blacks. Nope.

Bees: we have had a decline in the wild bees in our area. However, I planted some leeks that went to flower. Big pom poms of flower about 4 inches across. Very pretty. The honey bees just love them and are all over the flowering heads. Also the giant black and yellow bumble bees.

I think I'll plant more next year just for the honey bees to help them along. Love bees......yellow jackets...not so much.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The local bee keepers here put out their hives (white boxes) in the fields at the beginning of spring.

Two types of honey are extremely popular and quite delicious. Manzanita and Star Thistle.

So I guess the hated Star Thistle is good for 'something'. I'm still nuking them in my property with herbicide anyway.

Gabriel Hanna said...

Snake River canyon in Washington State has tablespoon-size bumblebees, and I never get tired of watching them. The bumblebees in Wisconsin are pretty small.

However, I noticed the bats are much bigger here.

Gabriel Hanna said...

@DBQ:Two types of honey are extremely popular and quite delicious. Manzanita and Star Thistle.

I like buckwheat honey, tastes a bit like molasses (but I like molasses too). It's not for everyone. Haven't found it in Wisconsin yet.

In Washington besides clover and wildflower honey there was fireweed. I can't tell the difference between them, honestly.

ken in tx said...

I have a small hive with three supers. I leave one for the bees and harvest two. That gives us more honey than we can eat in a year. We give away most of it. I did make some mead last year.

Carol_Herman said...

The "beehive."

First, they had to invent hair spray! And, then, you bought a RAT.

A rat was what gave you height in your hair. I'm not sure if it was covered in a hair net, or not. I remember them either being "lumps." Or doughnuts. And, I think you put your hair into a ponytail. And, pulled it through the rat's hole. And, then spread your own hair out to cover the rat.

Hair back in those days. Covered with hairspray. Sat like helmets.

You could also "tease" height in ... by pulling up hair ... inch strands by inch strands ... And, back-coming.

Imagine hair that would last a week. You couldn't move your head on the bed. (Impeding sexual pleasure in my book. But women weren't told back then to expect pleasure, anyway. Just babies.)

And,ya know what? The guy who invented the "tip of the hairspray container" was very close to Nixon. And, rich enough to have footed Nixon's rising political career. FROM A NOZZLE!

I kid you not.

Trooper York said...

Jeez.

Everybody is getting a reality show these days.

Ann Althouse said...

"Snake River canyon in Washington State has tablespoon-size bumblebees, and I never get tired of watching them."

The body alone is tablespoon-size, or are the wings included in that image?

Some bees look like hummingbirds!

BEK477 said...

Ann,
How about a mash-up movie contest. Take two dissimilar movies and add them together. For example, 'My Dinner with Andre' and 'Murder on the Orient Express'. Now invite readers to spin out the plot and story arch.