BEE BULLETINS

Tibor P Szabo spent Saturday afternoon at Clovermead Bees & Honey, near Aylmer (ON), where he took part in their Annual Bee-Beard Competition. He won the “Crowd Pleaser” award, but lost the judging for bee weight and beard form to Albert de Vries of St. Thomas, Ontario. Tibor’s beard weighed in at 4.5 lbs, while Albert’s beard weighed 5.0 lbs. Find out more about the competition here.

Run by the Hiemstra family, Clovermead offers an Adventure Farm, Settlement with Heritage Buildings, Honey Gift Shop, and Apiary Tours. If you are passing by the London/Woodstock Ontario area in the summertime, you will want to follow the signs on the 401 and head to Clovermead to find out what’s buzzing!

Here are some photos from the competition:

Sign reads “Bee Beard Huts: The site of our annual bee beard competition. Each hut will be screened and contain a hive of bees and two beekeepers. To feel the itch and see the close shave you need to bee here.”

The Elgin Oxford Middlesex Beekeepers Club and Bee Beard Champion Trophy

Chris Hiemstra (left) introduces and weighs the contestants.

Tibor in his tent starting a smoker.

Tibor’s groomer attaches the caged queen bee to his chin.

The bees are shaken onto newspaper.

The bees are gently scooped and dumped onto the Tibor’s chest.

The bees are encouraged to walk up the Tibor’s chest and form a beard. Tibor’s neice oversees from the other side of the screened hut.

Tibor is ready to make his way back to the stage for judging.

On the way he stops to give out hugs.

Tibor makes it to the stage…

…and greets his fellow contestants.

After all contestants are re-weighed and march up and down the catwalk, Albert de Vries is announced the Champion!

Tibor is awarded the Crowd Pleaser plaque!

Albert de Vries with his trophy.

After the judging the contestants pose for photos with spectators.

…and all go about enjoying Clovermead!

Our planet is an ecosystem. Just like the many plants that honey bees pollinate, as species, we have co-evolved along with honey bees in a symbiotic relationship. Our bodies digest honey more readily than any other sweetener. Honey has antioxidant and antibacterial properties - it may prevent cancer and doesn’t spoil or go bad. It is evident that honey is a perfect sweetener for human consumption, but is honey vegan?

If you are vegan, as in someone who tries to do the least harm to sentient creatures and does not use or consume animal products wherever practical, then you will be pleased to know that honey is vegan. Honey bees are also vegan by this definition. The sole food source of adult honey bees is honey created from the nectar of flowers. Honey bees in the larval phase consume pollen harvested from flowers by adult bees.

Apples, cherries, blueberries, almonds, onions, celery, etc, etc, etc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plants_pollinated_by_bees) are all pollinated by honey bees. Due to predators, parasites, diseases, winter, and weather, true feral honey bee colonies do not exist in most of the world and without beekeepers, there would be no honey bees. Beekeepers serve, guide, and protect their bees. They DO NOT want bees to die and do everything that they can to keep bees as happy and healthy as possible. If you question the veganism of honey, you may also wish to question if apples, cherries, blueberries, almonds, onions, celery, etc, etc are vegan. Without honey bees, these fruits, nuts, and vegetables would be a rarity and extreme luxury.

Pesticides, purposely and deliberately used in the production of many fruits, nuts, and vegetables, are often blamed as a major contributor to honey bee colony collapse disorder. Pests are also killed in organic farming, even though chemical pesticides are not used. When you consider this, honey may be a “more vegan” food than apples as fewer animals are hurt or killed in it’s production.

This is what some other people think:

http://www.compassionatespirit.com/is-honey-vegan.htm

http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm

http://dolcecakes.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/why-is-honey-not-vegan-friendly/

http://www.veganmeat.com/honey.html

http://www.vegsource.com/jo/qa/qahoney.htm

http://www.friendsofanimals.org/actionline/fall-2004/is-honey-vegan.html

http://www.noahbrier.com/quickies/2009/01/the_vegan_honey_debate.php

http://www.ethicurean.com/2009/02/09/buzzkill-can-native-bees-do-the-job/

Click here to voice your opinion.

Watch CBC-TV’s:
The Nature of Things - To Bee or Not To Bee

“Could bees be an early warning sign of a larger problem with our ecology?
Are they the canary in the coal mine for the health of planet earth?”

Photos by Lana Ironmonger:

I discovered these sites while investigating beekeeping in ancient times and want to share them.

Honey bees in art date back to the Paleolithic era. You can see a Paleolithic cave painting on this site.

Man’s relationship with honeybees is as ancient as man himself.

This is photo from Beelore depicts beekeeping hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt:

Also from ancient Egypt:

When the Sun weeps a second time, and lets fall water from his eyes, it is changed into working bees; they work in the flowers of each kind, and honey and wax are produced instead of water.

From a first millennium BCE magical text, pSalt 825
S. Birch, Egyptian Magical Text, in S. Birch ed., Records of the Past, Vol.6, 1876

Source: http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/beekeeping.htm