An Ode to the Bee
To be, or not to bee...that is the soular quest I am on.
We feel that nothing celebrates the symposium of symbiosis that bees show us, alike poetry! This is our favourite bee poem of all time and perhaps this ode to the bee connects you to why bee's are crucial in saving the future of our planet's biodiversity.
Poem by - Russell Hibbs - click to listen to audio
"But it's wonderful to be alive, to be a bee in this bee hive.
Why, it's a buzz. Ask the wild bee what the druid said.
For nothing is as it seems to be said he and I will help you unlock your cellular memory to celebrate the wonder of being in harmony - COMMUNITY.
Listen, can you hear the hum in living stone? Or in the ancient trees, or deep within the cells of your own bodies.
See my dance, see my dance and trance, dance my measured stance. It's sacred soular geometry.
Come with me and beehold the labyrinth. I can lead you through.
So let's make a beeline for fields of flowers and pastures of plenty, where the rivers run golden in the land of soya milk and honey.
Ohh solar day. Ohh soul ahh deity.
Solidarity.
Remember me?
I’m the humble, tumbling, fumbling brother bumblebee.
That's me full of foible and fallibility, but with high fidelity. Hummm.
Ohh great spirit that begat me and spat me out, bestow upon me or forget me nots, and let me pay homage to the honeysuckle and body.
And if me dance as well, a wee bit wobbly, it's probably because I tripped over me six legs due to the high pollen count of the amber nectar on a jolly, old royal jelly belly.
And though I may stint myself from time to time, i might need a bit of a prod.
It's only because I'm divinely intoxicated, ohh God.
I sip from the cup and swill from the grail of the holy golden flowers to taste again and again YOUR LIFE GIVING POWERS.
For I have slept, cloaked in purple at the royal court of mountain heather.
Tip toed and tap danced on the fragile ribbons of pale primroses and petunias, been tickled by stamens.
No stigma attached. Rebelled with 10,000 Brothers in a nest of mud and wax, till SPIRIT calls me home to the great honeycomb in the sky.
In the sweet, sweet, very sweet by and by.
No, I don't need no university degree man to be wise.
I know where the honey lies.
No flies on I and I....I stamp my feet and beat my humming drum to the sun, to the frequency of every flower...
Far, near, or right here.
Heart beats, wings vibrate, and ohh it feels so damn good, too pollinate.
And so from me the bee to you, humanity.
I bring you gifts. Mead brimming, bright. Just a wee dram for second sight.
Wax for your candles in the dark of the night.
And sweet, rich healing honey and hey.. on these heavy, halcyon days of fox gloves and dragons stamps, spare a thought for me.
You're busy, little brother bee.
Hear me, hum.
See me, swarm.
And let me allow you to calm, to take time, out of time.
And simply bee, simply bee, simply bee.
Some incredible facts about Bee's. Source
- Honeybees have hairy eyes!
- Honeybees have 5 eyes: 2 large compound eyes with hexagonal facets and 3 small simple eyes.
- Bees are found on all continents except Antarctica.
- Scent is very important to bees, and they are best at learning new smells in the mornings.
- Bees cannot see the colour red but they can see the ultraviolet patterns in flowers so they do visit red flowers.
- An average of 50,000 to 80,000 honeybees live in a beehive at the height of summer. Most are female worker bees.
- Female bees can sting, but male bees cannot sting.
- Honeybees can be trained to detect illness in the human body.
- Bees vibrate their bodies to create body heat to warm up the hive to 93°F if it is cold outside.
- Bees flap their wings like fans to create a breeze to cool the hive off to 93°F when it is hot outside.
- When it gets cold outside in winter, honeybees huddle in a ‘winter cluster’ to stay warm.
- Worker bees do the ‘waggle dance’ to alert their hive sisters about where to find great new sources of water and nectar.
- The 'waggle dance' is also used by scouting bees to describe a good new place to live.
- Not all honeybees are domesticated. Colonies of wild honeybees make their homes in tree cavities, cliff hollows and other spaces in nature.
