I read a sad little news story the other day in between the sad and huge news stories about flooding in England. English bumblebees are becoming rare.
Bumblebees are not honeybees (although they do produce honey); they are the large, amiable, furry creatures about an inch long that, well, bumble about from flower to flower in England. We have something very similar (and even huger) in Maryland where I live, a place that is particularly blessed in flying insects, bees, pretend-bees, and things that will sting you as soon as look at you.
Talking of which, here’s the business end of a bumblebee, and unlike honeybees, they can sting you more than once. So even though they look delightfully furry, it’s not a good idea to pet them.
And it’s not only bumblebees that are endangered. In all, about fifty varieties of native bees in England have become extinct recently, and the reason is mostly the loss of hedgerows. A habitat for many species of plants, animals, and birds, these plantings were often centuries old, marking ancient land boundaries, and many have been destroyed by modern agribusiness. If you travel in the English countryside you can see the scars of hedgerows destroyed to make larger fields.
But the good news is that the bumblebee has moved into the ‘burbs. It’s English gardens, crammed with flowering plants, that will help the bumblebee survive.
And now for the Regency tie-in. Well, there were a lot more flying critters around then. Surely someone has written an entomologist or beekeeper hero or heroine? Anyone got any good bee or bug stories?
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I have fond and well..unfond memories of bees.;-)I always say “remember to check your drawers before you put them on”. For you never know what’s in them before you do. Many summers ago it happend to me but I swear that memory is still a vivid one! 😮
I have seen some bubblebees not long ago at a garden party in England..they seemed to want to fly around raspberry cake. (in which to some folks annoyance I tend to laugh about such things like that happening..whilst they don’t…)
😉 Mallory who sometimes don’t make a good party guest.
Words to live by, Mallory.
I suppose you can’t mention bees without someone bringing up Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton, specifically Anthony Bridgerton.
Otherwise the mind is a blank.
In Julia Ross’s SEDUCTION not only does the heroine keep bees but the hero intentionally gets himself stung even though he’s allergic, so she’ll have to take him in and nurse him.
Laurie R. King’s The Beekeeper’s Apprentice was a good one. And there’s a twisted beekeeper of sorts in Terry Gilliam’s film, Tideland. Which was a book, that I have not read, and after seeing the film, I think I lack the guts. Oh, and of course there’s The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, which was readable.
I think bees are fascinating and have fantasized about keeping bees, perhaps post-empty-nest, if you’ll pardon the pun. But I’m not sure I’m quite eccentric enough. 🙂
There is a beekeeper with seven hives a few blocks from my house. Two summers ago, a swarm –that resembled a huge bunch of buzzing grapes– attached itself to my neighbor’s magnolia. We were discussing it when the swarm began to agitate, then lifted off the tree and flew over her house just like a UFO. They’re quite Borg-like, bees. And they knew they were being talked about.
I hope the bumbles recover in England. Bees have had their ups and downs in my neighborhood, too. Like frogs, they’re sensitive.
Janet, just reading your post caused a shiver to run up my back and the left upper arm to ache, because I swear the sting is still in there from 25 summers ago.
Santa, may I simply say, “Bzzzzzz?”
Julia Ross’s hero seems to be made of unusually stern stuff. Eeek!
I have never been stung by a bee or a wasp or any of those hive-making insects.
I do have a memory of my friend getting stung at the pool and my mother rusing her to the dispensary (medical care on the army base) because she was VERY allergic, dangerously allergic. Scared me, for sure. So I think Julia Ross’s hero was rather dumb, because they didn’t have epi pens in those days.
I’m not likely to write a bee keeping hero or heroine anytime soon, although I did have a bee hive in The Marriage Bargain, come to think of it.