Petting bees...

[Silvan]

I had a cool experience today. We were at Lowe's, looking at mums, and there were bumblebees flying around gathering pollen. My wife and kids were very skittish, and they kept jumping back every time one of the little critters would fly past one of them. So I reached out to the nearest bee and gently stroked its back, to try to allay their fears. It didn't work. They really freaked out, and said I was nuts. I had to lie and tell them I knew that species of bee didn't have a stinger just to get them to quit looking at me like I had potatoes growing out of my ears. :goodgrief

They do have stingers, and their sting hurts like hell, but I knew I wasn't going to be stung. The only kind of bee-like creature I can't get along with is the yellowjacket. I'm perfectly "in tune" with everything else. Honeybees, bumblebees, carpenter bees, all kinds of wasps except yellowjackets. I mean them no harm, and they return that in kind.

I also feed them. At any given moment from Sunhalf (Beltane) to Sunquarter (Samhain) I have anywhere from 10 to 1,000 bees on my property. I feed them with my trees, then I feed them with my flowers, and then when it's high summer I feed them with my rose-of-sharon bushes (sort of in between flowers and trees.) Those things, in particular, are bee magnets. I can go out to any rose-of-sharon and count 100 bees anytime from dawn to dusk. When it's dusky and the flowers close, the little critters will just poke their way in, get their treat, and then wiggle back out. It's a trip.

Anyway, I just felt like sharing. It makes me feel in tune with the universe to realize I have nothing whatsoever to fear from these gentle, useful creatures that are the source of so much unfounded fear. The only time I can remember getting stung, other than stepping on one by accident, was when I had started in to prune a tree I had not formed a close bond with yet. The tree was home to what I think were probably carpenter bees, and one of them came at me and stung me to run me off.

It's the willow tree in my avatar photo, actually. I've subsequently made friends with it, and it understands I have to prune enough to be able to mow under it without closelining myself; at least until it puts down enough leaves to kill all the stupid grass underneath. It also understands, I hope, that I have to keep it from reaching too far toward my power lines.

Anyway, other than that, I'm a true friend to bee kind, and they, in turn, are a true friend to me. I just thought I'd share these musings among people who aren't going to think I'm off my nut. Thanks for reading, and hug a bee today. Gently. :)

[Darkwater Stone]

Well, I dont' think i'm going to hug a bee today (allergic) :s, but I am happy that you have found a creature you genuinly connect with. Good for you! Maybe you can teach them tricks?
lol, BB,

[Silvan]

Well, I dont' think i'm going to hug a bee today (allergic) :s, but I am happy that you have found a creature you genuinly connect with. Good for you! Maybe you can teach them tricks?I think they already do lots of cool tricks, like pollinating flowers, making honey, and (wasps) controlling populations of nasties like hornworms.

As far as that goes, I've found two creatures I genuinely connect with. The other being trees. Though I might well be the only man alive who calls trees "critters." :durrrr:

Gotta go dig up a recipe. My dog just came back from having escaped earlier today, and she's been skunked. That's one critter I definitely prefer at a very long distance.

[fangedeshana]

lol, poor pup.

I think of trees as creatures too ^_^, so you're not alone on that one!

[Brónach Druid]

Wow, that is very interesting. One of my daughters likes to pet bumblebees too. I always thought she was rather crazy for doing it. I will have to tell her she is not alone in her off beat admiration. As for myself, I think I would prefer to leave the bee hugging or petting to the two of you. I only like bee's from a distance. :lol:

[Agaliha]

My mom and I pet the bees that feed all day on our flowers. I like the fuzziness of their backs. The first time I did it was last summer...I was nervous-- I thought I'd piss it off or something...but the bees didn't mind!
It was cool. I still squeal when one comes flying at me though. Even though I know they are honey bees.

Cool story, though. Thanks for sharing! :)

[Gwenhwyfar]

I love bees! People at the restaraunt my hubby works at get me when theres a bee inside...i just let them crawl onto my hand, give them a little a pet and send em on their way...lol

[Lunacie]

I've never petted a bee, but I've walked through a swarm of them. We were at Ren Fair, getting ready to open, and suddenly were inundated by bees, thousands of them. Others were freaking out and running away. I headed for the front gate to help entertain the folks who would have to wait outside until the bee-keeper could come and collect his swarm. I rounded a corner and was walking between a row of booths when I found myself smack dab in the middle of the swarm. I just calmly kept walking while everyone else stopped and stared at me.

I had a Rose of Sharon at the last house and only noticed a few bees. Have a Rose of Sharon at this house too and don't think I've ever noticed any bees. We sure have ants though. Ants are NOT my friends. :thumbsdow

[Dancing_colors]

I am SSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO afraid of bees!!! :sadeyes: I could never do that!!!

[Silvan]

I just calmly kept walking while everyone else stopped and stared at me.Cool!


I had a Rose of Sharon at the last house and only noticed a few bees. Have a Rose of Sharon at this house too and don't think I've ever noticed any bees. We sure have ants though. Ants are NOT my friends. :thumbsdowI'm mostly ambivalent about ants. Termites, OTOH... Certain species I draw a line (metaphysically) and anything on the wrong side of it has unfortunately broken the rules, and must suffer for it, and suffering does not mean a kind-hearted deportation to the other side of the line, I'm afraid. I try to be very reasonable about this. I'd rather just reason with them in the first place and avoid this ugliness, but many critters just won't take a hint.

[lia_amberwolf]

that is so cool!!!!! i love bees and i used to pet them when i was younger, it would freak my mom out...

i even got my little brother doing it when we were kids, he was scared at first (he's deathly scared of bees even now) but i told him that bumblebees were too fat to have stingers. if they did, they couldnt bump into anything because it would pop right out. :fpeace:

[Silvan]

Wow, that is very interesting. One of my daughters likes to pet bumblebees too. I always thought she was rather crazy for doing it. I will have to tell her she is not alone in her off beat admiration.After a bit of reflection, I've remembered that there's a story behind all of this.

At this place we used to live, I had a nest of bumblebees or carpenter bees (probably carpenter bees, I guess) living in the eaves of the house we were renting. I had two very young poking sticks into everything toddlers, and I was rightfully fearful of the potential consequences of having a nest of bees right beside the door. So I filled in their entry hole with spray foam one night, to trap them in there and eventually starve them to death.

For weeks after that, bees kept finding me on my back porch, looking lost, confused, helpless. At first, they scared the crap out of me. I thought I was going to get stung to death for sure. Then I gradually realized that they meant me no harm at all, even though I was the evil creature who had taken away their queen, and their entire reason for living.

I can't honestly remember if I re-opened the hole, or just wrote it off as "I have to protect my children first" or what. I don't think I actually did re-open the hole, and that makes me really sad to think back on an example of how I failed to do the right thing because of misguided ignorance. :wah:

But I have learned my lesson, and I give all such creatures the benefit of the doubt. I even have a nest of yellowjackets under the roof overhang on one side of my shop, and I don't get along with yellowjackets at all. They can stay until the first time they make an aggressive move, and then they're history. So far, so good.

This whole thing sounds an awful lot like a Pagan version of a Christian how-I-found-the-light-of-Jesus-and-mended-my-sinful-ways story, doesn't it? I guess it kind of is.

So the evil being who murdered a family of bees for no good reason is now their best friend and provider. This place really is bee central out here. There's not a lot for a long way for them to eat. Not like the little bee cornucopia I have going on at Casa de Silvan. Most people just have vast expanses of grass with a couple scraggly petunia plants at the curb.

[taijiya]

Silvan, I think that's so cool. :) I tend to be very twitchy around things that can sting, even though I've only ever been stung once in my life (by one of your yellowjacket friends!), but I find bees to be fascinating, and as you said, very useful creatures. I love to watch bumblebees lumbering about from flower to flower; they're so industrious, and they look so velvety-fuzzy that I'd love to pet one, if I could convince one that I meant it no harm. Beeswax is an integral component in a lot of the products I use, cosmetics to candles, and honey finds its way into everything from my tea to my wine (we sometimes brew mead). The next time I see bees going about their work here in my little corner of the woods, I'll be looking at them differently thanks to your posts today. I would like to give them the same regard I give the other creatures that come on our land to visit. :)



~*~taijiya~*~

[LostSheep]

There are others who aren't afraid of bees! I get really annoyed when people lump bees and wasps together as things which sting, and therefore, are Bad ... I think bumblebees are absolutely adorable ... wasps though, no, you're welcome to them!

But yes, let's hear it for the bumblebee!

[Semele]

That's pretty cool silvan. I would have liked to watch...from a distance!:fpeek:

[Agaliha]

Hey, Silvan... I just thought of something.
Have you looked into bees as your totem/guide?
I put some links up for Briana about Bee totems here if you're interested: http://www.mysticwicks.com/showpost.php?p=2044539&postcount=32

:)

[Silvan]

There are others who aren't afraid of bees! I get really annoyed when people lump bees and wasps together as things which sting, and therefore, are Bad ... I think bumblebees are absolutely adorable ... wasps though, no, you're welcome to them!Even at that, most wasps are in the same category. It's only a few really nasty ones, like the yellowjacket, who give them all a bad name. Yellowjackets are the only critters who have ever attacked me en masse out of nowhere for absolutely no apparent reason. I can't say as I like them. :uzi:

But yes, let's hear it for the bumblebee!
:thewave:

[Silvan]

Here's one I shot today, with Mom's spanky new Digital Rebel XT. (Boy, I really want one of those. Purism schmurism, film sucks.)

This is a "giant" aster flower probably on the order of 2" in diameter to give a sense of the scale of this critter. That's one big bee! I made her my .sig too.

[fangedeshana]

That photo is amazing! *hugs the little bumblebee*

rofl. you should change your "Lorkep of the Treekeepers" to "Official MW Bee Petter". lol.

[greenwitch]

I used to pet bumble bees when I was little! before my parents divorced, we had a huge garden out back... and when we went out to go cut flowers, the bumble bees would always bee in the flowers getting as much pollen as they could before we took the flowers inside.... and my dad used to take my hand, make me point out my lil first finger.. and I'd pet them.... I always used to find it so fun and exhilarting because I was petting a bee.... everyone else thought we were crazy.... but it was awesome! I haven't done it since... but I have no problems with bee's.... cept yellow jackets... they dont like me either.....

It's so cool that someone else pets bumble bees too!! and yes, I'm so happy you're 'in tune' with a creature so many are afraid of :)

[Agaliha]

Thats a beautiful picture! Love it.

[MoonDust]

My granny's got that gift too. She's always been able to be around them and feel perfectly at ease... I heard that when she was younger she had a hive she'd collect honey from... used to hum to them... always thought it was cool.

[Agaliha]

I found some more bee lore-- they are in almost every culture!
Here's a great site: http://www.omplace.com/omsites/Pignut/bees.html
http://lunedemiel.tm.fr/anglais/06.htm
http://www.herbsnhoney.com/bees.htm

I forgot to add that on the few times I have found a dying Bumble Bee I would put it somewhere safe and keep checking up on it. And when it died I would I put them in my bee collection. I have them in a small container...there's about 6 of them. One is a honey bee. But they are great to look at and examine up close. I have a huge Bumble! Anyway, bees are facinating creatures! There is so much about them in myth and lore and everything else!

[Silvan]

That's pretty cool silvan. I would have liked to watch...from a distance!:fpeek:Weenie! They don't bite! Only sting a little, sometimes. :D

(I hate to get stung by a bee because it hurts, and she dies. I hate to get stung by a wasp because it hurts, and then they sting you again, and again, and again, and it hurts, and hurts, and hurts. Getting stung sucks. That's why yellowjackets are not on my happy list.)

[Silvan]

That photo is amazing! *hugs the little bumblebee*Not so amazing, I'm afraid. Focused on the wings, not the bulk of the bee. Lots to learn with Mom's new camera, and I can't WAIT to be able to afford one myself. (I have a 35mm film SLR, but I don't do film anymore. So much bother. I need to get a new digital body the next time I have a thousand bucks shoved up some bodily orifice I forgot about. Sigh.) Hey thanks anyway though. To my credit, she was really haulin' bee booty, and it's not so easy trying to swing a macro lens around and focus it on something moving that fast. Especially five minutes into playing with a new camera. It could have been much worse, and if nothing else, she sure was a groovy bee!


rofl. you should change your "Lorkep of the Treekeepers" to "Official MW Bee Petter". lol.Yeah, that's nifty. Sure. Try this on for size.

[Silvan]

Have you looked into bees as your totem/guide?No, not really. Interesting. I do have this whole bee fetish going on. Maybe that's a sign. :D

I might sign up to have the bee as my official animal totem as long as I don't have to develop sufficient chops to play "Flight of the Bumblebee" on my trumpet.

Deal? :D

I will say one thing. This whole bordering on goofy thread sure has put me in a good mood lately.

[Silvan]

I found some more bee lore-- they are in almost every culture! Fascinating... I particularly like this bit:

"Bees also symbolize eloquence , speech, and intelligence." Yeah baby, that's ol' Silvie fer sure. (In his own bee-addled brain at least.)

(I did get my book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/2915925186//ref=nosim/mysticwickson-20) published though (without paying for the priviledge, I mean... I got paid actual cash up front and stuff, :woot: .) Even if it got a crappy review. :sadeyes: )

[Wytchie]

I had a cool experience today. We were at Lowe's, looking at mums, and there were bumblebees flying around gathering pollen. My wife and kids were very skittish, and they kept jumping back every time one of the little critters would fly past one of them. So I reached out to the nearest bee and gently stroked its back, to try to allay their fears. It didn't work. They really freaked out, and said I was nuts. I had to lie and tell them I knew that species of bee didn't have a stinger just to get them to quit looking at me like I had potatoes growing out of my ears. :goodgrief

They do have stingers, and their sting hurts like hell, but I knew I wasn't going to be stung. The only kind of bee-like creature I can't get along with is the yellowjacket. I'm perfectly "in tune" with everything else. Honeybees, bumblebees, carpenter bees, all kinds of wasps except yellowjackets. I mean them no harm, and they return that in kind.


When I was little, I used to spend literally hours stroking the bees on the heather in our garden, and I was never stung...people used to look at me as though I were crazy too lol

[Mistress_Ravenshadow]

a friend of our family used to do that with bees all the time and everyone thought he was nuts..
the bumble bees in the usa they are alot bigger then the bees here.. I wish we had bumble bees here.. theres just something about them.. so cute and fuzzy looking :) i'm sure i would still be just as allergic to them as to normal bees but they don't freak me out like normal ones..