We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season...
~Marcus Aurelius
The bee is more honored than other animals,
not because she labors,
but because she labors for others.
~St. John Chrysostom Archbishop of Constantinople
Were I to be the founder of a new sect, I would call them Apiarians, and, after the example of the bee, advise them to extract the honey of every sect. My fundamental principle would be... that we are to be saved by our good works which are within our power, and not by our faith which his not within our power.
~Thomas Jefferson
Welcome to HoneyPot!
Tell the Bees
HoneyPot is about telling the bees and telling for the bees.
Telling the bees is a folklore tradition found in the rustic fields of merry old England and and jolly old Wales at a time when keeping a household hive of bees was still in common practice. The idea was that the bees would swarm, never to return to the hive, if they were not kept informed of important goings-on. So, the bees were told of significant events like births, deaths, and marriages. The Warwickshire rhyme “A swarm of bees in May” alludes to the fear of the bees leaving:
A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly
The rhyme pertains to swarming, an evolutionary process developed over some 40 million years. But today, our bees aren’t simply abandoning the hive to form another; they’re dying, and from unnatural means caused by human avarice and myopia.
In the 21st century we should all fear for the bees leaving. We have no 21st century rhyme to remind us that our bees are disappearing. Perhaps we need one... at the very least a phrase we can tell to each other, a rhyme we can tell to our children, and that beekeepers can tell to the bees to reassure them that we're aware; we care: Save the Bees Please. HoneyPot is a campaign to speak it, sing it, shout it! Tell your friends, your family, your neighbors, your elected representatives, tell the next generation, talk about it: Save the Bees Please! The bees need our help.
HoneyPot is an artistic endeavor by Paula Jones to generate awareness about our dwindling bee population, colony collapse disorder, the need for sustainable agriculture, food justice, and the need to support American honey farms. HoneyPot is my one-person effort to do what I can to Save the Bees. Through the vehicles of art and writing I will spread the word to create mass concern for our honey-makers. It is my hope that the HoneyPot blog will also serve to promote individual beekeepers, small-scale beekeeping initiatives, and urban apiculture.
Please visit HoneyPot Gifts to purchase originally designed t-shirts, bumper stickers and other products to promote awareness for saving the bees.
I’m not a bee expert, but I am teaching myself all about bees -- the past, present, and future of bees. All that I learn I will record right here on my blog. Please visit The Humming Bee where I tell it for the Bees. Don’t forget to tell at least one person today:
Save the Bees Please!