Dr. Elizabeth Birchall - In Praise of Bees: A Cabinet of Curiosities

The chiefest cause, to reade good bookes,

That moves each studious minde

Is hope, some pleasure sweet therein,

Or profit good to finde.

Now what delight can greater be

Than secrets for to knowe

Of Sacred Bees, the Muses Birds,

All which this booke doth showe.

F rom prehistoric cave paintings, myth and the earliest of inscriptions through to our contemporary world, it is evident that honeybees have always fascinated people, and still do. Honey would have provided important nourishment and pleasure until sugar arrived on the table. Now there is urgent concern about bees fragile survival in an increasingly detrimental environment, given their cardinal importance as plant pollinators in the wild and in agriculture, the underpinnings of all life. But why did this humble insect take on such a rich freight of meanings across diverse cultures?

Cabinets of curiosities historically contained objects for enquiry or contemplation by (usually) gentlemen of leisure. I hope this cabinet of bee lore will similarly intrigue and please the reader. I have rummaged, not entirely randomly but certainly not exhaustively, in many drawers of myth, religion, politics, moral philosophy and folklore, and also include a selection of proverbs and quotations from among many poems featuring bees as well as some of my own verse. Evidently, earlier writers were unconcerned about intellectual copyright, freely ransacking others works, but when they disagreed invective could be fierce. I have assembled passages of literature on beekeeping from the classics; the many minds and pens that have translated Virgil have given me the pleasure of choosing variously. I draw from the exciting and excited beginnings of scientific anatomy, onward through an explosion of interest in effective hive design and the economics of beekeeping to the present day. I touch on current research programmes ranging from the major issues about bee populations to intriguing investigations into their perceptions and how their abilities might assist mankind, even in space exploration and landmine detection.

A measure of practical information has been gleaned from current authorities and my own limited hands-on experience but, while I hope to have avoided egregious errors, In Praise of Bees makes no claims to be an authoritative work of entomology or manual of the beekeepers craft.

Before moving into the thematic chapters, I offer brief details about the background and biographies of a number of prominent contributors to the bee world. Their words or ideas will be called on repeatedly in all that follows.

The great philosopher, teacher of Plato and Alexander the Great, was also a pioneering scientist and close observer of natural life who left us his History of Animals and Generation of Animals. Particularly interested in bees and keeping them in an observation hive, he made enduring discoveries, some of which were not confirmed until the nineteenth century. He was, like his successors for the next 2000 years, puzzled by bees sex and procreative habits.

Born near Mantua, this farmers son became an esteemed court poet. After years of civil war during which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, Virgil hankered for rural peace. Demobilised soldiers were resettled on his ancestral farm in the north but government compensation allowed him to buy new properties around Naples. After writing his pastoral Eclogues, in 30 BC he introduced his great paeon to bees in Book IV of The Georgics.

Of air-born honey, gift of heaven, I now

Take up the tale

Slight though the poets theme, not slight the praise

Aged forty, he wrote of approaching death, of furling his sails and hurrying his prow to shore, leaving no time to sing of his delight in gardens. In fact, he lived eleven more years and wrote his masterly