Honey

BEES  and  HONEY

 To create the mood for a few moments of thinking of bees and their work, let's look at this poem by Emily Dickinson, an American poet who lived 1830 - 1886, spanning the whole life of our Dr. Dillon:

                             THE  BEE          

            Like trains of cars on tracks of plush

            I hear the level bee:

            A jar across the flower goes,

            Their velvet masonry

            Withstands until the sweet assault

            Their chivalry consumes,

            While he, victorious, tilts away

            To vanquish other blooms.

            His feet are shod with gauze,

            His helmet is of gold;

            His breast, a single onyx

            With chrysoprase, inlaid.

            His labour is a chant,

            His idleness a tune;

           Oh, for a bee's experience

           Of clovers and of noon!

Emily Dickinson

[NOTE:  onyx (black) and chrysoprase (green) are gemstones.]

In the past, sugar did not arrive for consumption in bags.  Honey was such a prize!  It was natural that honey production would be of great interest.  Today, this production is supported and encouraged, but on a local scale, with a view for sale at local markets.

We all know it is bees who make honey from nectar they gather from flowers.  Africa has many flowers - to be found on trees, and on the ground.  In a few places they have been cultivated.

 

These are views of the grounds of some of the hotels
where we stayed.

How are the bees encouraged to have their nests in places accessible to the gatherers?

In trees, mostly some distance from the roads we travelled along:

Here are tubes, suspended by string or rope, swinging in the wind, holding bee nests:

This close-up shows 2 sausage-shaped bee hives

 How did the gatherers get up so high to collect the honey?

 

We saw this fellow climbing trees to gather coconuts near Zanzibar.  He has only a strap of rope around his feet, and a circle of string between his hands, to give him traction.  The tree's bark was smooth.

We didn't see the honey gatherers at work, but we assumed they gathered it using similar techniques.

This fellow showed us his loop of string, which he used to climb up the trees to pick coconuts.

All of these trees hold bee nests in tubes!
Too high to be reached by any honey-loving wildlife.

And here's a tube up-close.

And now that the word MARKET has been mentioned

Next time:  Let's visit some markets we noticed as we drove around Tanzania.

Thanks for joining in reading this blog!