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50 million years ago flowering plants appeared on earth. With the
arrival of flowers, came the arrival of bees. The vast majority of
bee fossils are found in amber, dating back to the Cretaceous
period, as bees collecting resin for their nests became trapped
and fossilized.

This ancient bee was found in Tibet.
Could the DNA that is preserved in
amber be used for cloning?

Cave drawings in Spain, dating back to
7000 BC show people gathering honey.
Egyptian tombs 6000 years ago
illustrate the Keeping of Bees. Honey
was found in King Tut's tomb.

Half-goat, half-man, Pan was
the Greek God of BEE-KEEPING.
He joined seven reed pipes
together with beeswax to
fashion his musical instrument.
When not chasing nymphs in
the hills and mountains, he
terrorized people with his
music.
The word "panic" comes from
these roots.

In Greek mythology Icarus attempted to escape
from Crete on wings made from beeswax. They
melted when he flew too close to the sun. He fell
to his death into the Aegean Sea.

Today beeswax is used for making candles, soaps
and lotions, lip balms, sewing, fly-fishing and
even hair dreadlocks.

!!Please note - if melting beeswax at home be
aware that beeswax does not boil ... it just gets
hotter until it ignites!!

There are 20,000 species of bees today, in every continent except Antartica.
Honeybees pollinate 80% of the fruit and vegetable crops in America. A single
bee colony can produce up to 100 pounds of honey per year!

Honeybees perform a dance when returning to the hive which indicates to
their hive mates both the distance and the direction to the food source they
have found.

Royal Jelly is a secretion from glands on the
top of nurse bees heads. It is the food given
to all the young larvae in the hive, and the
one specific food for the entire life period of
the Queen bee.

During the three days that the worker bee
larvae are fed on royal jelly, their weight
multiplies by 250 times!

Studies have shown that royal jelly has
indicated effectiveness in treating the
following ailments:

Stomach ulcers
Promotes sexual rejuvenation
Pancreatitis
Hepatitis
Asthma
Skin disorders
Acceleration of the healing of bones
Stress
Reversal of the aging process

Each honeybee colony has a unique odor to identify members to the guard
bees and to each other.

The Central American male golden bee uses cologne to attract the female!
He gets this from the scent glands of the bucket orchid.

Honeybees are disappearing.
They leave the hive and do not
return. This phenomenom has
been attributed to everything
from cellphone use to divine
rapture!

It is tragic to imagine a world
without bees and honey, but this
is only the tip of the iceberg.

Albert Einstein was said to have remarked "If the bee disappeared off the
surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more
bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

Colony collapse disorder was first recognized in the U.S. in November, 2006.
(The Mayan calendar ends in December, 2012.)

To learn more about CCD or if you would like to offer support here are some
links:

The Barefoot Beekeeper
http://www.biobees.com
"10 Things You Can Do To Help Save The Bees"

Please note: All royalties I receive from the sale of the SAVE THE BEES
poster will be donated to the PAT (Pollinator Action Team). Click on
image to view this poster at "Zazzle".

The Department of Biology of the San Francisco State University is asking
for participants in "The Great Sunflower Project". They are collecting data
on bee populations in urban environments with the hope of developing
strategies to support them.

Participants are asked to grow a Lemon Queen Sunflower and record their
observations of bee visits. Visit their website for more information:
http://www.greatsunflower.org