Bee Important

The Bee is an important character in our daily lives as well as in folklore and storytelling.  A serious demise to the honey bee population has entomologists and purveyors of local honey scrambling to save the colonies of honey bees, a critical link in the pollination process and key to 1/3 of the foods we eat.

 The bee hives of George Bailey, Mansfield CT. beekeeper. You can get George's Honey and Maple Syrup at the Storrs Farmer's Market on Saturday afternoons. ( note: electric fence to keep marauding bears from sampling the honey, we have no resident population but sitings of individuals as they wander through the region have been reported)

Beekeepers are our link to the lives and lore of the honey bee and their important work in pollination. Buying local honey at a nearby farmers market keeps our honey bee growers working and setting more hives to help the endangered population.

This link leads to an web page on honey bee health and welfare issues. YOU could sponsor a hive and help the honey bee population survive!
http://thehoneybeeconservancy.org/act-today-2/act-today/

National Geographic kids does a good job of telling the story of the bee die off and why it worries researchers; http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/animalsnature/honey-bee-mystery/

Burt's Bees  Public Service Announcement regarding Colony Collapse Disorder is here:

Heifer Project 

You can contribute to the world hunger crisis by making the donation of a hive of Honey Bees and training for a beekeeper through the good work of Heifer Project this link takes you directly to the Bee page in their online catalog:  https://secure1.heifer.org/gift-catalog/honeybees.html


Bees are found in folk lore and legend and scattered through history in image and reference. Bees often are a sign of wealth  and this is found as a repeated theme in stories. Certainly to be a keeper of bees insures a sweetness in life and a source of income. One of my favorite bees stories I found on a CD by Timmy Abell. I caught his performance at Garner Storytelling Festival in North Carolina and bought myself a CD "Stories to Grow On", a Parents Choice Award Winner.  Here the Japanese folktale of "The Man Who  Bought a Dream", captivated me.  You can here a clip of the story at this link: http://www.timmyabell.com/mandream.htm

Visit his website for more info on Timmy Abell Music and Stories at: http://www.timmyabell.com/index.htm

My Favorite Story with bee lore in it represented the wealth of finding a "Bee Tree". The Disney Classic, "So Dear To My Heart", this film had great music by Burl Ives, a cast of standout characters, the famous horse Dan Patch and a terrific Bee Tree happy ending, what's not to like!

There is a wealth of folk tales you can listen to at the web site Story Bee : http://www.storybee.org/index.html   Enjoy!!  Book mark it and come back often.

Story Lovers is full of resources and of course there is a great page on bees, travel through this link to see what the wise old Dumbledore has to do with bees!
http://www.story-lovers.com/listsbeestories.html

Bees are business from the local beekeeper and  the mission to make and sell  Local Honey to the larger bee business which grew from a small backyard entity to the well known Burt's Bees. Here you can read their story: http://www.burtsbees.com/c/story/history/burt-s-story.html

Thank -You for reading Bee Important, I invite you to leave a comment below or subscribe to the blog to receive future issues. For more info on Carolyn Stearns Storyteller visit me at my website www.carolynstearnsstoryteller.com  or visit on Facebook, Twitter, You-Tube and Pinterest!