According to legend, Pharaoh Pepi II Neferkare of the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2345 BCE–c. 2181 BCE) had an unusual way of protecting himself from ancient Memphis’ many and varied flies. Neferkare liked to cover slaves in honey and position them around his person as living insect attractors. The Pharaoh was reportedly very pleased with the […]

We posted this picture on our Social Media page for St. David’s Day with the following text… “HAPPY ST. DAVID’S DAY : Today is the first day of Meteorological Spring and also St. David’s Day in Wales. Whichever you are celebrating, have a great day.”

If you can read this, it may well be because our earliest ancestors added honey in their diets. Forget the merits of fish as “Brain Food”, protohumans may have sought out honey We know that Bonobo Chimpanzees, our nearest relatives by DNA, forage for honey. They prefer to raid the local stingless bees for preference,

Many people think that the runny liquid state of honey that you see in the commercials is the only, natural and preferred form when it’s actually a matter of taste. This mistake bemuses beekeepers greatly, because real honey will set on you surprisingly quickly. It hasn’t gone off if your once runny jar of golden

: “For so work the honey bees, creatures that by a rule in nature teach the act of order to a peopled kingdom.” ‘ Henry V’ (1599) act 1, sc. 2, l. 187 It is interesting that an apparent fascination for bees is being suggested as a disproof of a real world Shakespearian narrative. With

: Although we tend to think of pollinators in terms of daylight visitors to flowering plants, like bees and butterflies, we really should spare more than the occasional thought for the night shift. Although moths do not carry out as many visits to flowers during the hours of darkness as bees, et al, do during

A short and sweet blog post. We chose our name, Gwenyn Maes Chwarel, “the Quarry Field Bees” in English, because of the Quarry Field Apiary which is a carpet of bluebells in Spring.

With a bit of luck, Gwenyn Maes Chwarel Honey could help to prove a scientific hypothesis. Can the enzymes in honey help people with diabetes and pre-diabetes. Third year Swansea University Pharmacology student Diana Abousheishaa will carry out chemical analyses of a samples of honey from a small number of providers with known provenance, and

What colour of beeswax is best? Well, ultimately it depends upon your personal preference. The colour of the wax depends upon which part of the hive it came from and how much of the natural credentials you are prepared to sacrifice, if at all. Beswax is a wonderful odourless non-toxic substance naturally made by bees.

A  couple of years ago when the popular fantasy writer Neil Gaiman was on a Radio 4 comedy show and had to select and argue for a topic worthy of a place in a virtual museum, he chose perhaps the most important but arcane subject in entomology, “Bee Space”. If you love bees, without an

Why don’t bees hibernate in winter? Most people seem to expect to be told that bees hibernate through the cold of winter. The truth is actually far more interesting. Unlike Wasps and bumble bees, for example, who both die off in Autumn, (with exception of their queens who hibernate until spring), Honeybees have an altogether