Block-A-Day 341 – The Bee’s Knees
Today I continue my quest in creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan-Claire Mayfield. This is day three hundred and forty-one of that project.
BEES are important!
Before I regale you with honey facts, let me say that modern beekeepers keep modern beehives that do not look like this charming version. They are an efficient boxy structure that the bees seem to like just fine.
But this one is cuter, so we are going with it.
I found some fun honey facts today and thought I’d share them.
- Honey is the only food found to have an eternal shelf life. This is possible because it is naturally acidic and has a low moisture content making it inhospitable for bacteria.
- The average commercial hive makes 30-100# of honey per year.
- In the 11th century, honey was so valuable in Germany for sweetening beer that the German feudal lords required the peasants to make payments in honey and beeswax.
- Bees survive on honey in the winter. All the bees surround the queen during the winter and shiver their little bodies to create heat to keep the place warm. All that shivering burns calories.
- Even in ancient Mesopotamia, honey was used for medicinal purposes. Because of its antibacterial properties, it was sometimes used as a natural bandage for cuts and burns.
- A honeybee makes 1/12 of a t. of honey in its lifetime. To put this into perspective, 2 T. would fuel a bee’s entire flight around the world (if it could make such a flight).
- The color and flavor of honey depend on what the bees can forage on.
- Bees have made honey for millions of years, and we owe them a lot. Bees pollinate $20 billion worth of US crops each year. 1/3 of all food Americans eat comes from direct or indirect bee pollination.
