Hot and Dry

     The BEE in this Arizona Desert is surviving the hottest and driest July in the history of Arizona. I'm glad I live in Tucson, because it was only 108 today, not the 110 of Phoenix.

     Bees have water gatherers that bring back moisture. Some of the workers start flapping their wings, some in the doorway. These bees are smart, they work together for the benefit of the whole hive to keep it cool.

     Did you know that bees recognize colors and that they recognize their hive if it's a certain color and oriented in a particular direction? 

     Now these cute bee houses/hives are in England, I believe. But if you look closely you will see many at the door/slit of the nearest house. 

    Now here's a comment from me that is just out of left field. My last name is Field and I saw a blogger post with the name Left Field. So that thought took me to Right Field. If I posted under that name would I be unabashedly saying I'm right? No, that wouldn't do. What about Middle Field? Would I then be walking down the median of mediocrity or as another LDS blogger says "That's Adequate!" their slogan. LOL.

Here's signing off:

BEEField 

A Swarm of Service

Beekeeping Surprises

          Every Spring bees swarm and this past few weeks have been no exception here in Southern Arizona. The TV news people are telling us what to do with all those swarming bees. Bill Welch, one of my husband's best friends came to visit this morning. I had discovered yesterday through a mutual friend, Roy Lacey, that both were very interested in bees. Turns out Bill had some 80 hives when he was a young man. He's had lots of practical experience with bees. He told me he had a hive under a grapefruit tree and he would go lay out on the ground near the entrance to the hive and just watch them. "They were really docile. Some of them would return to the hive with various colors of pollen." It was a very special time for this beekeeper. I asked him about swarming and he told me it is simply that the hive was too crowded over the winter and the queen had laid several "eggs" in specially built hexagonal chambers that were fed exclusively with royal jelly and had become "large as a peanut." So the queen bee decided it was time to go find a new home. It was simply like splitting a ward in the church; when a congregation reached around 700 they split it into two wards.
          I asked if it was a terrible thing for home owners to kill all the swarms they found near their home if on a branch of a tree, (obviously not in their home) and he said, "Oh that's not good because without the bees our fruit trees would just flower and never bear fruit. More often than not they are just swarming then sending out scouts to find a new place to live." He went on to say that a real beekeeper would take a cardboard box (He actually did this and it was no big thing) and give a sharp tap to the branch and all the bees would fall into the box. He'd then tape it up, carry it home to a prepared hive box, open it up and tip it toward the entrance and they'd all just march in, happy as can be. Well, I'll bee doggone. With the advent of an Africanized strain of bees, however, since Bill retired he only has two hives (they are still a lot of work);  one is an aggressive hive and one is a docile hive. Now he wears protection all of the time; but before he'd let the bees crawl all over him if they wanted to.

We have Been Covered in Service This Past Week        

          A ward in our LDS church is like a hive when it comes to service. When a worker bee finds a source of pollen he returns to the hive and lets everyone know the directions to that source. In a ward, the members let the leadership know where there is a need for service and the Ward Council meets and discusses what can be done to help. This past week Bob and I have been the focus of prayers, phone calls, offers to bring over dinner and lots of other small acts of kindness. I've decided that at this time in my life where my whole focus is on my eternal companion, Bob, that I will blog these last special days of his life. Bill called this a transition stage. To a non-member they wouldn't understand this terminology, but knowing who we are, where we came from, why we are here and where we go after we die is knowledge that provides Joy and Hope rather than fear, despair, anxiety and all the other sad emotions that occur when a loved on is dying or has died. My blog will hopefully reflect our philosophy, be relatively positive, yet realistically record a truly special person's final days on this earth. We all have regrets, felt we are failures in some area of our life and come to realize, when time runs out, that ooops we don't have any time left to do those things that we've either procrastinated or we'd been too scared to do for some reason. There are regrets of omission and regrets of commission. Maybe, Bob, who is very very private will open up and talk about some of these things. I'm the fortunate one because I get to see the love and esteem others have for him, and the kind, little (and sometimes not so little) acts of kindness they bestow on our family.

I'll Present Bob's Life in Photos and Stories

Sometimes in His Own Words Via His Writings, Too

At the end of this blog is a photo of Bob about 1933 on his Tricycle. No, he doesn't have much interest in cowboys, guns and such now, but he did ride a bicycle on Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands, when we lived there in the early 1990s. He's actually only owned one red plaid flannel shirt in his adult life that I know about, but Brianna our daughter decided that it was hers now.

Bri wears her father, Bob's, Red Flannel Shirt

She also captured an old T-shirt from the 1994 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Battle of Kwajalein-Roi-Namur. He had thrown it away and she said, "No Way," and hauled it out of the trash and  took it home with her. She said that since she was pregnant, it would come in handy when she'd just want a large, soft T-shirt to wear and this one was just perfect, holes and stains and all.

Bob's Kwaj Tshirt is just the right soft bluejeans color for Bri since she's expecting. She anticipates wearing this large soft Tshirt a lot in the last months of her pregnancy. By the way, it's a boy and her due date is Bob's birthday!

Memories of our parents lives are special and their clothing, toys, books and other possessions become special touchstones to us.

Bob plays cowboy about age 3 riding his greyhound tricycle

Is There a Bee in Azerbaijan?

I’ve looked over my blog’s statistics primarily because I hit the magic 60 on this one today.  I was amazed at where people lived who were looking at my blog. One of my very first viewers was in Russia… that was back in December of 2011. Today, the following are listed:

United States 16 views

Brazil               8 views

Russia              4 views                        

Canada            2 views

France              2 views

Nigeria             2 views

Ukraine            2 views

Argentine         1 views

Australia          1 views

Azerbaijan       1 views

The Mystery of Blog Audience

Of course, since I don’t understand how anyone in most of these other countries could even find my blog, except by accident, much less read it in English or even care what I write, or about the topics that I’m writing about, I can not say much about the above list.

What I can say is that it got me thinking about the wilderness that is cyberspace. Then I began wondering about whether the bees disappearing was a worldwide event, thus my question, “Is there a bee in Azerbaijan?

View Larger Map

Azerbaijan is located in what was once Russia at 40.30 degrees North of the Equator on the Caspian Sea. You can look for it centered on a peninsula jutting out into that sea; that peninsula is located about 240 miles to the west of the northern most part of the Assyrian empire in 721 bc. It was only 300 miles NE from Nineveh to that peninsula. (look on map 5 in the back of the appendix of the  Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible with explanatory notes and cross references to the Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints copyrighted 1979)

SCRIPTURE: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.”

 –Isaiah 7:18

The word ‘hiss’ usually means whistle according to the footnote; i.e. signal, summon (Isaiah 5:26) The context here, as well as the parallel construction seems to indicate that Lord summons the bee that is in the land of Assyria (a parallel to the king of Assyria) and his attacking forces will depopulate the land. Only a few self-sustaining survivors shall remain. When we look at what the remaining people will eat, it is:

SCRIPTURE: “And it shall come to pass in that day (usually indicates a latter-day time frame) that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give, he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is in the land.” –Isaiah 7: 21-22

WHICH BEE IS IT? MILITARISTIC OR SELF-SUFFICIENCY & SURVIVAL?

 In Isaiah, does the bee stand for the symbol of a militaristic, attacking force out of "Assyria" and does verse 19 show that the fly from Egypt and the bee from Assyria will “rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes,” mean their swarms will cover everything. That’s quite an invasion of flies and bees. Since the fly and bee are singular in the previous verse possibly it refers to a leader, thus the they would be the invading minnions under their leadership.

          This scenario would result in  the few surviving individuals in the wilderness (cyberspace) must be self sufficient and although they live in a land of milk and honey, they'd really be surviving on the nomad's diet of milk, curds and honey. Hmmmmm. Is this where Isaiah tells us about a latter day type? I may wander around a little in this thought about desolate valleys, holes in rocks, thorns, and bushes because I see them every day. If cyberspace is a desolate valley, the holes in the rocks may be the dark places we hole up in to get online; I really get thorns: these are the virus invasions, or even the learning of new skills that for older people are a thorn in our sides, so to speak. If the bees and flys are on bushes that means there are some delicious sweet things to attract them to that bush, whether it's flowers with nectar or smelly stuff like a dead pack rat. Those of you involved in computer life can tell me what "bushes" attract you, I already know the smelly stuff of porn, etc.

            Since I live in a desolate valley and in the midst of Picture Rocks, I take notice of this scripture in Isaiah. I ponder it. Not real deeply, but I keep coming back to it, sniffing around and researching more and more about bees. I guess I'd better give equal opportunity to the fly, hadn't I?

          Am I prepared for a last days scenario of this type of invasive event? Probably not. I don’t own a young cow or sheep and quite frankly, the cactus and vegetation here couldn’t support them. But can I store dried milk and honey.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) – Is Our Society Collapsing?      

             I researched the disappearing bee phenomenon and found some absolutely fascinating facts about what is happening to bees in our world today: Under an unlikely online article entitled "Getting Rid of Bees" they talk about the fact that most people who come to this site are looking to get rid of bees, but it is important to understand that bees are vital to American agriculture.  Farmers often own their own hives, or they rent hives from beekeepers because bees play a vital role in the pollination of plants.  It depends on the type of plant, but in some cases bees are responsible for 80% of all pollination

            That is why it is such a serious problem that bees are literally disappearing due to a condition known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).  The population of bees has taken a serious dive in the last 20 years, and it has reached a point where a lot of people are worried.  No one knows for sure why bees are disappearing, but there are a lot of theories.  About 34% of commercial bee hives have disappeared during the past 4 years according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

          Hives that are undergoing Colony Collapse Disorder will have all the worker bees from European beehives abruptly leave the hive without any warning or signs of distress.  They are not dying in the hive, but simply abandoning it for no apparent reason.  This does not happen to just one colony at a time, but instead multiple hives that a beekeeper owns will suddenly disappear.  The queen bee, along with capped brood (baby bees), and all the honey and pollen will remain in the hive untouched.  The only thing that is affected is the worker bee.

Theories On Why Bees are Disappearing

          There are a lot of theories why bees are disappearing at such an alarming rate.  Scientist have proposed everything from diseases, parasites, pesticides, and electromagnetic radiation, but recently there have been a lot of brand new developments.

          Recently, there have been new developments related to Colony Collapse Disorder.  The current theory is that bees are turning into zombies! Yes, we are not joking, but let’s get a bit more serious.  The Parasitic Phorid Fly, Apocephalus borealis, lays its eggs in the abdomen of honey bees.  The eggs have very negative effects on the honey bees.

         (Here we have a fly and a bee  responsible for the collapse of the hives)

           Besides the fact that it will kill the infected honey bees, the eggs will make the worker bees behave like mindless zombies.  They will walk around in circles with absolutely no sense of direction.  The bees will then leave the hive at night, and never return because the parasite will kill them shortly after.

          Scientists are still not 100% sure that this is the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, but it is looking like a likely culprit.  They are unsure what the parasite does exactly, but they believe that it messes with the bees’ internal clocks.  The bees are then disoriented, not knowing what they should be doing, until they finally fly off by themselves to die.

Why Bees Disappearing is a Problem

           There are a lot of reasons why this is a major problem.  Yes, bees can be a bit annoying during your lovely picnic, and getting stung can hurt a lot.  But the truth is that honey bees will rarely hurt anyone who is not severely threatening them or their hive.  They are really gentle creatures, who just happen to have huge stingers.

          Honey bees, like we mentioned before, are responsible for a lot of the pollination for a lot of the fruits and vegetables that we all enjoy.  Without bees, farmers would have a really tough time growing some of our more delicious fruits and vegetables, like watermelons.  It depends on what a farmer is growing, but bees can be responsible for up to 80% of a field’s pollination.

          Colony Collapse Disorder is currently responsible for a loss of approximately 50% of the world’s honey bee population.  That is no small or laughing matter.

So yes, there are bees in Azerbaijan but they too are disappearing.

A Bee's Flight of Fantasy - It's all in the Name

In 1992, I wrote a letter to my friend in which I said that because of her anxious feelings about a political power from the East or Asia invading California (today's political scene creates an entirely different feeling of possibility now), that I wanted to share some thoughts about the bee as symbolized in Isaiah’s last days scenario.

            “You mentioned the type and shadow of flies and then bees as orderly, militaristic, etc. Well, the bee has been a favored symobl of mine since childhood because it was my initials. But, recently, like in March, the bee came up significantly again in my studies. Let me share.

            “I love (Hugh) Nibley’s books. Often, I will try to find his comments on a favored subject. I became fascinated with the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. Nibley has written a marvelous book called Abraham in Egypt” 1981, Deseret Book Co. We could spend many delightful hours in a study group on this book, however the discourse I wish  you to consider is on deseret the honeybee, about page 241.(Chapter VII The Deseret Connection pp 225-245)

“The very earliest myths of antiquity hold up the bee to be sacred. So sacred, in fact, that the visual or image of the bee itself is never used as it would profane it. Interestingly, it appears that bee keeping (apiculture) was found nowhere else in the world and was kept as a “trade secret” or monopoly of the kings or Pharoah of Egypt. The bee was translated from hieroglyphics as Dšr and has the basic meaning of “opening the way for someone be it God’s way to the temple or a migration through the desert. [ie. The Lord’s Way] Now when in Egyptian it is written Dš·t it is a name applied to sacred books (the sealed portions?) the secret archives, but especially to the holy land, the land of the gods; as an intransitive verb it means to be holy or glorious; it designates places as “set apart” or “removed to a sacred place.” In this connection it means to honor, praise, exalt, adorn, protect, purify. Of temples it means to make glorious, and beautiful, to sanctify, dedicate.

“ ‘Essene’ means leader of the bees or ‘king bee [ie queen bee]. Legends speak of bee-led migrations at the dawn of history, seeking not commerce but refuge from storm, and starvation – survival. What ties all this together is the story of Asenath, the Eqyptian princess or Queen of the Desert Hive who became Joseph’s wife, the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh. She was married to Joseph in the midst of a swarm of bees, bringing her honey and covering her person to do her reverence.”

Is this Ancient Story the Beginning of the Bridal Veil Custom?”

I was surprised to discover that “There was never any real apiculture” in Mosopaotamia, according to J.R. Forbes’ study, and “wild honey or apiculture do not form a part of ancient Chinese civilization.”(376:79).  Something so basic and elementary as the fact that bee culture should be found in such a limited area of the world, concludes Nibley, is a “definite indication that we are dealing with a single religious tradition and not with a universal primitive expression of biological necessity.” (p 242)

Since the discover of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the name Essene has come into common usage. These were pious communities living in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Greece that had the common requirements of chastity and charity in service to God and man. Nibley says, “The word Essene first appears in the works of a poet who served at the court of a Ptolemid Pharaoh, who remarks in his Hymn to Zeus that the god did not become the “Essene” or supreme ruler of the gods by chance, but by merit.”

Nibley, after going through quite a detailed review of historic studies of the bee by various scholars, draws a conclusion that I wanted my friend Karen to read about and draw her own conclusions. Although reading the story of Deborah (her name means bee) in the Old Testament, one might rightly conclude that because she led the troops to victory, that the bee might be a militaristic symbol. Here is what Nibley concludes:

Why has the Bee Been Brought Back into the Restored Gospel?

“Repeated echoes from the remote past keep reminding us that the office and calling of the bee was to bring about the stirrings of life, reviving the biological cycle in a world that had been totally ravaged by cosmic forces of destruction. Is, then, Deseret waiting in the wings, held in reserve against the day, soon to come, when its salutary services will be required again?”

“From the first the symbol of the bee captivated the imagination of the Latter-day Saints in their migrations and their settlements; the emblematic hive became the seal of the Territory and State and adorned every important edifice within the vast expanse of “our lovely Deseret.” Finally, by what strange coincidence does the History of the Church end with the sign of the bee? After the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, “the bodies…were removed…at Emma’s request, to near the Mansion house, and buried side by side, and the bee house was then moved and placed over their graves.” (Joseph Smith, History of the Church 6:628f.)

This BEE will see whether Isaiah's bee is militaristic or migratory or if after a universal/national destruction, it is salvation in the desert. How on earth is one to "see" what Isaiah is really telling us about today's world. I hope you will keep up with my blog about A Genealogist Looks at Isaiah and ponder along with me as I search the scriptures.

Why are the Bees Dying Today?

There has been a recent mysterious decline or dying off of bees within the United States. Interestingly, the study of this phenomenon is centered right here in Tucson, Arizona at the University of Arizona, located right smack dab in the middle of  MY DESERT. More on this in later blogs.