SlipLive

So this weekend was like any other weekend... Pam and I were bored and decided to go to a corn maze on Saturday afternoon. It was at this really nice farmers market. So we go through the corn maze (which was ok... I've been to much better ones) and we're walking around the farmers market, sampling apples and stuff. When we notice that they are sampling their wine that they make there. I don’t really care for wine so I was standing behind Pam as she went diving in for various 0.5oz samples of wine. So I’m standing there and next thing I know I get this burning sensation on my thumb, like someone was smoking a cigarette and the cherry fell off onto my thumb. So I look at my thumb and instantly I see the bee and am like WOW THIS REALLY FUCKING HURTS!!! So I say a profanity or 9 and swing my hand around in a circle. (*side bar: they actually have a honey comb in the farmers market so the place is coated with bees) I hadn’t done anything to the bee, it apparently just didn’t like me, or maybe it was an assassin bee sent by the government because I was saying how much Bush looks like a monkey… I digress… So after a lot of complaining, Pam and I are on our way and decide to go to the Rock Bottom Brewery for some beer and food before going to Loews (Coolest Movie Theater EVAR!!111!!!) to see Corpse Bride. Now the whole time, my thumb was still a little soar and really itchy. Keep in mind, I’m not allergic to bees.

Sunday, woke up.. my hand was as itchy as hell and a little red around where I was stung, so I got a cold compress… i.e. holding a bottle of beer while watching football all afternoon. Anyway, I got to bed Sunday night and wake up with my hand all HUGE and Swollen… and still very itchy… I didn’t know what was up.. Pam’s slightly concerned and says I should go to the doctor… I’m like, whatever, I’ll just get some benadryl and the swelling will go down. Well, I get to work and get a free moment and decide to go over to the medical unit to get some benadryl… I go in, sign in, nurse sees me… hmmm let’s see, oooh it’s pussing, it’s warm… hmmm your hand is INFECTED!!! They gave me some Amoxicillin and I had to check back in with them yesterday. I also have to go back and get it check on again on Thursday or Friday… they were worried that since I was stung so close to the thumb joint that it could get in there and the infection could spread really quick… anyway back to the point.. I now hate honeybees…. So if any of you have homeboys/girls that are honeybees you best tell them to stay the fuck away from me cause I’m gunning for them…

... this has been another episode of deep thoughts, by pat.. handy.

morale of the story: wash your hands before bed.

Hey Pat, sorry about your lil' bee sting situation. Maybe you just looked like someone who killed his queen or something. BTW, how was the corpse bride....I'm going to go see it tonight.

k-real wrote:morale of the story: wash your hands before bed.

Are you kidding me!! I washed my hand.. ran it under cold water... it just happens sometimes... I guess... it happened to my sister-in-law when she was a kid and she actually got blood poisoning...


Robyn.. it was good... Pam and I both really liked it... but don't go in with the expectation that it's going to be the "nightmare before christmas" agian.. .cause it's not...

bees die when they sting you dude.

the bee that stung you is dead.

will that knowledge make your simple mind rest easier?

tim wrote:bees die when they sting you dude.

the bee that stung you is dead.

will that knowledge make your simple mind rest easier?

no.. it doesn't... now I want his family.... I'm working the mob mentality...

*edited to say "now I want 'her' family" as most bees are actually female...

I've always read that the queen(female) stays home and the male bees go out and work just for her and then they bring home all the nectar to thier sweet queen bee. Kinda sad really, who would want to do that?


Oh, and I saw the corpse bride, man I loved the art work, still-motion, whatever they used. Wasn't it strange how the underworld was really, colorful and the living upper world was drab, dark and mundane? What'd you think about that Pat?

Actually Robyn.. Bees much like ant's are all female except for drones which only serve to impregnate the queen. The other bees are female but almost Asexual and the queen has back up queens that will eat the "royal jelly" and then it is possible for them to become the queen... I know I didn't give this justice.. but if you're interested.. look it up... it's fasicinating stuff...

yeah... I didn't notice the difference till you just said something... I also like the fact that there were only 3 songs.. not too many... and the animation was just amazing... good story line... good romance movie... not necessarily what I would classify as a kids movie... that's the problem when stuff is animated, they instantly think it's for kids... take for instance Watership Downs... not a kid movie.... ya know... anyway.. glad you enjoyed it!

Here's what I found...and yes, you are right about the males. But you must agree they have a pretty sucky position.....just here to impregnate and then gone like the wind and yes, that flick is definitley for adults all about marriage. I need a copy of it when it comes out on dvd. The artwork is amazing.


HONEY BEE

Honey Bee, common name for any of several species of highly social bees known for their honey-hoarding behavior and their use as a domesticated species (see Beekeeping). The European honey bee is important in modern agriculture and in nature, providing pollination for many valuable crops and wild plants. It is native to Asia and the Middle East and was introduced to North America by early European colonists. By the mid-1800s honey bees had become widespread. Today, they are naturalized on every continent except Antarctica. Honey bees can be easily reared, are adaptable to many climates and to laboratory conditions, and have a complex social life. They are among the most studied and best known insects.

Diversity
In addition to the familiar European honey bee, there are six other recognized species of honey bees, including the Indian honey bee, Koschevnikov's honey bee, the dwarf honey bee, the andreniform dwarf honey bee, the giant honey bee, and the mountain giant honey bee. The European, the Indian, and to some extent the dwarf honey bees are the species that have been domesticated, although the European honey bee is by far the most widespread domesticated bee and the only species kept in North America. There are many races of the European honey bee. The ones most popular in modern beekeeping are the Italian, Carniolan, and Caucasian. Most honey bees used in hives today are mixtures of these and sometimes other races. Africanized honey bees, also known as killer bees, are a hybrid of African and European races naturalized in the western hemisphere.

Social Organization
The honey bee is a social insect that can survive only as a member of a community, or colony. The colony inhabits an enclosed cavity, its nest. Domesticated colonies are kept in artificial containers, usually wooden boxes, known as hives.

Castes
The honey bee community consists of three structurally different forms-the queen (reproductive female), the drone (male), and the worker (nonreproductive female). These castes are associated with different functions in the colony; each caste possesses its own special instincts geared to the needs of the colony.



The queen is the only sexually productive female in the colony and thus is the mother of all drones, workers, and future queens. Her capacity for laying eggs is outstanding; her daily output often exceeds 1500 eggs, the weight of which is equivalent to that of her own body.

Anatomically, the queen is strikingly different from the drones and workers. Her body is long, with a much larger abdomen than a worker bee. Her mandibles, or jaws, contain sharp cutting teeth, whereas her offspring have toothless jaws. The queen has a curved, smooth stinger that she can use repeatedly without endangering her own life. In contrast, the worker honey bees are armed with straight, barbed stingers, so that when a worker stings, the barbed, needlesharp organ remains firmly anchored in the flesh of its victim. In trying to withdraw the stinger, the bee tears its internal organs and dies shortly thereafter. The queen bee lacks the working tools possessed by worker bees, such as pollen baskets, beeswax-secreting glands, and a well-developed honey sac. Her larval food consists almost entirely of a secretion called royal jelly that is produced by worker bees. The average lifespan of the queen is one to three years.

The Worker Bee
Worker bees are the most numerous members of the colony. A healthy colony may contain 80,000 worker bees or more at its peak growth in early summer. Workers build and maintain the nest and care for the brood. They build the nest from wax secreted from glands in their abdomen. The hexagonal cells, or compartments, constructed by the workers are arranged in a latticework known as the comb. The cells of the comb provide the internal structure of the nest and are used for storage of the developing young bees and all the provisions used by the colony. Comb used for storage of honey is called honeycomb. Workers leave the hive to gather nectar, pollen, water, and propolis, a gummy substance used to seal and caulk the exterior of the nest. They convert the nectar to honey, clean the comb, and feed the larvae, drones, and the queen. They also ventilate the nest and when necessary, defend the colony with their stings. Workers do not mate and therefore can not produce fertile eggs. They occasionally lay infertile eggs, which give rise to drones.

As with all bees, pollen is the principal source of protein, fat, minerals, and vitamins, the food elements essential for the growth and development of larvae of all three castes. Adult bees can subsist on honey or sugar, a pure carbohydrate diet. Besides gathering and storing food for all the members of the colony, the workers are responsible for maintaining the brood at 33.9° C (93° F), the optimum temperature required for hatching the eggs and rearing the young. When the nest or hive becomes too hot the workers collectively ventilate it by fanning their wings. During cool weather, they cluster tightly about the nursery and generate heat. The eggs, which are laid one per cell, hatch in three days. The larvae are fed royal jelly for at least two days and then pollen and nectar or honey. Each of the hundreds of larvae in a nest or hive must be fed many times a day.

For the first three weeks of their adult lives, the workers confine their labors to building the honeycomb, cleaning and polishing the cells, feeding the young and the queen, controlling the temperature, evaporating the water from the nectar until it thickens as honey, and many other miscellaneous tasks. At the end of this period, they function as field bees and defenders of the colony. The workers that develop early in the season live extremely busy lives, which, from egg to death, last about six weeks. Worker bees reared late in the fall usually live until spring, since they have little to do in the winter except eat and keep warm. Unlike other species of bees, honey bees do not hibernate; the colony survives the winter as a group of active adult bees.

The Drone Bee
Drones are male honey bees. They are stingless, defenseless, and unable to feed themselves-they are fed by worker bees. Drones have no pollen baskets or wax glands and cannot secrete royal jelly. Their one function is to mate with new queens. After mating, which always takes place on the wing in the open air, a drone dies immediately. Early investigators of the mating habits of the honey bee concluded that a queen mates only once in her life. Recent scientific studies, however, have established that she usually mates with six or more drones in the course of a few days. The motile sperm of the drones find their way into a small, saclike organ, called the spermatheca, in the queen's abdomen. The sperm remain viable in this sac throughout the life of the queen.