leela: royal jelly

after assisting my medicine woman mentor all day at bastyr college, i met with family for dinner out. the occasion felt like a beautiful celebration in many ways, and i was fascinated by our conversation about royal jelly. i love discovering things about the natural world that i either knew at one point and have forgotten or am newly discovering.

this is from draper's super bee apiary's website:

"The young nurse bees make royal jelly, it is a secretion from glands on the tops of their heads. For 2-3 days, royal jelly is the only food given to all young larvae in their maturation process, while for the queen larvae, it is the specific food for their whole life period. During the 3 days in which the worker bee larvae are fed on royal jelly, they reach the maximum development; their weight multiplies about 250 times. The queen (fed only on royal jelly for her entire life) reaches maturity 5 days earlier than the worker bees; and, when she is fully grown, her weight is double that of the working bee. The span of the worker bee's life is about 35-40 days; while the queen lives 5-6 years and is extremely prolific. She is fertilized once, and from that moment on can lay as many as three thousand eggs a day during the season. As incredible as this may seem, she can lay that many eggs for five years. Any creature that has that amount of energy and vitality has to be respected!"

oh my! and then my niece shared about the bee 'waggle dance' - each movement, waggle and turn indicates to the other bees the direction and distance of food. i love this bee dance film footage from the uk...

after dinner, late and raining, daily dance not done, i loved seeing this flower shop across the street from the restaurant... the bright pink neon sign creating stars on the windshield raindrops... feeling inspired to celebrate blossoming in all it's manifestations - in the lives of flowers, bees, and all beings...

Hum

What is this dark hum among the roses?
The bees have gone simple, sipping,
that's all...
They're small creatures and they are
filling their bodies with sweetness, how could they not
moan in happiness? The little
worker bee lives, I have read, about three weeks.
Is that long? Long enough, I suppose, to understand
that life is a blessing. I have found them — haven't you? —
stopped in the very cups of the flowers, their wings
a little tattered — so much flying about, to the hive,
then out into the world, then back, and perhaps dancing,
should the task be to be a scout-sweet, dancing bee.
I think there isn't anything in this world I don't
admire. If there is, I don't know what it is. I
haven't met it yet. Nor expect to...
it's love almost too fierce to endure, the bee
nuzzling like that into the blouse
of the rose. And the fragrance, and the honey, and of course
the sun, the purely pure sun, shining, all the while, over
all of us.