This tired bee was found at the author's property and given a honey snack to help it get home.
This tired bee was found at the author's property and given a honey snack to help it get home.
September is Bee Month, established by Apiculture New Zealand to encourage awareness and protection of these little creatures.
Bee Month encourages people to make gardens with bees in mind, choosing plants that will help keep the creatures nourished and protected. Rosemary, thyme and other herbs are popular, as bees love blue or yellow flowers but cannot see red. Pip-fruit trees produce masses of flowers with plenty of pollen and native flax species offer high-protein pollen.
Thymotussin bottle - this cough syrup containing thyme, honey, chloroform and bromoform was great for helping sick children sleep.
Apiculture New Zealand recommends swapping chemical pesticides with more organic, pyrethrum-based products. It also advises spraying in the evening when bees have returned to their hives, so they won’t be affected.
Helping bees is the perfect excuse to stop mowing the lawn. Some gardeners are allowing their dandelions to grow or opting for a “no mow” lawn of clover which only needs tending to a few times a year and provides lots of flowers in between cuts.
Summer takes its toll on bees and they appreciate a cool drink as much as we do. Apiculture New Zealand recommends we leave a shallow dish of water for them to drink, with rocks to stand on as they cannot swim.
These insects are well worth our care and attention. Their travels from flower to flower not only feed their colonies but carry out critical pollination, helping to produce the fruits and vegetables that we eat. It is estimated that one in every three mouthfuls of food we eat is due to the work of bees.
Plus, they make honey which has a huge variety of uses. Besides being delectable on its own, honey is great in hot drinks, as a spread, or as a substitute for sweeteners. Apart from sugar, honey contains amino acids, vitamins, minerals, zinc and iron. It also has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antibacterial properties, so is used in a variety of medical products.
Drone, queen, and worker bees - this illustration was printed in the 1902 Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume III in the entry for bees.
Honey was first recorded as a treatment for wounds in an Egyptian medical text dated 2600-2200BC. It prevents water from getting into wounds, inhibiting the growth of microorganisms that cause infections. The antibacterial properties help to keep germs at bay and anti-inflammatory agents help prevent swelling.
Honey is most frequently used orally to treat coughs, either by taking a spoonful straight or as an ingredient in lozenges or syrups. It was a primary ingredient in Thymotussin, a “winter medicament” used to treat coughs. There is a bottle of this medicine, purchased in the 1930s, in the Whanganui Regional Museum collection.
Thymotussin has only a few ingredients listed on the bottle. The first, and its namesake, is thyme, a herb known to help combat bacterial and fungal infections and relieve coughs. Honey is the second ingredient with all the benefits mentioned above. It has chloroform and bromoform commonly found in cough syrups in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were especially effective for children and those with whooping cough as the mixture would help the patient sleep. That’s not surprising with chloroform as an ingredient. These ingredients are no longer used in over-the-counter medicines as they can be highly toxic, but thyme and honey are still effective.
So, plant some herbs, put out a dish of water and thank the bees for their delicious honey.
■ Sandi Black is the Kaihāpai Kōrero - archivist at Whanganui Regional Museum.
