BENEDICT XVI RECEIVES HALF MILLION BEES

Zenit ^ | September 22, 2011

[NYer]

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 21, 2011 (Zenit.org).- What is the proper gift for a Pope on the Day for the Protection of Creation? According to the Italian agricultural group Coldiretti, it's about a half million bees.

Italy's largest farming association gave Benedict XVI eight beehives containing more than 500,000 bees last Sunday.

The beehives will be kept at the pontifical farm of Castel Gandolfo, where they will be used in pollination and the production of honey (some 617 pounds a year).

Coldiretti explained that bees "play a vital role in the planet's ecosystem and their disappearance would have disastrous consequences for health and the environment; a third of human food production depends on crops pollinated by insects, 80% percent of which are bees."

The "Campagna Amica" Association will provide technical assistance to the pontifical farms to oversee the protection of the bees and the production of honey.

Castel Gandolfo is considered to be a model farm because it unites traditional production methods with modern technology. It has 25 dairy cows, 300 hens and 60 cockerels, as well as an ancient olive grove producing three thousand liters of oil a year, an orchard of apricot and peach trees and a greenhouse of ornamental flowers.

In comments to L'Osservatore Romano, Sergio Marini, president of Coldiretti, said the gift was a sign of gratitude to Benedict XVI "for his constant encouragement of the daily work of those who cultivate the earth."

[livius]

I believe honey is pretty nearly sterile, isn’t it? It was used as medical treatment for wounds for millenia.

[Jeff Chandler]

Beeswax candles are also physically superior to paraffin candles, which produce soot.

[Jeff Chandler]

I believe honey is pretty nearly sterile, isn’t it?

I suppose it is since it has such a high sugar content. In food processing plants I have worked in the sweetener lines were the only ones not sterilized with chlorine solutions after production runs. The way it was explained to me is that sugar is so dense that osmosis causes bacteria to explode.

[ELS]

Thank you for that information.

[SuziQ]

Will they be used for Bee-at-tification purposes?

*snort*

[SuziQ]

Will they be used for Bee-at-tification purposes?

*snort*

[onedoug]

Alan Estrin´s Honey Blog

[Mrs. Don-o]

The Easter Exultet also contains honorable mention of the beees (I love this)

Wherefore, in this sacred night, receive, O Father, the evening sacrifice of this incense, which holy Church renders to Thee by the hands of Thy ministers in the solemn offering of this wax candle, made out the work of bees...

Now also we know the praises of this pillar, which the shining fire enkindles to the honor of God. Which fire, although divided into parts, suffers no loss from its light being borrowed. For it is nourished by the melting wax, which the mother bee produced for the substance of this precious light...

[Salvation]

Continue to Pray for Pope Benedict [Ecumenical]