Thank the honeybees with flowers!

Honeybees make the yummiest, scrummiest natural fuel on the planet. To say thanks to the bees, Rowse are planting thousands of bee-friendly flowers. But they want you to get involved!Write a thank you note to the bees on their Facebook page, and they’ll plant a flower just for you, with your very own message on it. And they’ll send you a photo so you can see!That means there’ll be thousands of flowers all throughout England’s community gardens, with thank you notes to the bees from their fans.
Over the next couple of weeks they’ll be zipping all over the place, hand-writing notes, tending soil, planting flowers and snapping every one so we can send you your own photo. Then they’ll send all the flowers to community gardens. Rowse think it’s a lovely way to thank the bees for their hard work.

So come along and write a thank you note on their Facebook page!

They (and the bees) would be most grateful if you’d tell your bee-loving friends about our bee-autiful idea too. So spread the buzz!

‘Cupid complains to Venus’ by Lucas Cranach the Elder, oil on board

Lucas Cranach The Elder's painted 'Cupid Complaining to Venus' around 1526. Cupid is depicted stealing honey from a bees nest in a tree, being stung by the irate bees and complaining to his mother Venus, the goddess of love, who stands exquisitely by and chastises Cupid: 'There's never sweetness without pain'.

A honeybee will sting an intruder if it perceives a threat, this is a defensive mechansim. Once the bee has stung the intruder an alarm pheronome is released and alerts other bees from the hive. They may also sting. A bee's sting is a modified ovipositor and during the act of stinging, bee venom is injected into the intruder through the sting. In humans this results in pain and itching, and motivates the intruder to flee the vicinity. The bees have then successfully defended their home.

Robbing wild honeybees of their honey, as Cupid does here, would almost certainly result in angry bees and stinging. Sometimes death may also result from a bee sting, this is called anaphylactic reaction or shock. Honeybees often target the eyes of their disturber, apparently attracted by their movement. A sting in the eye is intensely painful (as the author can testify) and any attack of the eyes causes panic. In such a situation Cupid would see the disturbed bees fly towards him and here them buzzing angrily. He would experience immediate pain as the bees stung his flesh. The ensuing pain, panic and threat to his vulnerable parts, would cause Cupid to desire to flee. Later Cupid's stings would redden, swell, remain painful, and become itchy: along with Venus' chastisement, a lasting reminder of his theft.

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