Hi Jimbo
I know
I'm a dinosaur at heart really :)
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In which case, the Victorian teasmade here is probably ideally suited to a quick modification to make it also trigger your sublimator as it brews you a cuppa.
Of course, I'm not sure if it is safer by the hive, or by the clockwork and meths powered beast! ;)
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Bee research makes the front cover of Nature yesterday ... with evidence that beekeepers have been irritating their spouses for thousands of years by leaving wax residues all over the kitchen.
Actually, it catalogues the evidence for wax residues in pottery shards from archeological sites and demonstrates that humans have exploited bee products for at least 9000 years (i.e. the beginning of agriculture). The absence of residues from anywhere in Britain other than Southern/Eastern England suggests the presence of an ecological limit for honeybees at that time. Nothing in Finland either, though Denmark is well represented. The sites in England with detectable beeswax traces date back to 6000 years ago, suggesting bees were present then (or there were imports ;) ).
Look at what has happened to the teasmade its been hybridised with an alarm clock
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The Victorians new better that's why they didn't have a buggy whip or some such irrelevance on the original
Re the pottery Fatshark could we blame the Romans or was it too early for them ?
Fatshark said "sites in England with detectable beeswax traces date back to 6000 years ago" - So without email and a good post office, which tribe would have brought their local bees?
In Scotland we just turned most of the honey crop into alcoholic beverages, then scraped up as much of the wax as we could find to make candles to light those long dark nights :). None left over for sealing pots and jugs.
Seriously though, folk collected bumble bee nectar on a regular basis. I have a book describing the practice (wee laddies were usually responsible) in Wester Ross in Victorian times. Wax is in there too - are the researchers really sure it is honeybee wax in their pot shards? Same applies to the pollen deposits in containers in archaeological finds, could be bumble bee derived.