Beekeeping on The Splendid Table

My ears always perk up if one of my favorite podcasters is talking about bees. After all, beeswax seals the deal in the hard lotion bar and without it, hands and feet would be a mess. So tonight it was Lynne Rossetto Kasper speaking with bee researcher Marla Spivak. Here's an overview of their conversation: 

A Bee's Life:

Young bees act as nurses to sister bees.

Middle age bees secrete wax. Older bee is a forager and collects nectar.

The bees lives 4-6 weeks and then they die.

The queen lays 1000 eggs a day.

Colony Colapse Disorder.  Bees are dying probably due to 1.) not enough flowers out there  2.) the flowers they encounter have pesticides 3.) bees have their own diseases

In winter 2006 a lot of colonies were suddenly lost. Why so suddenly? Honeybees have been in decline since WW2, due to the agricultural changes. Recent years, it's due to either a new disease or a new pesticide, or a combination of the two.

The future? There's a huge interest in beekeeping, which means people will start paying attention.

Does Lemongrass Oil Attract Bees?

After posting a Mother's Day special of a lemongrass oil add-on to the lotion do-it-yourself kit, I was told by a beekeeper's wife that lemongrass oil is used to attract swarms of bees! That put me in a slight state of panic as I scrambled to find out more.

A question to the people over at GloryBee Foods, a beekeeping and skin care product supplier, assured me that for skin care products, lemongrass oil is safe. Here's the answer they gave:

We can’t say that the lemongrass absolutely won’t attract a bee swarm, but we can give our “expert opinion” that the likelihood is slim to none.  Lemongrass is used in beekeeping swarm lure with other oils to recreate the smell of the queen’s pheromones.  However, as you pointed out, Lemongrass is a very popular oil used in skincare items all the time- and without any such complaints.  Hope that helps!

So go ahead and make your lotion with lemongrass, or do as the bees do and if you're making lotion for the Queen mama in your life this Mother's Day, choose a scent that complements mom's personality.