Myrddin Emrys Cattery | Presentation

I am Nina of Myrddin Emrys, the youngest of the family. I was born in
Trieste on October 1, 2007 (zodiac sign: Libra) from EC George Clooney
and Lilo. I live with my mom, who is also my best friend, and Foffi (somewhat of a pest!). Alessandra chose me because she loves the color of my eyes and the color of my coat, light blue, soft and shiny. Of all the "two legged" types however, I prefer Marco, who loves to cuddle me and every day spends takes some time to play with me. It's for him that I save my best purrs. Every once in a while Marco picks me up and makes me dance. At first I was scared, but now I love it!

I feel so light, light like some of our insect friends that fly in the woods close to our house: the bees. Marco reads a lot of books on bees because he's a
beekeeper. He learned the technique from his parents and he's not at all afraid, in fact he is very brave. The bees are very helpful and they live in every corner of the earth, except for in the polar regions (it's too cold!).

Before the XVI century they lived only in the old world and they colonized the territory even before man appeared. The bees then, used to build their hives inside empty tree trunks or in cracks in rocks. Early man used to eat what nature offered: game, insects, fruit and honey. In a cave in Valencia, Spain, a painting was discovered that goes back to the Neolitic (about 9,000 years ago), showing a beehive and a person hunting for honey. When man went from
nomad to farmer, he began beekeeping or rather an apiary. Among the
older populations, the one who loved bees and beekeeping was the Egyptians. On the sarcophagus of Mychirinos (2500 a.c.) you can find bees depicted and on the tomb of PA-BU-SA in Tebe you can see a beekeeper that is collecting honey from a beehive shaped like an amphora, in terracotta. Since the beginning of time honey has been important economically, symbolically and magically. The first sweetner for man was honey.

Aristotle was one of the first to observe the bees and to write about them. Aristotle was also one of the first to recognize the behavior of the bees and how they fly from flower to
flower of the same species before returning to the beehive. This is the
typical behavior of cross pollination. This behavior favors the biodiversity.

With the invention of the microscope at the beginning of the 600's, the scientific study of the bee changes. Doctor Jan Swammerdam, for example, was the first to discover the female organ of the queen bee (producer of eggs for the whole colony) and the male organ of the drones. He did not realize, however, that even the workers were female, but with their ovaries atrophied, and thought that their sex was neutral . He was able to describe, however, all the anatomical
parts of the bees. In 1734 Rèaumur published "Memories to help the story of insects 1734-1742 where he wrote about the anatomy and the behavior of bees. Finally in the 20th century Karl von Frish discovered and interpreted the dance of orientation that the bees do on honeycombs. It's incredible how these small beings fascinated and still fascinate man . . . . a little like us Chartreux cats . . . right?

Nina

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