'Still alive!': Notre Dame's 180,000 bees survive cathedral fire

[sarisataka]

'Still alive!': Notre Dame's 180,000 bees survive cathedral fire

Notre Dame Cathedral's bees, kept in hives on the historic church's roof, survived the fire earlier this week, the beekeeper says.

"I am so relieved. I saw satellite photos that showed the three hives didn’t burn. I thought they had gone with the cathedral," beekeeper Nicolas Geant told the Associated Press on Friday.

The 180,000 bees live in three hives on Notre Dame's roof as part of an effort since 2013 to help prevent bee die-off.

"I got a call from Andre Finot, the spokesman for Notre Dame, who said there were bees flying in and out of the hives which means they are still alive!" Geant told CNN.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/04/19/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-bees-alive-beekeeper-says/3518151002/

Amazing

[Lucinda]

1. knr

[louis-t]

2. No kidding?!!!

Amazing.

[Brother Buzz]

3. They are located about 30 meters below the main roof

Try as I might, I can't locate the structure they are sitting on, but it sure looks like a place a bishop would hang out to catch some rays

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. I think it's a separated building to the south

(the shadows look like it's to the south of the main building).

Google Maps:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/%C3%8Ele+de+la+Cit%C3%A9/@48.8526825,2.3499333,64m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47e671e037bbc73d:0x9c2a87a32dd21743!8m2!3d48.8548825!4d2.3474928

You can see 3 objects with shadows, roughly at the centre of that view.

[JHB]

10. I think you're right

Screen grab of the Google Maps 3D view of the spot. Arrow pointing in roughly the same direction as in the photos in #3 above.

Updated with grabs from the damage panorama in #6 below, wide view for orientation, then zoom for better view.

[Brother Buzz]

13. How do you draw those red circles and arrows?

Don't bother to explain if it complicated, but it would be nice to find a good tutorial somewhere on the internet. I don't even know what it's called.

[JHB]

15. I'm using a Windows 10 app called "Snipping Tool"

It lets you take a shot of part of the screen rather than all of it. It also has a "pen" and "highlighter" you can use on the shot (by using your mouse). No fancy editing tools, just the ability to scribble on it to indicate "this thingamabob".

There's probably other programs like it, but it's simple and works for me.

Edited to add: I then copied the snips to the Imgur account I have for posting stuff to DU. Used to use Photobucket, but they set up a paywall.

[Wednesdays]

19. There's a free program called "Gimp"

For Windows, Mac, and Linux. Does a lot of the things that Photoshop does, and it's fairly easy to learn.
https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

[Brother Buzz]

22. Thanks, I'll have a look-see in the near future when I'm fresh

[Brother Buzz]

11. Some accounts say they are on top of the Bishop's residence...and it appears to be connected

to the actual cathedral by a passageway (Check the lead sheathed roof in the lower right).

[sarge43]

16. Thank you for posting these, very informative.

I wonder who the beekeeper is. A member of the clergy or an independent who volunteered to help out?

[Brother Buzz]

23. Historically, many of the Parsons in England were gentlemen beekeepers

I lived in an old Rectory in the early seventies, and there was a peculiar set of stone walls set apart from everything else; the local story was that it was once an apiary, and the walls protected the colonies from the weather. The English Parson was generally a man of science and pretty damn progressive, so I often wondered if the Langstroth hive, a brand new invention at the time, was used.

I'm guessing, mostly because it's a new thing at Notre Dame, that Sibyle Moulin, a beekeeper is tending to hives, although surely there are some crusty old monks who work bees hanging in some monastery somewhere in France that could step and and do the work.

[sarge43]

26. Well, if the Parson heard that the Longstroth hive allowed for safe harvesting,

he probably got them ASAP. They revolutionized bee keeping.

Bees have been kept at the Paris Opera House for years now. Urban bee keeping is becoming a thing now. Good.

As Hubby said, "The Opera House bees brag about being cultured. Nortre Dame's answer, "We are blessed."

[GentryDixon]

4. Wonderful news.

🐝🐝

[zentrum]

5. Deeply grateful for this.

Thanks for posting.

[FakeNoose]

6. I think I found the beehives in this 360 degree interactive photo

This was posted on DU by Pluvious on Tuesday. It's a photo that shows the Cathedral of Notre-Dame after the fire and you can zoom in and out. You can scroll north-south-east-west and see all the damage to the roof. You can't see the different facades of the building, since it was taken from the top down.

https://gigarama.ru/notredame/

Use your mouse wheel and zoom all the way in, and move up to the facade that faces the river. On the upper left side I see the small roof with 3 box-like things that could be the beehives. Maybe.(?)

[JHB]

12. Thanks. Added screen grabs to #10 above

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. Now that's miraculous!

Deo gratias!

[Tipperary]

8. Very good to hear!

Some good news!

[sarge43]

14. Bee nerd alert

Smoke doesn't sedate honey bees; at best it will calm them. Smoke messes with their pheromone sense, their principle mode of communication. They're confused; so they don't go to DefCom One and look for incoming. They do obey the First Commandment of the hive: protect the queen. Most will return to the hive and cluster around the queen. This is why beekeepers "smoke" a hive if they have to open it. A few puffs of smoke from a tool called a smoker is enough to get them to chill.

Further, they will not gorge on honey. From their POV there's no reason to do so. They will not leave the queen and she can't leave. She can't fly; she can't even feed herself. That's one of the jobs of the "ladies in waiting" female worker bees. As long as the hive is intact and the queen alive, all the bees will stay.

A blessing.

[Baltimike]

17. incredible nt

[CaptainTruth]

18. As a former bee keeper (I once had 9 hives) I'm sooo glad to hear this!

[EveHammond13]

20. isn't a bee one of the symbols of the Pope

[EveHammond13]

21. Honey Bees and the Church

https://historyofbees.weebly.com/bees-and-catholicism.html

Honey Bees and the Church

The Church and the honeybee have a long intertwined history. Early Christians revered the honeybee so much that they have attempt to mimic their fine attributes, they made certain bee products sacred, and they have referenced honeybees in both scripture and architecture.
The honeybee as a model:

Honeybees were parts of Catholic culture, and were looked upon with reverence and wonderment by acting members of the clergy. These insects were revered for multiple reasons, however chief among them were their industrial qualities, and chastity. The last element, chastity, specifically concerns the worker bees. Since they, from inception, work fastidiously through their lives for the betterment of the hive without intra-species relations.

...

Beekeeping in the Church:

The specific action of Beekeeping was done primarily by the monks of the Church, and there were even monks and nuns whose entire position was to work with the bees (Beekeeper's Bible, 48). The products of the honeybee, namely honey and wax, were utilized by the Church for particular practices. Wax and honey were sacred substances for the early Church (Wilson, 129). Beeswax was the foremost contribution to Catholic culture. The wax was used for candle making, and these candles were symbols of Christ, "The wick denoted the soul and mortality of Christ, the light the divine person of the Saviour," (Ransome, 134). Beeswax candles were the preferred and only method for illumination of Catholic Churches, a practice which survived until the twentieth century when the requirement was ended by the pope (Beekeeper's Bible, 49).

[Raine]

24. WONDERFUL news!!!!

[UTUSN]

25. K&R