In Greece, a pious beekeeper has a habit of putting icons in his beehives. The icons bless the bees … and the bees protect the icons.
For a decade, a beekeeper named Sidoros Ţiminis, living in the region of Kapandriti, near Athens, has kept a tradition: every spring, he slips icons of Christ, the Holy Virgin and different saints in his beehives, in order to bless his bees and his yearly honey production.
And every year, the very same mysterious phenomenon occurs: bees make their honeycomb cells around the pious images, meticulously avoiding covering them. Could it simply be a phenomenon related to some effect in the painting itself, which might prevent bees from building their honeycombs on them? In any case, the work of these peculiar Greek bees remains interest-worthy.
