Life of bees
On 12 April, the Isle of Man Post Office released a set of six stamps celebrating the life of honeybees in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA). Designed by beekeeper Benedict Glazier in cooperation with Isle of Man Bee Inspector Harry Owens BEM and EJC Design, the stamps, valued at 85p, £1.28, two × £1.60, £2.31 and £3.21, narrate the story of the inhabitants of a beehive – worker bee, drone bee and queen bee – as well as their work, their produce and their caretakers – the beekeeper.
The Isle of Man’s bees are genetically very close to the native European dark bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) and are a valuable source of disease-free and pest-free bees for the rest of the British Isles because the island is free of the Varroa parasite, which has such a devasting impact on bee populations in the rest of the world. The Isle of Man government’s decision to ban the importation of any foreign bees, equipment or beekeeping products by the Bee Disease Act 1987 (and subsequent updates) put the island in a unique position, providing an environment for honeybees that is unaffected by the diseases and pests present in the rest of the UK and the whole of mainland Europe.
Bees are important to our ecosystem, to agriculture and to our enjoyment of nature. Additionally, as well as being an integral part of food production through pollination, honeybees provide us with a surplus of delicious honey and useful wax. Throughout recorded human history, there is evidence of beekeeping in many cultures, and it remains one of the few livestock industries that can be enjoyed by hobbyists with as little as one single hive.
Thee active beekeeping associations on the island (the northern, western and southern) combine to form the Isle of Man Beekeeping Federation, who take an active part in training and helping beekeepers in the art of keeping bees.
On 15 April, La Poste issued a miniature sheet containing a stamp to mark the 500th anniversary of the discovery of New York.
On 17 April 1524, while exploring the east coast of the American continent on behalf of King Francis I of France,
Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano (c.1485–1528) became the first European known to have entered what would become New York Bay. He named the region New France and the bay New Angoulême to pay homage to the king, who was born François d’angoulême.
At the end of the 15th century, a succession of expeditions, such as those by Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Cortès and Magellan, on behalf of the great European powers took place. In 1523, with the support of the French king Francois I, Verrazzano set sail on the ship Dauphine in search of a passage to the Pacific Ocean and the Far East.
Verrazzano had already explored the region of Newfoundland and the Saint Lawrence in 1508. Aboard the
Dauphine, he went up the American coast from the south in search of a passage to the Indies and brought back some of the first detailed descriptions of the coastline, which allowed geographers of the time to establish relatively precise maps of the Atlantic coast. He also described a region inhabited by numerous native populations, such as the Lenapes, who were the original inhabitants of the New Angoulême bay area.
However, Verrazzano’s journey remained unknown for a long time. When he returned, Queen Claude of France had just died and Francis I left for Italy, where he lost the Battle of Pavia. For a long time, the ‘discovery’ of New York was attributed to Henry Hudson, an English navigator travelling on behalf of the Netherlands, who named the site ‘New Amsterdam’ at the beginning of the 17th century. It was only in the middle of the 20th century that a French academic retraced the earlier voyage. The bridge that crosses the bay between Brooklyn and Staten Island, completed in 1964, is now dedicated to Verrazzano. Today, it hosts the start of the city’s famous marathon.