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Bees in WartimeReports dating back to antiquity tell stories of using bees in wartime. Xenophon (born 430 BC) reported that the Greek soldiers who were looting villages in Turkey near Trapezus found and ate some honey from local hives. This resulted in vomiting and purging as well as a loss of the senses as they had been poisoned by the honey deliberately left out for them. 
At a later time Heptakometes used the same type of poisoned honey to render the Roman soldiers in Pompey insane, once they were incompasitated he then attacked, they were all killed as they were defenseless due to the poisoning. ebook US$15.00 I am currently changing the delivery system for my ebooks. Please email me from the 'Contact Me' form if you wish to purchase this ebook.
In both cases the honey was made from the nectar of the Rhododendron ponticum and / or Azalea puntica. When the locals were eventually subjugated they were forced to pay taxes but were prohibited in using honey as payment. Using bees in wartime is something that started to happen very early in history. Bee hives were induced into large clay posts called amphorae. These pots were then catapulted by the Romans over walled fortresses or into large groups of troops. In the 11th century bees in wartime were being used as beehives were thrown off the top of cliffs onto the attacking army of Geiselbert, Duke of Lorraine by Irnmo, General of Emperor Henry 1. The troops of Albert, Duke of Austria received the same reception from the citizens of Gussing, Hungary when they tried to invade. The Prussian (now Germany) town of Beyenburgen was saved during the Thirty Year War by the local nuns. Suspecting the returning soldiers were a danger they overturned the skeps (large basket or container) and hide inside. As the marauding soldiers left the town undamaged they renamed it Beyen – Bees in honour of their defenders. The Patron Saint of Bees is St. Gosnata who lived in Ballyvourney, Country Cork, Ireland. It is reported that St. Gosnata was the first to use bees in wartime by placing skeps on the walls and inside castle walls so as to deter invaders. Seriously stung would be robbers were very easy to identify for the Police after they attempted to rob an elderly bee keeper while he was attending his hives. Belgian soldiers became trapped inside a bee house and escaped capture by the German soldiers as the Belgians kept throwing the bee frames at the Germans. In Tanga, East Africa German soldiers rigged wires and small explosives to bee hives. Many advancing British soldiers where injured by tripping the wires on the hives. The British won the battle anyway as Montgomery considered the soldiers highly ‘expendable’. A more recent example of using bees in wartime is when Otto Wiltschko was arrested by Austrian authorities as a German spy near the airfield at Freidstadt while posing as a beekeeper. One hive had a radio transmitter concealed inside while another had a radio receiver. The hives were used to keep onlookers away. Beehives have often been used as a safe!!! Virgil the famous Roman poet used a bee hive to protect his valuables from ‘tax’ collectors. In these modern beekeeping times the Langstroth would be the ideal design to use as a safe. Division board feeders could be used for small cavities that could be easily sealed. You could even consider using the two outside frames on each side, wall these off with thin plywood and they could make perfect larger safes. A deep body could be placed over a fake bottom board. Top this with another bottom board and the entire hive could be used as a safe.
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