At Home: Beehive

Fresh local honey is being snapped up at city markets and rural co-ops. People are seeking out farmers, and the hobby of beekeeping is growing. But not all sources of fresh honey are ideal, as one Ontario couple found out recently.

As the Toronto Sun reports, the Yates family was unexpectedly greeted by honey dripping through cracks in their kitchen ceiling.

Although the Yates had not realized it, bees had set up colonies ?between the main-floor ceiling and the floor of the upper level over the kitchen.? Beekeepers estimate that a staggering 180,000 honey bees and ?a nest of nasty yellow jacket wasps? were hiding among the partitions, which they believed might hold up to 2,000 pounds of honey.

Until the honey dripping began, there was no indication of the unwelcome guests. ?We don’t hear them buzzing,? Loretta Yates told reporters. They plan to ?rid their house of the unwanted pests? as soon as possible, as the family is concerned that the ceilings, already ?leaking honey,? may crack further and cause the bees to swarm.

A local beekeeper will ?pull down the ceiling . . . and remove the honey which he hopes can be saved.? He’ll also locate the queen bees and remove them to a wooden hive box, which will attract the rest of their colonies to them.

Around the World: Payback Time

How long can a debt remain unpaid? In the case of one forgotten historical debt, long hidden in regional archives, the answer might be 450 years?and the total, adjusted for inflation, could be astronomical.

As the Huffington Post reports, ?[the] sleepy hamlet of Mittenwalde in eastern Germany could become one of the richest towns in the world if Berlin were to repay it an outstanding debt that dates back to 1562.?

The certificate of debt was found by a Mittenwalde historian and is believed to be authentic. It states that the small town ?lent Berlin 400 guilders on May 28 1562, to be repaid with six percent interest per year.?

With interest and inflation adjustments, that total ?now lies in the trillions,? according to estimates by Radio Berlin Brandenburg.

The Mittenwalde mayor ?tried to ask Berlin for [the] money back,? but the cash-strapped capital offered the town a ?historical guilder? as a token.