BEORN THE SHAPE SHIFTER

hungry now.

Make your own Beorn cake! All you need do it keep on eye on it to keep it from burning, but other than that just dump in what seems right and off you go - we don't know exactly what it's supposed to be anyway.

If you can, I suggest getting your hands on some honey from German Black bees or another of the Northern European strains. Their honey is dark and molasses-like with lots of flavor, unlike most of our commercial honey which comes from hybrid Italian bees.  It's like the difference between Guinness and Budweiser.

Oh! I likely could around here. Got all sorts of hoity-toity stores that would have flights of honey. Gotta finish off my first round of Beorn cake, though.

Wooh, I just finished two lemon meringue pies and an orange chiffon* cake. The Beorn Cake will have to wait!

Perhaps re-reading the appropriate passages will work as inspiration.


*blech, grated too much orange peel. I really despise orange peel anyway, I should have just ignored that part of it. 

You can get dark and bold flavored honey depending upon the source (buckwheat, for instance), not the bee. The time of year can be a factor too, for example.

He's called a Shapeshifter, but do we actually have any evidence he can shift into different animals (or shapes) as well as his bear form?    he's basically a Werebear

That sounds cute    werebear  

Gandalf called him a skin changer, not a shape shifter. That should put your mind at ease.

halfwise wrote:Gandalf called him a skin changer, not a shape shifter.  That should put your mind at ease.

Ah, yes I remember now.

(Caught a bit of DOS on TV the other day so I still has the Jacksonisms in my head)

Elthir wrote:You can get dark and bold flavored honey depending upon the source (buckwheat, for instance), not the bee. The time of year can be a factor too, for example.

In my experience, the Italian hybrid bees that most apiaries in the US seem to prefer as "honey bees" have quite different habits than their northern European cousins. For one thing they don't like to fly at temperatures below 70F(20C) which limits their usefulness in our cold coastal cranberry climate.

For this reason some of our local bee keepers have been importing queens from Germany. These hives start working at 55-60F (12-15C) which is much better for our climate (we rent 50 to 100 hives each spring for pollination.)

What's more, the fair-weather bees will travel a half mile or more to find choice pollens and nectars like fireweed, blackberry and clover, flying right past the cranberry blossoms and other local wildflowers to get there   .

The cool-weather strains on the other hand seem to forage as close to home as possible and to bring home a much more diverse selection of pollen and nectar from every little blossom they come across. They're much more effective pollinators for us! {{of course the bumblebees are even better pollinators by far, but give no honey at all   }}

The honey from two adjacent hives of different varieties will be completely different here. That's what I was referring to.

hmm...are there travelling bumblebee pollination rigs like there are for honeybees? I guess they don't hive the same, and even if they did nobody would want to mess with the big buggers.

halfwise wrote:hmm...are there travelling bumblebee pollination rigs like there are for honeybees?

No, but they're commercially bred and sold as colonies in special cardboard box "hives". Once on site they'll abandon the box and find a new location to nest in someplace easy to burrow (grass hummocks, brush piles etc.)

However new rules require that only native varieties can be sold, and then only in their native region. There are breeders who sell the east-of-the-Rockies varieties which we're not allowed to import, but nobody is currently breeding the west coast varieties.

It's not a problem though since we've got lot's of good bee habitat and forage for them around the perimeters of the bogs. We probably host at least a dozen native varieties. I love the sound of them! I love watching them work. Always have!  

Why do you say bumblebees are better pollinators? I'd think with fewer of them (perhaps a wrong perception on my part) they'd do less.

Generally speaking, with respect to efficient pollination and bumblebees, some things to consider...

... large size and especially furry coats (pollen pick up and transfer), long seasons (including activity at relatively low temperatures and "low light" levels), wind and drizzle work included in job portfolio, "buzz pollination" enables efficient pollination of stuff... including cranberries, fast pollinators...

Ah, it's making sense now. Big Bubba can get as much work done as any 20 of those cute little European snowflakes.

Exactly! The bumblers have saved many a crop for us when the weather hasn't cooperated during mid bloom, just by going out and getting the job done when the honeybees won't go outside. You can tell the type and volume of pollen a bee collects by observing the blobs on their legs (pollen sacks). Cranberry pollen has a particular tan color, so you can tell which bee is working for you and which is more interested in side jobs.

I'm enjoying this talk of bees!

Malickfan wrote:He's called a Shapeshifter, but do we actually have any evidence he can shift into different animals (or shapes) as well as his bear form?    he's basically a Werebear

Werebear? 

THERE bear! 

Oh I love that pic of that powerful bear ! I'm snatching that one !

{{You'll have to beat Dave too it I suspect }}}

I keep my favourite pics in a folder, I like my cat eyes. But talking of eyes, look at the intensity of this bear's eyebogglers ! he means business.

That is an amazing Bear pic!

Here's a bee!



I'm glad, at least, that Jackson did not take Tolkien's "giant" bees and turn that description into Dwarves riding them through Mirkwood, for example... or is that in the extended edition?

Forest Shepherd wrote:I'm enjoying this talk of bees!

Malickfan wrote:He's called a Shapeshifter, but do we actually have any evidence he can shift into different animals (or shapes) as well as his bear form?    he's basically a Werebear

Werebear? 

THERE bear! 

That photographer is either nuts, or very brave, or both...

{{Elthir!   Was starting to think we were going to have to rent the Tower of Lore out to tramps or something worse, like Bankses - good to see the ravens flying again But best not give PJ ideas for his ten year anniversary super cut with added 'cool stuff' he probably has planned  Actually given the invention of the giant rabbits I am surprised he didn't make giant rideable bees, and seas of honey someone (probably bloody Legolamb) could surf down whilst two highly improbable stunt filled completely conflicting battles happen simultaneously around them  }}}

Clearly you missed the EE scene of Beorn's appearance at the Battle of the Five Armies, when instead of a giant eagle he rides in on one of his queen bees!

I remember it clearly because a splat of unfinished royal jelly falls from the bee and lands in Alfrid's cleavage. There's a 10-minute scene involving Alfrid getting stuck by his boobs to various catapults, troll's clubs, falling boulders, and runaway carts.