# Bee Songs



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I'm a King Bee by Slim Harpo

Well I'm a king bee
Buzzing around your hive
Well I'm a king bee, baby
Buzzing around your hive
Yeah I can make honey baby
Let me come inside

Well I'm a king bee
Want you to be my queen
Well I'm a king bee, baby
Want you to be my queen
Together we can make honey
The world has never seen

Well, buzz a while...
Sting you bad...

Well I'm a king bee
Can buzz all night long
Well I'm a king bee, baby
Can buzz all night long
Yeah I can buzz better baby
When your man is gone


----------



## JP (Jul 10, 2005)

Last weekend I attended the Southeast Organic Beekeeping Conference in West Palm Beach. Saturday night Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries sang Varroa Mite Blues and the crowd went wild!

Here's one: 

Bee Song


Bees, Bees, Bees, Bees 
Buzzin' in bushes, buzzin' in trees 
Buzzin' around, wherever they please 
There's nothing so sweet, 
There's nothing so sweet, 
There's nothing so sweet as a honey bee. 
Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz



...JP


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Well, no one put it to music that I know of, but it would make a nice song and he called it a song:

Song of the Queen Bee
by E.B White
Published in New Yorker Magazine 1945

"The breeding of the bee," says a United States Department of Agriculture bulletin on artificial insemination, has always been handicapped by the fact that the queen mates in the air with whatever drone she encounters."

When the air is wine and the wind is free
and the morning sits on the lovely lea
and sunlight ripples on every tree
Then love-in-air is the thing for me
I’m a bee,
I’m a ravishing, rollicking, young queen bee,
That's me.
I wish to state that I think it’s great,
Oh, it’s simply rare in the upper air,
It’s the place to pair
With a bee.

Let old geneticists plot and plan,
They’re stuffy people, to a man;
Let gossips whisper behind their fan.
(Oh, she does?
Buzz, buzz, buzz!)
My nuptial flight is sheer delight;
I’m a giddy girl who likes to swirl,
To fly and soar
And fly some more,
I’m a bee.
And I wish to state that I’ll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter.

There’s a kind of a wild and glad elation
In the natural way of insemination;
Who thinks that love is a handicap
Is a fuddydud and a common sap,
For I am a queen and I am a bee,
I’m devil-may-care and I’m fancy-free,
The test tube doesn't appeal to me,
Not me,
I’m a bee.
And I’m here to state that I’ll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter.

Mares and cows, by calculating,
Improve themselves with loveless mating,
Let groundlings breed in the modern fashion,
I’ll stick to the air and the grand old passion;
I may be small and I’m just a bee
But I won’t have science improving me,
Not me,
I’m a bee.
On a day that’s fair with a wind that’s free,
Any old drone is a lad for me.

I’ve no flair for love moderne,
It’s far too studied, far too stern,
I’m just a bee—I’m wild, I’m free,
That’s me.
I can’t afford to be too choosy;
In every queen there’s a touch of floozy,
And it’s simply rare
In the upper air
And I wish to state
That I’ll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter.

Man is a fool for the latest movement,
He broods and broods on race improvement;
What boots it to improve a bee
If it means the end of ecstasy?
(He ought to be there
On a day that’s fair,
Oh, it’s simply rare.
For a bee.)

Man’s so wise he is growing foolish,
Some of his schemes are downright ghoulish;
He owns a bomb that’ll end creation
And he wants to change the sex relation,
He thinks that love is a handicap,
He’s a fuddydud, he’s a simple sap;
Man is a meddler, man’s a boob,
He looks for love in the depths of a tube,
His restless mind is forever ranging,
He thinks he’s advancing as long as he’s changing,
He cracks the atom, he racks his skull,
Man is meddlesome, man is dull,
Man is busy instead of idle,
Man is alarmingly suicidal,
Me, I am a bee.

I am a bee and I simply love it,
I am a bee and I’m darn glad of it,
I am a bee, I know about love:
You go upstairs, you go above,
You do not pause to dine or sup,
The sky won’t wait—it’s a long trip up;
You rise, you soar, you take the blue,
It’s you and me, kid, me and you,
It’s everything, it’s the nearest drone,
It’s never a thing that you find alone.
I’m a bee,
I’m free.

If any old farmer can keep and hive me,
Then any old drone may catch and wife me;
I’m sorry for creatures who cannot pair
On a gorgeous day in the upper air,
I’m sorry for cows that have to boast
Of affairs they’ve had by parcel post,
I’m sorry for a man with his plots and guile,
His test-tube manner, his test-tube smile;
I’ll multiply and I’ll increase
As I always have—by mere caprice;
For I am a queen and I am a bee,
I’m devil-may-care and I’m fancy-free,
Love-in-air is the thing for me,
Oh, it’s simply rare
In the beautiful air,
And I wish to state
That I’ll always mate
With whatever drone I encounter.


----------



## phil c (Jan 21, 2007)

Cant post all the words but I'm alwys humming Whinny The Poo's "I'm just a little black rain cloud" when I'm pulling supers!


----------



## peterloringborst (Jan 19, 2010)

Little Queenie
Chuck Berry

I got lumps in my throat
When I saw her comin down the aisle
I got the wiggles in my knees
When she looked at me and sweetly smiled

Well there she is again
Standin over by the record machine
Well she looks like a model
On the cover of a magazine
But she's too cute
To be a minute over seventeen

Meanwhile I was thinkin'

Well if she's in the mood
No need to break it 
I got the chance and I oughta take it
If she can dance we can make it
C'mon queenie let's shake it

I said go, go, go, little queenie
I said go, go, go, little queenie
I said go, go, go, little queenie

Won't someone tell me
Who's the queen standin over by the record machine
Well she looks like a model
On the cover of a magazine
But she's too cute 
To be a minute over seventeen

I said go, go, go, little queenie
I said go, go, go, little queenie
I said go, go, go, little queenie

Meanwhile, I was still thinkin, hmmmm,
Well if it's a slow one, We'll omit it
If it's a rocker, then we'll git it
If it's a good one, she'll admit it
C'mon queenie, let's get with it


----------



## BoBn (Jul 7, 2008)

Michael Bush said:


> Well, no one put it to music that I know of, but it would make a nice song and he called it a song:
> 
> Song of the Queen Bee
> by E.B White


Nice poem.
Here is some music for it:
http://www.archive.org/details/Song_of_The_Queen_Bee.ogg

I only have dial-up so I did a tiny file.


----------



## BuzzyBee (May 28, 2008)

This is just one verse and chorus from a traditional bluegrass tune about a bear.

Took all my money and got me some bees
Started making honey way up in the tree
Cut the tree down but my honeys all gone
Ol Slew Foot done made himself at home

He's big around the middle and he's broad across the rump
Runnin 90 miles an hour takin 30 feet a jump
Ain't never been caught he ain't never been treed
Some folks say he looks a lot like me


----------



## BoBn (Jul 7, 2008)

BuzzyBee said:


> This is just one verse and chorus from a traditional bluegrass tune about a bear.
> 
> 
> Ain't never been caught he ain't never been treed
> Some folks say he looks a lot like me



Do you have any more info on the artist or name of the tune?
I like that last line.


----------



## Radical Bee (Feb 25, 2009)

Johnny Cash and June Carter sang it as a duet, and years earlier Johnny Horton made a hit single of 'Ole Slew Foot'. Don't know its origins, but you can search any number of internet lyric sites for the lyrics and origins for free.


----------



## BuzzyBee (May 28, 2008)

Don't know who wrote it, but lots have recorded it. The name of the song is "Ole Slew Foot"

Here's a nice version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT5kU-Ff0s0

If you prefer rock and roll, James McMurtry did an electric version, but you'll probably have to buy the album to hear it.

BB


----------



## Radical Bee (Feb 25, 2009)

Then there is the theme song from Ulees Gold, 'Tupelo Honey', sung by Cassandra Wilson. 

"He's as sweet as tupelo honey, just like the honey from the tree'..................


----------



## peterloringborst (Jan 19, 2010)

Tupelo Honey, written and originally sung by Van Morrison (van the man)

Then there is the great "Sweet Honey in the Rock"


----------



## JOHNYOGA2 (Sep 30, 2008)

And for something completely different...

Check out Monty Python's "Eric, the Half a Bee". Probably not the place to post the lyrics here.


----------



## irwin harlton (Jan 7, 2005)

http://www.lyricsvideobox.com/2009/12/lady-antebellum-american-honey-lyrics.html



Gone for so long now
I gotta get back to her some how
To American Honey


----------



## kathygibson (Nov 3, 2009)

An oldie...but still fun, Arthur Askey "The Busy Bee" 

"Honeybee Fly Around Song" love the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8syk8fwwypk


----------



## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

How about several?

http://www.vimeo.com/10159341

Sam Comfort at the 3rd Organic Beekeeping Conference in Oracle, AZ.

deknow


----------



## Barry Digman (May 21, 2003)

Here's the famous Bee Dance for those who have not had the pleasure. Not exactly a song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m5vt07W2n4


----------



## SSmithers (Jul 2, 2009)

The bumble bee the bumble he 
flew away from the tulip tree 
he made a mistake and flew in the lake
and now he won t be home for tea.

A friend started singing this to me since I got bees. Don't know where it came from.


----------

