Mountain Bees

The Mountain Bee is slightly larger than a honey bee, with a more rounded abdomen. The northern variety has a deeper yellow colouring, almost orange.

Mountain Bees can endure cooler temperatures than common bees, so in warmer locations than their normal high latitudes this means that they spend more time out foraging, when it cools down towards night (the bees do not seem to be morning creatures). This is the main reason they produce more honey, though they also collect slightly more nectar and pollen per foraging trip because of their larger size.   They choose the same types of nest as common honey bees, but the location is chosen by the hive and then their queen escorted to it, rather than the swarming behaviour of honey bees where the queen selects the site.

Honey and Beekeeping

Mountain bees produce slightly more honey than the common honey bee, spending more of their time foraging. This means that people who keep them often sell the difference in town, especially Adenau which is home to the Belfimbre Honey Market, where merchants buy honey from producers across the region. Most of these. and makes keeping these bees more profitable than it might be elsewhere. Especially in Marran territories, some apiarists produce honeys made from only (or at least mostly) one type of flower, which have distinctive flavour profiles that make them both expensive and sought-after among the nobility.   Around the Ostberges, mountain bees are kept by many peasant families, for whom they provide a welcome addition to both their food and their income, as they require comparatively little investment. The honey produced by these families is usually not a consistent source because most do not have access to a hive with moveable combs, meaning that to get the honey the hive must be destroyed after smoking the bees to make them docile. This naturally meant that a family could not rely on having the hive in a given year, and similarly made large scale production unpredictable. With the invention of the moveable comb hive in 1021, this issue has begun to disappear but it will be some time before it takes over as the dominant form of apiary, as the design takes time to travel. Especially in the countryside, most hives are kept in the old way.   Even with the old hives, mountain bees were valued by merchants who export the honey and sell it in larger towns and cities, a trade that is now even more lucrative with the new design. Most of these merchants do not own their own hives, but instead buy from the communities keeping the bees to make a profit elsewhere. However, there are a few with a dedicated, large-scale setup for farming the honey and wax, and this number has been increasing as the new method is introduced.  

Mead

Of course, where there are people there is brewing and honey mead is a popular drink in the plateau. Most mead made from mountain bee honey is exported from Belfimbre, where there are specialists in producing meads of various types amongst both the merchants and the temples of the region. The mead takes on different character based on the plants the bees have access to, and different varieties come with different prices and so are fit for different markets - some for townsmen, some for the rich, others only for nobility.    The honey of bees left to roam at will is by far the most common type distilled into mead, and it has no special regulations or particular taxes beyond the norm. It is the most common type of mead you can encounter - still not an everyday item, but not outwith the reach of most. Peasant's who keep bees sometimes brew this type of mead, and its particular varieties are endless.   Specialised varieties such as blackberry mead are harder to produce - the bees' environment must be managed to encourage them to visit the desired plants. These kinds of mead are exported to markets further afield, and are the province of the better off - nobility mostly, but also successful merchants. These types face additional taxes, and yet more taxes when they are exported form the region, which makes Belfimbre mead an expensive luxury outside of the region, and a moderately expensive one within it. Within this category one particular mead is singled out - Fablevine mead which is the hardest to produce and the most expensive. This type of mead causes a lightheadedness and euphoria not entirely down to the alcohol content, and has a fruity taste. It is beloved by the region's nobility, and taxed so heavily that little is ever exported, and its price is exorbitant. It comes only from the northwest of Belfimbre where the fablevine is most widespread.  

In Religion

To most of the continent, bees are associated with the goddess Melinia, patron of agriculture, fertility and prosperity, and are a prominent symbol among her cult. The goddess is frequently depicted with the wings of a bee, and in several stories she speaks with and is assisted by bees, whose knowledge of their local area proves helpful. Wild bees are considered to belong to her, and are seen as messengers, subjects or servants of the goddess, varying by region. If a bee hive should make its home upon a person's property, then that is seen as a blessing from Melinia and an offering at one of her shrines or temples is considered the appropraite thanks. The preferred kind of offerings come in the form of finished products of the bees and their hives, such as beeswax candles or honey cakes. Similarly, someone wishing to attract the bees should make such an offering preemptively.   Malicious destruction of bee hives is specifically called out in canon law as an act of sacrilege, and is punished with a fine and a penance (often working in a temple's apiary without protective clothing for a set time depending on severity of the crime under the guidance of the experienced acolytes - this is not actually very dangerous for the most part, bees are quite docile and smoke subdues them when the hive must be accessed, but the inexperienced often end up with a collection of painful stings). There are specific exceptions about extracting honey and wax, but only for the owner of the hive and in the autumn. Destruction of wild hives is forbidden, but this is hard to enforce.  

Marran Religion

  For Marrans, the bee is often used as an example of both a model society, and were given to humanity by God as a gift. The Marran church does not place the same protections upon them as elsewhere, seeing their damage, sale and so on as purely secular issues, but they are still given a special position in many religious writings and by prominent scholars throught history. The angel associated with bees is Henbetiel, and he is sometimes considered their protector.