The life of a honeybee is full of purpose. Everyone has a place in the hive. Together, they work towards a common goal. What they achieve is absolutely remarkable, and necessary for a blossoming planet. There are so many wonderful details about this copacetic environment, in which bees craft, birth, and sweeten a hive. However, there are also misconceptions about the bees; they are more than honey-making, black-and-yellow, loud-buzzing stingers.
Long live the queen?
When you hear about the ‘queen bee,’ you may assume a hive is a matriarchy. While the queen is special and has an extremely important function to the hive, the rest of the bees do not just work to serve her. She is also replaceable if she doesn’t succeed in her role. She can even be assassinated by the bees in her hive. So, ‘long live the queen!’ (but not really).
The way honeybees work can best be described as a superorganism. While the term ‘hive mind’ isn’t exactly accurate, bees do function like a single organism. Rather than thousands of bees together, they work like one. Despite this, they don’t automatically know what the other bee thinks. Bees have their own form of communication via their waggle dance. The forager bees use this when they return from collecting pollen and nectar to communicate where the food sources are located. With this dance, they inform the other bees about the distance, direction, and quality of the food source. Taking all the information into account, they make a collective decision.
Sometimes bees vote! In the case of an overcrowded hive, a swarm (the old queen and about half the bees) leaves and temporarily clusters somewhere while scout bees look for potential new hive spots. When they return, they communicate their findings to the other bees, and a vote is held.
While there is technically a queen, a beehive functions more like a democracy than a matriarchy. It is through teamwork, like-minded goals, and purposeful actions that a hive can run a successful colony.
A LOOK INTO THE HIVE ROLES
Who Run The World (Girls)
Whenever you see a bee in a park, on a flower, or flying in your hair, it is bound to be a female worker bee. The majority — practically all — of the work in a hive is done by the females. They collect nectar and pollen, make honey, care for eggs and larvae, train young bees, raise the queen, and more. As cute as Bee Movie is, the portrayal of forager bees being male is completely inaccurate (then again, I don’t think the film about a talking bee was shooting for accuracy).
When She Reigns, She Pours
Every hive has a queen. The difference between her and the other female bees is that the queen is exclusively fed a special diet of royal jelly her whole life. She is longer and has shorter wings than the worker bees and drones.
The queen’s job is to mate with drones from other colonies. While the word “queen” often coincides with “leader,” she doesn’t lead as much as she reproduces — she lays around 2,000 eggs per day. When a virgin queen goes off to mate, she has a certain amount of time to complete the mission. If she does not, the worker bees will eventually have to create a new queen to replace her so that more worker bees can be produced.
When It’s Time To Man Up
Male bees, or drones, are unfertilized eggs laid by the queen. They look different from the worker bees, with large eyes and the absence of a stinger. The central purpose of drones is to mate with a queen from another hive. This is a significant role of a drone — it is especially important for the queen he mates with, as it will allow for genetic diversity of her hive. Genetic diversity in a colony is necessary to boost immunity, protecting it from disease, parasites, and more.
Male bees also function as ambassadors. As drones visit from hive to hive, they communicate information about diseases, pests, and potential immune system threats. They can warn a hive to be wary of these, so a colony can adequately prepare. It is an amazing trait of the drones that allows other hives, within a 15-mile radius of their own, to be on alert.
Shortly after mating, the drone will die. This occurs post-ejaculation; the drone’s organs get stuck inside the queen, and then are ripped out of him as he detaches from her. At that point, he has fulfilled his duty as a drone.
If a drone does not mate with a queen during the mating season, they don’t get off scot-free. The worker bees have a plan to get rid of him: they starve him. This makes him weaker, so he can more easily be escorted — and by ‘escorted’ I mean dragged out of the hive. This is because he is no longer of any use and is just using up resources. Ruthless, but practical.
WHY DO BEES STING?
As a child, or even adults, one might fear a bee due to her painful sting. When a bee stings, it is either to protect herself or her hive. If you try to hit her away from you, she might sting because she feels threatened (think if someone swatted you, you’d probably feel threatened too). Bees may also sting if you are near their hive and think you are getting too close, or will harm it. They release a pheromone when they sting that alerts the other bees that there is a threat; they join together to fight back. This pheromone smells like bananas — a very threatening scent.
After a bee stings, she dies. This is because when she leaves the stinger and flies away, it rips out her abdominal organs, killing her. Many don’t realize that a sting is the bee protecting her hive — and sacrificing her life doing so.
SWEET SWEET HONEY, IS THAT IT?
Most people associate bees with honey — the thing you put in your tea, or on your toast, or if you’re like me, on your cereal! It is a classic household item we get from bees, but is that all they’re good for? The short answer is not in the f*cking slightest.
Bees are essential to humans and Earth. One-third of our food is dependent on bees. They are the greatest pollinators in the world. Pollination is the process of spreading pollen, which helps plants to reproduce — among those plants are our foods! This action by the bees contributes significantly to the ecosystem’s diversity and ability to thrive. So, it’s safe to say the bees do more than delight your taste buds.
Let’s not forget the business of bees. In a society that capitalizes on whatever we can, bees give rise to a multi-billion-dollar industry. Honey is everywhere; demand for it has increased and is projected to rise further. However, beekeeping strategies such as migratory beekeeping and monoculture have posed harm to the bee population. These strategies are often used to milk the bees for as much honey-money as possible. Unfortunately, they cause less healthy colonies. However, there are many beekeepers in the business of serving the bees, rather than exploiting them.
SERVING THE BEES
I had the pleasure of speaking with a professional beekeeper who has spent over a decade working to serve the bees. Alex Tuchman is the director of Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary in the mountains of Floyd, VA. Along with beekeeping, he is also a farmer, educator, and author of A Lively Hive. At 18 years old, he began beekeeping. While beekeeping started as a favor to a friend who needed him to keep his bees while his friend was away, Tuchman found a love and passion for working with bees. He attended college at Loyola University of Chicago and started a student farm where he kept bees and became farm manager. There, Tuchman began teaching what he knew about bees to others. He didn’t believe himself to be a teacher, but just “one page ahead of everyone else.”
Tuchman was a young activist. Often, he’d be fighting to protect nature by attending protests. However, at a certain point, he decided he wanted to change the way he fought for nature. He wanted to “turn a no into a yes.” Instead of saying no to environmental demolition efforts, he said yes to actively supporting the environment. This is how serving the bees became a priority for him.
The Spikenard Philosophy Of Beekeeping
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia lies a beautiful sanctuary for bees. A place where humans and bees engage as a partnership. Spikenard Bee Sanctuary is all about working for the bees — and helping them help the world. “The bees are the heart and center of our work at the Honeybee Sanctuary, and the doorway into relationship with the whole ecosystem,” says the community at Spikenard. Spikenard also believes that in serving the bees, we must educate the people. They have in-person classes, online webinars, and regular Q&As available to those who want to learn!
How We Can Serve The Bees
I asked Tuchman, “If there was one thing you could tell the whole world as a piece of advice to protect the bees, what would you say?” To that, he responded, “Plant flowers!” By planting native flowers, you are giving more opportunity for bees to get their pollen and nectar for their hive, as well as promoting pollination. Another thing we can do, according to Tuchman, is to buy honey harvested in the spring, rather than the fall. This is because the bees need their fall honey to have enough to survive the winter. Beekeepers who harvest their honey in the fall rely on feeding them artificial sugar all winter — which can negatively impact the health of the bees and the quality of the hive’s honey. Next time you buy from your local honey plug, ask which season they harvested it! But it doesn’t end there; there are so many ways we can support the bees. Simply becoming more educated on these extraordinary insects can make a difference.
My Growing Respect For Bees
Bees function in a highly organized democratic world — like a well-oiled machine. Each bee has a place, but they work as one to survive and create a thriving honey-filled colony. I hope that we not only learn about the bees, but from the bees (because they actually get sh*t done).
My perspective of bees has completely altered. After learning so much about them, I have grown a deep respect for their work ethic and practicality. When I pass a colorful bed of flowers, I look for a bee to see if I can catch it collecting food. I wonder how far they have traveled and if they’ll report back to the others with their waggle dance. I marvel at the way they understand their purpose. I imagine how our world could be if we took some notes. Then, I wish them a safe journey back to their hive.