Everything from the hive is a gift of medicine.
Honey is something nutritious and life sustaining that the bees give us freely.
Raw Honey is an anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial super food.
It is also now being used in treating open wounds because of these very properties.
I think the Lord made the honeybee for a very special purpose – more than just pollinating flowers – which helps us grow crops so we can have something to eat.
He created them to give us special insight into His nature and what He wants from us.
Some Bee’s to ponder on:
Bee a Hard Worker
Have you ever heard the expression “busy as a bee”?
There is a very good reason for that, as bees are some of nature’s hardest workers.
To make just one tablespoon of honey for your toast in the morning, a bee has to visit 4,200 flowers!
A worker bee will make up to 10 trips a day, visiting 400 flowers.
And to make just one pound of honey (450 g), worker bees need to visit more than 3 million flowers and travel the equivalent of three times around the world!
The bees don’t mind doing it, because they care about their hive.
The harder they work, the happier and more productive their colony can be.
In a bee colony, every bee has a job.
There are worker bees, queen bees, and drones.
The queen lays the eggs, and the workers find nectar and make honey.
Did you know, the male bee called a drone doesn’t have a stinger?
That means they can’t defend the hive, and not only that, they don’t gather nectar, make honey, or lay eggs.
At first, drones might appear to be a little worthless!
But in a hive, no one is worthless.
The drones help feed the larvae, then the babies, among other responsibilities.
They might not collect pollen or have the highest position in a beehive, but they do have a very vital part to play.
They give their all to do it.
Bee Respectful
Honeybees are very loyal to their queen.
They will go wherever the queen goes and do whatever is needed to make sure their leader is healthy and happy, and they’ll work hard to help the queen do her part for the hive.
The queen’s main job is to lays eggs so the colony will grow; everyone else really works to feed the larvae and protect the queen.
Bee Humble
Here’s an
Amazing Fact:
A cousin of the honey bee is the bumblebee.
But that was not their original name.
Instead, they used to be called “humble bees”!
Evidently, way back in history, some English children couldn’t say “humblebee” very well, and instead they would say “bumblebee.”
This cute nickname stuck, and even adults started calling them “bumblebees.”
Bee Holy
A long time ago, a scientist claimed bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly based on aerodynamics, which is the study of flight. But – no-one told the bumble bee that, so it just carried on flying anyway.
Well, today they know how such a large insect with such small wings can fly, but at one point, some people thought it should have been impossible.
Of course, it isn’t impossible at all because the bumblebee keeps flying.
We should take a lesson from the humble bumblebee, which still flew when scientists said it should be impossible.
Bee Sure to Share and Serve
Honeybees will fly as far as 12 km (8 miles) in search of nectar – but usually within 3 km. But, consider that 3 km to a bee the size of 10 mm is like about 48 000 km for an average adult human!
Whenever they find what they are looking for, no matter where they find it, they will turn right around and make a “beeline” back to their hive so that all the bees can join in the good news and go off to get some nectar.
Did you know that most honeybees spend almost all of their time feeding other bees, rather than themselves?
And not only will you find a bee always ready to feed another bee, they’ll even feed bees from another colony!
This is why scientists call bees a social insect.
They like to interact and “bee” with one another; mutual feeding seems to be a part of that special relationship.
Did you know that bees produce a lot more honey than they need to feed themselves?
They always have an overflow that others — like you, me, and honey badgers, with a sweet tooth — can also have!
Bee Born Again
Did you know that in order for a bee to fly, it must be born twice?
After a queen lays an egg in a chamber, the drones get busy feeding the larva after it hatches.
When a larva gets big enough, the worker bees seal it in a tomb-like chamber where it begins to change, a process called metamorphosis.
When it is done with this transformation, it is “born again” as a new creature – an adult bee.
But it isn’t always easy.
When it’s finally done changing, it has to break out of the chamber, struggling and wiggling.
In the process, the bee actually breaks a membrane on its back that holds its wings down!
Eventually, their wings dry out and the new bees are able to fly.
Isn’t that incredible?
In other words, they are born twice and they’re able to fly only because they are re-born through a struggle.
Well, that’s exactly what it is like for you and for me.
Bees Are Amazing, and So Are You!
As a tour guide, I think that this information about honey and bees is of value for tour guides to share, and also the relationship to gum trees. I often mention, when going past gumtrees that, although it is an aggressive invasive, the presence of the gumtree in South Africa is permissible because of the fact that it enables bees to thrive and bees facilitate the production of about 76% of our agricultural crops. So, the gain outweighs the pain, or the pros exceed the cons... It is worth reading a document released by SANBI. Included in the debate is:
- "Outside their natural ranges, eucalypts are both lauded for their beneficial economic impact and criticised for being ‘water-guzzling’ invasive aliens, leading to controversy over their total impact.";
- "The listed species have been declared invasive because of their negative impact on water resources, biodiversity, erosion and increased fire risk.";
- "The six gum species listed in South Africa as invaders need only be removed if they are not in the correct place in the landscape. Because gum trees have a value in society for their timber, as a bee foraging resource, and their ability to provide shade and wind protection, the new regulations only require the removal of gum trees where they are invasive or have a negative environmental impact."; and
- "Gums in the correct place in the landscape are critical to honey bees"
Here’s one
last Amazing Fact:
The brain of a bee is no bigger than the size of a small pinhead.
Yet despite their small-sized brains, bees have a very complex society, they communicate with one another, and they design and build one of the strongest homes on the planet, inside the dark beehive, called the honeycomb.
Sources:
Charles J. Adams, quoting from his long-time friend Pastor Chris Smit from Wilderness Pentecostal church, with some editing by Les Powrie.
