Our bees are little insect geniuses. Bold statement? Well, yes, but totally true. They are curious, diligent, and incredibly responsive to environmental changes. When patterns need to shift in a hive of 40 thousand or so they can respond in record time. Imagine how hard it would be to get 40 thousand people to even agree to an environmental issue, much less respond to its needs.
Its not a command from their queen either. She is busy laying a thousand or so eggs a day. Bee instincts are for the survival of the hive, which really amounts to, "do it for the kids." Again, could we be so collectively proactive - even for our children? The bees are, and its amazing to watch.
June's sweltering heat compounded by July's apparently nonstop rain inspired some new roofing on the top bar hive. Queen Flora (of course I named her) is a busy girl, and the heat was forcing thousands of her daughters into spending the night outside the hive in order to cool it; making them easy targets for predators and the elements. They needed some Cracker style renovations. Down here its all about big roof lines and ventilation. Some corrugation did the trick, but they were smart enough to make a perfect final adjustment. They made an Attic fan.
After one afternoon of being furious with me for changing their home without permission, they shifted from creating a beard to move air out of the hive to fanning air up toward the new air channels blowing the rising heat out. Those little rascals figured it out in no time, and spun their little bee bottoms in a new direction as if it had been like that all along.
I'm so in love with my smarty pants girls.
Bottoms up ladies!
2 comments:
I have missed your posts this summer. I didn't know bees were so smart. Whodathunk?
Sigh... This is a lovely post.
Post a Comment