Why Honey Bees Feel Magical

Carol 0:01

Honey bees are one of those mysterious animals where science doesn't compete with symbolism. It enriches it. The more we learn about them, the more extraordinary they become. Did you know that a honey bee is the only insect who produces a food eaten by humans in significant quantities? That the average bee makes almost no honey in its lifetime. Every single drop of honey you eat represents the effort of thousands of bees. Realize that a single bee produces only about one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime. So to make one pound of honey, honey bees must visit nearly two million flowers and fly approximately fifty thousand to ninety thousand miles. Not that I ever thought of this, I didn't, but I learned bees never defecate inside the hive. They leave to relieve themselves, which keeps their home spotless. Several years ago I interviewed a certified journeyman beekeeper, Leah Chule, someone who not only keeps honey bees, but also rescues colonies that would otherwise be destroyed, and she believes in leaving enough honey for the bees themselves to survive winter. Honeybees generally run out of food in January or February. They search for soda cans to survive. One of the many things Leah said to do was to plant late blooming flowers. Throughout this episode I will occasionally share comments she made that still hold true about honeybees.

The Waggle Dance And Bee GPS

Carol 1:46

Let's start with the fact that honeybees do a dance to vote on where to build a new hive, to share information about food resources and nest sites. Wonder if they hum songs like I Gotta Be Me or maybe the iconic flight of the bumblebee, which actually captures the essence of a bee's movement with its fast tempo and intricate melodies, making it a thrilling and iconic work that highlights the agility and energy of these insects. And if you ever took piano lessons, this would be one of the first piano pieces you ever struggled with. Honeybees communicate with each other through what's called the waggle dance, the dancer movement they do to tell other bees where to go, distance and direction. Leah says that's exactly what it looks like when foragers stand on the porch of the hive. These bees come back and dance on the front porch, the waggle, and tell other bees about 200 where to go get nectar and pollen. They leave, can travel as far as five miles, and return with lots of pollen nectar they stuff in the baskets on their legs. Leah calls this their GPS. Bees are really humdingers. This built-in GPS uses the sun's position as a compass, and honey bees may sense the Earth's magnetic field to orient themselves in flight, and it helps them communicate. Honeybees are nature's reminder that every drop of effort can become something sweet.

Inside The Hive Work Schedule

Carol 3:23

In the early spring, the queen puts somewhere around two thousand eggs into the hive cells, and that's once a day. Once the larva hatch out, these bees spend weeks cleaning and polishing the cells of the hive. They then become nurse bees who take care of other larvae by feeding and tapping off each cell. For about a week they then become house bees who take nectar, pollen from the forager bees and turn the nectar into honey, and that is generally from April to June. Most worker bees are female, and they literally work and fly until they die. If a drone won't mate with the queen, they are kicked out of the hive. Understanding that mating with the queen means their abdomen is torn apart and they die instantly, that might have something to do with them not wanting to do it. The queen bee keeps mating with drone bees through the spring and summer. When cold weather approaches, meaning the flowers are no longer blooming and there's no nectar or pollen to gather, the bees form a cluster around the queen to keep the queen at ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit. This cluster ball can be up to six inches in diameter.

Mites, Disease, And Daily Hive Checks

Carol 4:40

A beekeeper must keep an eye on the hive every day to notice any subtle or not so subtle reasons the hive could get sick. Leah said she could see a mite on a honey bee between their wings. Mite suck on bees and can cause anemia, just like ticks suck on us and other animals. The diligence by the beekeeper keeps the bees healthy. So now you know why a bee would go to the doctor, not only when it has hives. One must wonder if honey bees inspired sting, Beyoncé, or the beetles. Although honey bees are small and their brains the size of a sesame seed, they are big on intelligence. They can learn, remember, and improve foraging efficiency over time. It was not a surprise to me that bees can remember faces and can also be trained to do this, a skill once thought possible only for larger animals. I personally can attest to being recognized by a bee I disturbed accidentally and who chased me back to the house. And if you're wondering how fast they can fly, a worker bee can reach 15 to 20 miles per hour when flying to a food source. That bee must have thought I was sweet. Their buzzing sound comes from wings that beat 190 times per second. And I was told as a child that bees hum because they can't remember the words.

Stings, Allergies, And What To Do

Carol 6:08

When I was four years old in the mountains, two things I learned in a painful way. One, don't step on a dandelion of honeybee's own barefoot. My allergic reaction made my foot so swollen I couldn't wear shoes for a week. Then there was my other childhood favorite thing to do, rolled down large hills until I rolled over a nest of yellow jackets. A memorable experience because the only thing to put on thirty stings was my mother tearing up cigarettes and spitting on them and putting tobacco in every sting. Well it worked, but it made me extraordinarily allergic, dangerously so, that one bee now, honey bee, yellow jacket, could now put me into anaphylactic shock. I understand up to 5% of people can experience this sort of allergic reaction to bee stings, and it can be fatal, so you need to know if you're in that 5%. It is noted that this is a rare condition, with only 2% of all reported cases of anaphylaxis in the United States between 2000 and 2011 were honey bee related. I bought an epinephrine pen or an epipen for years as a counteraction, because it is a temporary fix if you have this kind of reaction for you to get to the hospital where they can give you as many doses of epinephrine as necessary. Leah shared that they keep an epipen handy every time they tend the bees. And if you are stung, to remove the stinger with your fingernails. The stinger can continue to pump venom without the bee. And by the way, a honey bee does not want to sting you because it costs them their lives. Leah found that alum A L U M, I bought it as a spice once, is an effective painkiller after a sting. Wet it and place it on the stung area. I now understand it beats baking soda, something I used to

Honey, Wax, Propolis, And Healing

Carol 8:11

use. Honey is medicine. It provides concentrated food energy and has natural antibacterial properties to soothe costs and heal wounds. And their byproducts like beeswax, think candles, art, seals for containers, and propolis PROPOLIS, which humans use in skin care, cosmetics, and other medical treatments. Leah takes old access wax from her beehives at the end of the season, puts it in a solar melter, then melts on the stove and strains to filter it. She's making candles. And these are the only candles which the American Lung Association endorses for people who have COPD or other lung disorders. They are a healthy burn. Everything within the hive can be medicinal. Clinical trials were done with bee venom, stingers for people with MS and other complicated diseases, including Lyme disease, where at least one person who kept receiving a series of stings was cured. Honeybees are a miracle presence on the earth for humans.

Bees Through Deep Time And Dinosaurs

Carol 9:26

Here's the timeline of bees and dinosaurs. 120 to 130 million years ago, the first bees appeared on Earth, coexisting with giant dinosaurs like T-Rex. Then a hundred million years ago, scientists have found ancient bee fossils trapped in amber from this time. Sixty-five million years ago, a massive asteroid hits Earth, wiping out the non-avian dinosaurs. But bees survive. Twenty to thirty million years ago, the specific modern honey bee group, Aphus APIS, emerges long after the dinosaurs are gone. Honey is one of the only foods that never spoil. Archaeologists discovered pots of honey in ancient tombs that are still edible thousands of years later. Wonder who took the first taste. Its natural chemistry makes it incredibly resistant to bacteria. Do you know which honey

Nectar Vs Pollen And Bee Nutrition

Carol 10:32

bees prefer most, nectar or pollen? Because these two things are not the same. Pollen is a protein and nectar is the carb. Nectar is the energy for bees and pollen is the protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals they need to feed the larva and maintain the colony. The answer is bees need both nectar and pollen, and which they seek depends on the changes within the colony and environmental conditions. Honeybees thus need a wide variety of flowers to get the best diet everyone needs. There are so many fascinating facts about honey bees, but perhaps the most important one is human life depends on them.

Sacred Bees In World History

Carol 11:17

In Egypt, beekeeping was a sacred art, and pharaohs depicted beekeepers in their hieroglyphics. Both Egypt and Greece believed bees were from the tears of the sun god Ra. Thus they symbolized royalty, power, and resurrection. In ancient Greece, Hymatus mountain was famous for its high quality honey, harvested by, of course, skilled beekeepers. Greece linked honey bees to wisdom, prophecy, and the underworld. At the Oracle of Delphi, the priestesses were known as the Delphi bees. Understand that in many cultures, for instance, some African cultures, beekeeping is still seen as a spiritual practice. They believe bees carry prayers to the divine. In China, beekeeping was a practice alongside other forms of agriculture, including the use of hives made from bamboo. Historically, honey seeking humans learned how to locate an existing hive, usually in a hollow tree trunk. They'd bait the bees by putting out a little honey to attract the bees and follow them back to the hive. And obviously, they needed to repeat this several times. Humans, to secure their own honey supply to pollinate their crops, moved existing hives closer to their own gardens and orchards. When hives became too large, a queen would do what they call a hive off, which meant leaving a portion of the hive's population. The remaining bees would create a new queen to lead the original hive. Now here's where I tell you about the queen bee. She controls the hive with pheromones that regulate behavior and maintain order within the colony. When a queen bee emerges, she hunts down other potential queens and kills them to secure her rule. Yet, at the same time, when a queen bee who lives longer than all other honeybees, about five years, gets weak or stops producing the 2,000 eggs a day, worker bees create a new queen and may kill the old one. Summer worker bees. How long do they live? Four to seven weeks. They spend the first half of life working, of course, inside the hive as nurse bees and cleaners, then transition to exhausting outdoor foraging tasks that wear out their wings. Remember, worker bees are female. Winter worker bees live four to six months or up to five to ten months, depending on conditions. These bees undergo a physiological change in late fall, building up fat reserves and staying inside the hive to keep the queen warm rather than flying out.

Pollination And The Food We Lose

Carol 14:09

There's a quote that if the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. It is a misquote. A molydologist, someone who studies bees, says 22,000 years ago the temperature was 35 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than it is today. Beekeeping predates the dawn of agriculture, which occurred about 12,000 years ago and likely made farming possible. A study from international scholars found that 87 crops worldwide employed animal pollinators compared to only 28 that can survive without such assistance. Since honeybees are by consensus the most important animal pollinators, these are scary numbers. If honey bees did go extinct, our diets would suffer. Birds, flowers, and animals who relied on the variety of foods produced would die. We'd have coffee without bees, but it would become expensive and rare. And that's because the coffee flower is only open for pollination for three to four days. So if no insect showed up in that short window, the plant wouldn't get pollinated. And that's the same for apples, avocados, onions, berries. They'd be scarce. Understand that 60% of flower plants in the United States are pollinated just by honeybees. Human life is tied to honeybees through crop pollination, food supply stability, and valuable hive products. Bees support global ecosystems by fertilizing flowering plants that provide a major share of the human diet.

Pesticides, Lawns, And Bee Die-Off

Carol 15:58

The problem of bees dying off is mainly a result of people no longer tending to their own yards by hiring lawn services who say they are treating mosquitoes, and later you find dead bees all over the ground. It may take extra effort to find that truly organic lawn company, but the bees in your gardens and other beneficial insects will survive. Honeybees support the reproduction of wildlife plants which maintain healthy habitats for other animals and clean air. Crop pollination. Bees pollinate roughly one-third of all food humans eat, which includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, apples, blueberries, and almonds. Crops like almonds are 100% reliant on commercial honeybees for pollination, while apples, blueberries, and cherries depend on them for over 80 to 90% of their yields. About one in every three bites of food in the United States relies on honey bee population. Migratory commercial beekeepers transport millions of hives across state lines and semi-trucks to follow crop bloom cycles throughout the year, especially to California. A tip: if you need to kill weeds in your yard, use vinegar, the commercial 30% vinegar, and salt. Only do this in the evening. Pour it on the plants, meaning the weeds. Honeybees like vinegar, but the salt is really bad. So Roundup is a dangerous chemical which kills insects and harms all pollinators, not only honey bees, but hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, beetles, and hoverflies.

Planting Tips And Beekeeping Resources

Carol 17:48

Should your interest in beekeeping be aroused after this episode locally in North and South Carolina, there are beekeeping associations. There are schools, universities, which offer beekeeping classes, and you can be certified at different levels all the way up to Master Beekeeper. Leah suggested three books for following your interest in beekeeping: The Backyard Beekeeper, Beekeeping for Dummies, and Beekeeper's Bible. Every one of us should learn what plants to have in our garden spring through winter. Plant marigolds and lavender, cone flowers, and sunflowers to attract the pollinators and watch your garden thrive. Some of the big box retail stores started putting pesticides in the seeds of the plants they grow and sell. This is why it's rare to see bees hovering around their plant selections. It's recommended to visit some small greenhouses with specialty plants and organic plants. Locally, there are several in Charlotte, North Carolina. Schools can contact bee clubs and have people come to a class for 20 minutes for children to learn how necessary and complex honey bees are. Also, never exterminate honey bees. Call a beekeeper and they will carefully remove them. Leah Chule does this. Think always about buying and eating regional honey because it's from your personal diligence, your local beekeepers, and education that protects these amazing bees. We did it once when a hive suddenly appeared in a neighbor's bush alongside our private road. We notified the neighbors not to harm them that we had already contacted a beekeeper and two of them showed up. The hive was saved and the queen spared.

Bee Symbolism And Personal Takeaways

Carol 19:40

Bee symbolism revolves around their community, purpose, cooperation, their abundance, their diligence, and resilience. Should you ever see a queen bee, you'll be reminded of divine feminine energy and leadership. The takeaway is that you need to acknowledge you have the wisdom to guide others. If bees land on you and don't sting you, you should understand that your energy feels safe to them because this is an act of peace, trust, and divine protection. Bees can often appear during dramatic times of change. Look for new beginnings. If you see a swarm of bees, there could be a major collaboration and opportunity coming your way. If you see bees showing up often, it could mean some area of your life needs some attention. Bees are always nature's reminder that every drop of your effort can become sweet. What honey are you being asked to create? When you understand that the spiritual meaning of a honey bee is focused on the sweetness of life, hard work, and community teamwork, you appreciate why across more traditions than I can name that honeybees represent diligence, personal growth, and a divine connection between our physical world and the spiritual realm. There's tireless foraging. No bee takes a break, and they feel a responsibility to the rest of the team and the hive. They work harmoniously together to create the liquid gold of honey from nectar, which is why honey bees are widely viewed as symbols of abundance. Then there's interconnectedness where they demonstrate the balance of nature and the power of teamwork. And as mentioned before, the matriarchal queen bee embodies fertility, creation, and supreme power of the hive community. It is suggested that you contemplate who you are, what you desire to be in this life. Remember that productivity comes from being present in life, not being distracted and busy for busy's sake. I know I could drone own and own about these magnificent creatures. Thanks to one interview years ago with Leah Chule, we knew what to do and how to respond. Because she acknowledges she'd rather be outside in her gardens and with her hives. She doesn't have a dedicated website. You can contact her on LinkedIn as the proprietor of Carolina Beehaven. She calls her honey Wildflower Honey. The honey bees send a clear message to make a beeline for the nectar of life. In every situation you find yourself and share your inner nectar, your sweetness, your kindness to bolster everyone around you. A single honey bee accomplishes very little alone, yet thousands of ordinary bees, each performing one small task faithfully, create something extraordinary.

Closing Thanks And Next Week Tease

Carol 22:42

I'm Carol Butler. Thank you for listening to Honey Bee. And please follow, share with like-minded people and tune in next week when we explore the frog, the singing, amphibian of our yards. I'm sure you'll be hoppy to learn about the unique critters they are. And as always, listen, reflect, connect.