tell the bees
.
I
understand now
how
important they are
not only because they are master
keepers 
of all life in balance 
but as sages of
great wisdom.
consider the hive…
.
a bustling community of 
workers, drones, and one queen, each of whom
has a vital role to play 
in the health, safety, and prosperity 
of the whole
where the swarm
protects
at all cost 
the matriarch, the very heart.
it’s not honey
that drives them, it is she…
.
ancient
feminine energy
hidden away
just buzzing
to be known
by humanity gone astray
honey drunk,
where drones
have taken over the hive…
they forgot, the workers are legion

~kat

The poem is a pi-sequenced offering based on three sections: 3.1415926535.8979323846. 2643383279, determining the syllable count for each line. Happy 3/14! 

Wisdom from the Bees

There are three vital roles played out by very distinct players in the life of a hive. It’s not about the honey. While it is a sweet byproduct of the harmony of a healthy brood of bees, it is not the heart. 

That would be the queen. A single fertile female who holds everything together. Bee queens live 2-3 years laying up to 3000 eggs a day. She is literally the mother of all bees, the quintessential life giver of the colony as well as the anchor that keeps the hive humming. 

The queen is sustained by worker bees (also female). These busy bees tend the hive, clean and feed the queen royal jelly, a special food reserved only for queens, and provide for her every need so that she can spend her short productive reign reproducing. Worker bees are born from the fertilized eggs of the queen. Given the fertile reproductive qualities of a heathy queen, workers are legion. Throughout their relatively short lifespan (in the summer two to six weeks, and in winter, up to 20 weeks because they don’t venture out of the hive during colder months) worker bees do it all! After 21 days, honey bee larvae emerge fully grown and the work begins with cleaning the cells (days 1-3), feeding the worker and drone larvae (days 3-7), and attending exclusively to the queen (days 7-11). Around days 13 – 18 the workers use wax from four glands in their abdomen’s to build and restore the cells of the hive. On days 18 – 21 when their stinger has matured, they move on to guard duty protecting the hive, and finally, in the last sweet stage of life these busy workers emerge from the hive to scout and forage for water, pollen, and nectar. A foraging bee will make 9-10 hour-long trips to and from the hive in a single day. There are other tasks which worker bees do such as maintaining the temperature of the hive and mortuary duty (removing dead and non viable eggs from the hive). I’m figuring out where the term “busy as a bee” comes from. 

Which brings us to the drones. These guys (the male component in the life of bee colonies) are born from the unfertilized eggs of the queen. She basically creates these fellows for herself, as they have one vital role to play. They do not have stingers (an important fact to ponder), they do not feed themselves (worker bees provide them royal jelly for a few days, then a steady diet of honey), they do not scout or forage or protect the hive (remember…no stingers). When a queen emerges from her nest, she takes a maiden flight solely for the purpose of mating with several drones. This act will fertilize all the eggs she will ever lay in her lifetime, so once the deed is done, each drone dies.

I could go on and on…there are so many details i could share regarding the masterpiece that is a bee colony. And there are a few analogies as well that I could indulge, but I won’t. I’ll let you fill in the rest of the story. Suffice to say, is it any wonder that compassion, kindness, peace, community, conservation, nurturing, the arts and wisdom are making a bold resurgence in these times we find ourselves living through? And what can we learn from the bees? I’ll just leave all of this here for you to ponder. 🤔😉 😊

Much love, peace, compassion, and honeybee wisdom glimmers to you. 

~kat

🐝🐝🐝✨💚✨🐝🐝🐝