By Cindy Walker Burton
Sunday, September 13 was significant in many ways: it was National Grandparents Day, National Peanut Day; Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner on September 13, 1814; and here in radiant Rock Port, the temperature hovered in the heavenly low 70’s. Personally, September 13 held a special surprise for me. While walking in the awesome autumn temps, I encountered one of God’s wild winged creatures. Its weight equals 3 grains of rice and it remembers human faces for two days. (I know humans who can’t remember human faces for two days!) Be that as it may, I’ll be specific: honey, I encountered a Western honey bee!
What’s all the buzz about? Well, Western honey bees are wild, winged, wary, waxy, workaholic wonders! According to the Xerces Society, they live a few weeks to several years depending on their role in the bee colony and the time of year. The bee featured in my photo is a late summer worker bee whose lifespan is only four to six weeks because it literally works itself to death (busy bee). Miniature masters of multi-tasking, behold the Western honey bee’s dexterous duties: foraging, pollinating, building perfect hexagons, defending the hive (guardians of the golden drop), cleaning and polishing hive cells (do they use bees wax?), regulating hive temps (beating their wings 230 times per second), performing the waggle dance to communicate the direction of valuable resources (bee hive jive), feeding larvae (bee keepers), eating (they have two stomachs), grooming the queen (they have five eyes to see that she’s always bee-utiful), making honey (one bee makes one twelfth of a teaspoon in its lifetime), stinging (males have no stingers – haha!), and other duties as assigned on their “honey do” list.
Beelieve: Bees never sleep but merely rest at night to save energy (me and bees: we fellow insomniacs stick together). Un-beelievable: the hive travels 55,000 miles to produce one pound of honey. Do they get Gold Status frequent flyer miles? Sticky Situation: supersaturated honey is 80% concentrated sugar. Buzzworthy: A sharp loud buzz warns other bees of predators. Bees Knees: Bees have jointed legs but no knees. So why do folks say, “that’s the bees knees” when bees have no knees?
A Western honey bee would surely bestow this advice based on its busy buzzy lifestyle: Bee productive. Bee vigilant. Bee a team player. Bee active. Bee aware. Bee creative. Bee helpful. Bee sweet. A bee has no knees but exists to please by making a sweet treat for all to eat. Bee grateful!
