bright ring was a line of demarcation. Outside of it, the bees filled the comb cells with nectar; inside it was the nursery, containing eggs and larvae.
The outside of the circle was suddenly understandable. Field bees arrived from outside, carrying either nectar or pollen. Just inside, they transferred their cargo to warehouse workers who put it where it belonged. It was no less (and, frankly, no more) interesting than watching the loading docks of a warehouse.
The inside of the pollen circle, however, made up for it. The placement of the pollen is convenient because pollen is what the nursemaid bees feed bee larvae—little white grub-like things, each inside its own cell. (Adult bees eat only honey.)
Then I saw the queen. She was surrounded by a small circle of worker bees. Each was facing her, looking like petals on a daisy. The queen was sticking her long, pointy ass into an empty cell, laying an egg. I waited and when she finished, she was pushed and pulled by her attendants to the next empty cell. I looked closely at the cell she had just left and, sure enough, there it was, the egg, white and smaller than a grain of fine sand.
I watched the nursery for quite a while. It was abuzz with activity: Eggs being laid, larvae squirming, and the bigger ones were being sealed into cells with a pollen/wax mix, to make the final transition to full-fledged bee.
It was so cool. I wanted my own observation hive. It would be a few years, but I eventually would get one of my own. But more about this later.
WHY BEES MAKE THE BEST PETS, TAKE 1
1 They are among the nicest stinging insects you'll ever meet.
2 A bee is (literally) as cute as a bug. Actually cuter than most.
3 Honey.
4 Beeswax.
5 They protect your garden from elephants. Seriously. They may work with other animals, too.
6 They have soft fuzz that is almost irresistible. It glistens in the sun for great photos.
7 They are amazing natural architects.
8 They make their own building materials.
9 They are ten times cleaner than any pet you've ever owned.
10 They make your house smell better instead of worse.
Bee Team #1: The Sex Workers
There are only two categories of bees that have the same job their entire life, and for both of them, that job is reproduction.
The Queen: The queen lays eggs. She's the only one that does, and she does it nearly constantly during honey season—from 1,000 to 1,500 eggs a day. She's not really the leader of the hive; more like its ovaries. Still, she's very important to the continuing existence of the hive so she is well protected, pretty much to the point of house arrest. When she's doing well, she communicates it through cues of scent and behavior; if she's not doing well, that news gets quickly disseminated through the hive as well. The workers show who's really boss at that time: They immediately begin planning to depose her, creating special, extra large queen cells that look like peanuts sticking out from the other cells. They grab a healthy-looking larva for each and drench it in an extra dollop of royal jelly that makes it grow faster, bigger, and with fully developed sex organs. The first queen that emerges kills off her rivals, and goes on a mating flight to meet some cute drones and make sweet but fatal love to them. She comes back with enough sperm to last a lifetime of egg-laying.
Now this part is kind of cool: The sperm stays in a special repository from which she can at will decide whether to fertilize an egg or not. Why the choice? Weirdly, it's for gender selection. If she chooses to fertilize an egg, it hatches a female worker bee. If she chooses to not fertilize an egg, it hatches a drone.
The queen lays eggs.
She's the only one
that does, and she
does it nearly
constantly during
honey season.
BLUE BLOODS
Drones: Drones are the few males in a hive, and they play up the role like the pampered gigolos they are, hanging around, doing no work, living off the work of their sisters. Each hive in an area provides drones that head to a designated drone area, waiting for any virgin queen to fly by looking for a good time. The variety of drones hanging around somewhat minimizes the chance of in-breeding with their queenly sisters, but these things happen even in the best of hives. Still, there are some interesting varieties of sexual experience among bees that you won't read about in the Kama Sutra. Mating in midair, for example, swooping and diving toward the ground. Unfortunately, the drones' pleasure is even more short-lived than most males. As they withdraw, they discover that their penises are still inextricably stuck inside the queen. When they tear away from their lover, they really tear away from her, crumpling to the ground in a painful death. Any drones that manage to survive into the fall are given the boot to die in the cold as winter approaches. Cruel, but understandable.
Bee Team #2: Hive Got a Job for You
Not every bee can hang around laying eggs or anticipating sex. In fact, worker bees normally don't have the opportunity to do either one. The workers, all female, live a life of celibacy and constant work, literally from the moment they're born until the moment they're thrown out of the hive. It's almost an extreme prototype for the modern corporation.
But it's not as if there are no promotion possibilities in the HiveCo Corporation. Every worker bee goes through a gamut of jobs in its short life:
Custodian: As soon as a worker bee eats her way out of her brood cell, she has a job: cleaning out the cell she just came out of, making it ready for the next egg.
Nursemaid: Next job is taking care of the grubby little babies, the larvae: feeding them, keeping them the right temperature, dosing them with royal jelly, and sealing them up into their cells with a mix of wax and pollen.
Warehouse worker: Receiving, moving around, and storing the honey and pollen is a full-time job.
Heating, cooling, and ventilation: Bees flapping their wings as they work creates a constant stream of fresh air circulating through the hives. On hot days, lines of bees wind throughout the hive, all facing the same direction, holding tight and buzzing their wings as if flying, creating a small wind that blows in through the entrance, around the hive, and out again. Some bees hold small drops of water to cool the air further. On cold days, bees crowd close in the nursery,
