I remember what once was.  I remember when I was a friend of the bees.  I remember when I felt brave and powerful when I would capture bumble bees, honey bees, carpenter bees, and yellow jackets.  I also remember when I was stung.  Six times.  Sometimes I can still imagine the excruciating pain and swelling from a bee sting and the feeling of defeat when a stinger pierces my skin.  Since then, I have feared and loathed standing within even a one-foot proximity to a bee.  I have deemed bees the little devils, the Satanic creatures of the entomological world.  However, I should acknowledge that they are not worthy of such a distinction and I should treat them with dignity (I mean who actually provoked those bee stings?).

I am truly a spoiled, ungrateful soul when I say I hate bees now yet I continue to put honey in my food.

I should know something about who makes the honey.  The bees!  Diligently scouring the hearts of flowers for nectar, they work hard to amass enough nectar to pass to the honey-making bees back at the hive.  Under the reign of the queen bee (not Beyonce, sorry), the bees transfer the honey from mouth to mouth until the moisture content of the honey drops from 70% to 20%.  This process sounds slightly disgusting and slightly sexual but if we let go of our ethnocentric attitudes for a while, this process is actually quite fascinating.  The honey is then stored in cells and capped with beeswax for future use.  They are the only insect to produce food for humans and pollinate 80% of all crops in the U.S.  Let’s show them some appreciation!

Bees in the process of making honey

Complain all you want about their buzzing and flying but they transcend humans in their physical capabilities.

The buzzing may signify that we may need to evacuate in fear that we will get stung, but the way the buzzing sound is produced is truly an incredible feat.  Bees are able to beat their wings 11,400 times per minute which is a whopping 190 times per second and produces the buzzing noise.  Can you count that high in a second?  Bees can also fly at 15 miles per hour which is the same speed as many people run when moving at top speed–sometimes faster.  They also never sleep so their work never ends.  As college students, we may not get that much sleep, but we certainly do not work continuously for 24 hours every day.

Bees are also trendsetters and many other bugs try to mimic their black and yellow suit.

The hipsters of the bug kingdom, many bugs practice biomimicry and imitate bees’ black and yellow stripes in the hopes that predators will think they’re bees and avoid them.  Hover flies, borer moths, robber flies, and (cleverly named) bee flies are often lauded for their clever technique of pretending to be bees.  However, they are copycats.  The bees started the eye-catching black and yellow style first before the other insects tried to copyright it as their own.  These other insects may have devised a rather insightful way to ward off predators but the original black and yellow body that means “stay away” was started by the one and only bees.  We were always taught that an original is worth more than a copy.

A hoverfly mimicking the black and yellow stripes of a bee

Unfortunately, my habit of gyrating every time a bee approaches me has become sort of an instinct.  A bee comes near me, I shiver and run like a torpedo is flying in my direction, and I do look rather foolish.  However, whatever history I have had with bees, I will never forget what fascinating specimens they are and how vital they are in our food production industry.  If we want food production and economic growth, save the bees!  You don’t have to make love with the bees but don’t aggravate them either; understand that they need to be here, they should be here, and they should be recognized as more than their painful stingers.