I watched a bee on a leaf sipping a raindrop in an ancient forest that seemed untouched by humans for many years. The stillness of the beautiful forest, dotted with mushrooms and tiny pink flowers that nourish butterflies, added to the serenity of the place, allowing my mind to relax and enjoy the fresh oxygen — this is what we call self-care. Trees do not speak, yet they heal in silence; for me, they are my favourite kind of crowd.
Birds and bees appeared to have chosen this forest as a home, or at least a regular stop on their daily foraging routes. Meanwhile, as a White-fronted Bee-eater caught and ate a bee, I stumbled upon a beehive in a tree, alive with activity. It was a modern hive, complete with remarkable frames that make management and honey harvesting more efficient. On other trees hung traditional hives, such as log hives, which are easy to construct locally. With astonishing sleeves of pollen on their legs, bees flew swiftly and efficiently from flower to flower, distributing pollen along the way. Known as hardworking collectors, honey bees are highly skilled at storing food in the form of nectar, doing so with remarkable precision.
This tiny insect — which pollinates our fruits and vegetables so they may yield a healthy harvest — is extraordinary. If bees were to become extinct, a large portion of the world’s economy would likely shrink with them. Without textbooks or laboratories, bees apply knowledge that continues to astonish humans. They collect pollen from flowers and store it in pollen baskets on their hind legs, then refine the sugary secretions of plants — primarily floral nectar or the honeydew produced by other insects.
Honey bees thrive only where forests are alive with flowers and where clean water runs freely. They do not drink water merely to survive; they use it to regulate hive temperature, dilute stored honey and maintain brood health. Protecting bees, therefore, means conserving forests, planting native trees and managing landscapes responsibly. Bees are remarkable little friends of ours — and the only insects that produce food for humans.
Studies have shown that bees can detect certain chemicals in water through the sensory receptors on their antennae. If the water contains an adverse chemical profile, they simply avoid it. At times, I consider them more intelligent than people.
In the world of bees, queens are not born but made. Ordinary larvae are fed royal jelly until one transforms into the leader of the hive. The queen bee is the sole egg-layer of the colony, producing each egg individually with no storage. She decides what each egg will become, guided by the needs of the colony — whether more workers or more drones are required.
These little jewels live for less than forty days and must visit countless flowers to produce less than a teaspoon of honey — yet for them, it is a lifetime of purpose. I love the honey bee, the most important creature on the planet.
