Exploring the wondrous world of bees

The Parish Priest was making a few visits shortly after his arrival in his new parish. He landed in to Mrs Kelly and while she had a cake just out of the oven, she had nothing to put on the bread. She found a jar of honey with very little left in it. In an effort to cover as much bread as possible, she spread the honey very thinly. 

Viewing the slice of bread and its light coating, the priest said: “I see, Mrs Kelly, you keep a bee!” 

There are many signs of the arrival of spring. Snowdrops, morning birdsong, the stretch in the evening, but for me the first real sign of spring comes when I hear that first bee. It is a sound that stops me in my tracks and imparts a surge of anticipation for the year ahead.

Precious 

If I was to give one piece of advice about the natural world to a child, it would be to learn about the bees. In the same way that the sun is responsible for much the is good and bountiful in nature, so is the bee. 

I am not quite sure if they are sacred but bees are definitely precious. As the famous biologist E.O. Wilson said: “If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.” 

Let me say at the start, I am not a bee expert, I am a bee respecter. I heard a few years ago that an acre of lawn cannot support even one bee. It was my wake-up call with regard to bees. Since that time, my lawn is a lot smaller and I now have a lot more buzzing in my rewilded areas.

Survivors 

It seems ancient civilisations knew a lot more about bees than we do today. They may not have fully understood the science but they knew the value of bees and their contribution to regeneration, growth and survival. Bees are even reputed to have a supernatural aspect which was known and respected by the ancients.

Studies of the similarity of the DNA in wasps and bees suggest that the first bees appeared about 130 million years ago and probably very shortly after the first flowers evolved in the Cretaceous Period. Dave Goulson in an article written for Scientific America under the heading, The Beguiling History of Bees (2014), takes us right back to the beginning.

Bees first appeared perhaps 130 million years ago, and by 80 million years ago some had evolved a social lifestyle, for the earliest fossil is of a social stingless bee. Some 65 million years after the first bees appeared (and, coincidentally, 65 million years before the present), the earth went through a catastrophic change. Almost all large forms of life on earth then died out very swiftly, the dinosaurs among them. Amazingly, representatives of many of the smaller groups of organisms survived somehow. So far as the sparse fossil record reveals, the main insect groups – bees, ants, grasshoppers, beetles and so on – seem to have recovered swiftly, although it is likely that countless individual insect species became extinct. The flowering plants also survived, presumably as dormant seeds.

A Taste for Honey 

Bees were not domesticated, they were more… harnessed. Once early man got the taste of honey, he was anxious to harness the bee so that he might have this wholesome treat at his disposal in such a way as not to have to risk life and limb every time he needed a smear of sweetness for his slice. Galway Beekeepers’ Association website give us some insight in this regard.

Collecting honey from wild bee colonies is one of the most ancient human activities and is still practiced by aboriginal societies in parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. Some of the earliest evidence of gathering honey from wild colonies is from rock paintings, dating to around 13,000 BC. Gathering honey from wild bee colonies is usually done by subduing the bees with smoke and breaking open the tree or rocks where the colony is located, often resulting in the physical destruction of the nest location.

At some point, humans began to attempt to domesticate wild bees in artificial hives made from hollow logs, wooden boxes, pottery vessels, and woven straw baskets. Honeybees were kept in Egypt from antiquity. Inscriptions detailing the production of honey are found on the tomb of Pabasa from the 26th Dynasty (c. 650 BC), depicting pouring honey in jars and cylindrical hives. Sealed pots of honey were found in the grave goods of Pharaohs such as Tutankhamun.

Known unknowns 

Apart from hybrid honey bees, Ireland hosts almost 100 species of wild native bees, many of which are found in our Ox Mountain region. But how much do we really know about bees and their complex and sophisticated lives?

When it comes to bees we mostly know about their tasty honey and we know of their ability to pollinate our flowers and crops. However, there are over 20,000 species of bees known today and all of them have a vast diversity of size, appearance, lifecycle and nesting habits. Most modern-day experts agree that to study bees is akin to studying the wider universe.

American Stephen Buchmann in his book, What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories and Personalities of Bees, draws from his own research and dozens of other studies to paint an amazing picture of bee behaviour and psychology. He suggests that bees can demonstrate sophisticated emotions resembling optimism, frustration, playfulness and fear, traits more commonly associated with mammals. Experiments have shown bees can experience PTSD-like symptoms, recognise different human faces, process long-term memories while sleeping, and maybe even dream. And all these traits emanate from a brain the size of a poppy seed!

Tell the Bees

Buchmann’s theory reminds us of the old tradition of talking to the bees; telling them our troubles or informing them of major events. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the royal beekeeper was dispatched to inform the bees of her passing. Traditionally, it was the respectful and dutiful thing to do.

I could go on about bees and the wider unknown galaxy that surrounds them, and I will at a later date. I know the bees are with me on this; I feel their encouragement as I write. So, for now, be assured they are to be respected.

Beekeeping isn’t for everyone but I would urge all readers to develop a healthy respect for the bee. Without them, there is no telling where we will end up. Start by reducing the size of your lawn and just see how they respond to your generosity. This summer the sound of their industry will lift your heart.

The vital role played by bees in supporting biodiversity is being marked with a new exhibition at the National Museum of Country Life in Castlebar that runs for the next 12 months. Check it out.