By: Martin Riedel
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2019 issue of BEEKeeping Your First Three Years
Several weeks ago I came across a bee type I had never seen before. When I saw it I was totally amazed and curiously observed its behavior upon the flower blossom it was visiting. Immediately I noticed a huge difference and that intrigued me a lot. My observation of regular honey bees is that they usually land on a flower, move around looking for pollen and then away they go onto their next target. No time to lose or waste. Not this newly “discovered” bee however.
This bee, which had white stripes and a wider and hairier body than the regular honey bee, was different and not just in physical appearance. This bee actually touched the flower. I mean it actually caressed it and tended it. It felt it with all of its little hairy body. It looked around and took care of it. It submerged itself in it. It just experienced it without apparent movement or purpose. It almost seemed that for this bee, gathering nectar and pollen was a byproduct of a much more meaningful experience. It wasn’t in a hurry. Neither did it seem focused on gathering as much nectar and pollen as possible like honey bees seem to do. Yet this bee was covered in pollen like I have never seen a honey bee do.
Some time later I noticed the same type of bee on one of my sunflowers. This time, a regular honey bee was present as well and I was able to watch in real time the difference in behavior between the two. While the honey bee walked on top of the flower, barely touching it, the white bee walked through the flower and dived into it. It touched it, grabbed it, and caressed it. While the honey bee was engaged in what seemed to be a calculated and efficient process devoid of any closeness or feelings, the white bee unhurriedly allowed time to establish some kind of rapport with the flower. The differences were very apparent. This time I took some pictures which you can see below.
As I continued pondering about this observation, the funny realization dawned on me that perhaps the honey bee has been “westernized” so to speak. And by that I mean, it had somehow picked up the western self denial attitude which denies the sensual experience of Creation and transforms life into a pure intellectual routine for the benefit of the “colony/boss” or the “pocket.” No feelings, no sensuality, just working for the “greater good” or the “greater greed” while wearing oneself out unto death doing so.
In contradistinction to this, the white striped bee was 100 percent sensuous. Everything was about feeling, sensing, and yes, even Loving for it carefully and patiently took time to tend the flower a little section at that a time. It was about being in the moment without any sense of rush whatsoever to gather pollen. Believe me, I’m not making this up. It was just there to be observed and as easy to distinguish as day and night.
This experience kind of deflated my initial enthusiasm with “traditional” honey bees and beehives for it seems that at some point something of great value was lost: the capacity to Live and In-Joy Life. What caused this loss? I certainly don’t know, but many questions have crossed my mind.
Could this have anything to do with over 80 years of forced artificial insemination and the harm that such has caused? After all, another more colloquial and colorful term for “forced insemination” is “rape” or “sexual abuse.” Could this have something to do with the ill design of “modern” hives and frames that deny bees some essential needs such as the ability to design their own combs to suit their life and environment? Could it have something to do with the amount of honey that is taken by beekeepers who then proceed to feed sugar water or industrial concoctions to “their” bees so as to maximize profits? Could I be completely mistaken in these observations because bees like abuse and exploitation and if only they could they would asks us to continually develop “newer and improved” ways to defile, abuse, and exploit them? Could bees have deserved the punishment and abuse just like we are told humans have, for being (or having been) naturally sensual? Could it be that bees, being purely instinctual as scientists claim, can’t tell the difference to begin with and therefore don’t care one way or another?
About 42 years ago, Gleanings in Bee Culture published its July edition which included an article by Charles Mraz from Middlebury, Vermont. Here is what Mr. Mraz, a beekeeper with 58 years of experience at that time, had to say:
“Of course, if we are to believe the “scientists”, whoever they are, bees do not “think”, they do everything by “instinct”. Perhaps this is true, but after almost 60 years of beekeeping, I seem to be more convinced that the bees are smarter than the “scientists”. […] They do as they darn please and seem to have no respect for words of “wisdom from scientists”.
It is now more than 40 years that “scientific queen breeding” started to produce a superior bee by artificial insemination and other “revolutionary” methods. Personally, I believe the results of this “scientific breeding” have been disastrous. Our bees are not better but worse as a result of this program. Fifty years ago we had far better bees in many cases than we have now.”
I have to say that the more I learn about how bees have been treated since the invention of “modern” beekeeping practices the less it surprises me to hear that bees have begun withdrawing their assistance to those who mistreat them. After all, every being upon Creation does have a choice and eventually will find a way to end participation in a lifestyle that is destroying it. This Love for Sovereign Expression is not just a human trait.
Where I live, in the middle of nowhere in Arizona, miles away from the nearest GMO and pesticide laden field, we are surrounded by wild bees. There is no shortage of them around. Who knows how many thousand upon thousand of pounds of honey have been carefully stored away by these bees in secret hives. The more I observe them, the more it seems to me that perhaps this white striped bee species I noticed a while ago belongs to a family of bees that has retained its primary drives which allow it to be fully sensuous in a healthy way. A way that is good for both, itself and the flowers it graces. This possibility is really amazing to me and got me thinking about a Life in which I re-awaken to the Joy of Life and in which I simply allow Nature to be(e).
Surely it seems to me there are many beekeepers scattered around the globe who have made similar observations. Are you one of them? If so, I would really like to hear from you and read what you have learned and realized thanks to bees. I can be contacted at living_bees@bluestarway.com.
