We have a great God who created everything wonderfully, from the universe to the smallest creature that can only be seen under a microscope. I would like to illustrate this fact by presenting some interesting aspects about the fascinating life and work of honey bees.
I have been a beekeeper for 65 years and I am still discovering new and amazing things about the attention to detail with which God made this little bee. It seems to me that God created bees directly for us humans. Without bees there would be no survival for us. Albert Einstein is said to have stated: "If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live."
What is so wonderful and unique about the little honey bees? A bee weighs only about one tenth of a gram, but what it can do for us is unique. The most important thing is the pollination of our crops and wild plants.
Nobody can calculate the true value of this pollination service, it is estimated to be worth several billions dollars. The greatest thing about this is that the honey bees are loyal to flowers, which means that once they start their work in a blossoming apple, they keep pollinating the apple trees until all the blossoms have withered. They do not change the type of flower like e.g. bumble bees, which do not care what is blooming and so they fly from apple blossom to dandelion blossom, etc. But there is no fertilization. It is no good if pollen is carried from a dandelion blossom on an apple blossom. Only pollen of the same kind produces fertilization.
When visiting a flower to collect nectar, pollen often sticks to the hairy body of the bee and it is carried to the next flower, where it is then placed on the stigma of the flower and thus fertilization takes place. The bee brushes the remaining pollen from its hairy body with the front legs in the small baskets of its hind legs during flight and when the baskets are full, it carries the pollen balls home to its beehive. They also collect nectar, which is then processed into honey in the beehive. The bees perform many activities before they become foragers. After their birth, they take over the work as a cleaner, as a nurse, as a wax producer, as a guard bee. In the last part of life until death, they will collect nectar, pollen and bring water.
Depending on the size of the hive, up to 80 000 honey bees live in a bee colony. Only a single queen rules in the bee colony and in the summer up to several thousand male bees, the drones. A queen can live up to 5 years, laying up to 2000 eggs per day in the summer. It is fed day and night with the best food available (royal jelly) by its nurse bees.
A worker bee lives for a short time, only a few weeks in the summer. The winter worker bees survive the winter and can live from September to April. The drones only survive for one summer, after which they are no longer tolerated (around the beginning of August): they are no longer fed, so they become weaker and weaker and are chased out of the hive where they will gradually die.
Honey bees produce:
the already mentioned pollination of almost all our plants (with the exception of those that are pollinated only by the wind: grasses, grains).
honey
bee pollen
propolis
royal jelly
beeswax
bee venom
relaxation of stressed people by watching and working with bees.
inhalation of the air from the bee colony (beehive air therapy)
Honey
Honey is often mentioned in the Bible: "My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste" (Proverbs 24:13). And even more impressive is how God described the promised land to the Israelites as being "a land flowing with milk and honey": "And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites." (Exodus 3:8).
There are many types of honey that vary in appearance (coarse or fine crystallizing and fast or slow crystallizing), taste and color. Some varieties are for example: spring blossom honey, rapeseed honey, acacia honey, multifloral honey, sunflower honey, linden honey, forest honey etc.
Honey mainly consists of: simple sugars (fructose and glucose) and up to 30 different types of sugar, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, acids, amino acids, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial substances, over 120 fragrances and flavorings, some pollen, own substances from the bees and up to a maximum of 18% water.
Honey does not exist in nature, it is only produced by bees. The basic ingredient is flower nectar or honeydew. To produce one kg of honey, a bee would have to visit 4 to 6 million flowers and travel a distance of approximately 280 000 km.
Honey is an excellent food and sweetener (without creating addiction), a tonic and a healing agent. It belongs to the foods with the least harmful substances. Honey kills bacteria by removing water.
Bee pollen
The honey bee fertilizes the flower by transferring the pollen from one flower to another and at the same time it collects pollen in its pollen baskets. The pollen is deposited in the combs and covered with a layer of honey. Pollen is used to make bee bread, also called perga. The bees can produce in their glands royal jelly from perga. Perga and honey serve as the main food for our bees.
Perga can be absorbed by human body immediately, whereas normal pollen can only be used up to 20% by human body. The bees need a lot of pollen to raise their brood, up to 40 kg/year.
The ingredients of pollen are: protein, fats (polyunsaturated fatty acids), sugar, various vitamins, minerals, almost all known amino acids, substances that inhibit bacteria, hormones, fragrances and trace elements that are not found in any other food. Pollen is used by humans as a tonic.
Propolis
It is said to be the strongest natural antibiotic, with no side effects. Bees disinfect their entire home with propolis. It kills bacteria, fungi and some viruses. Propolis has been used as a remedy for many ailments since the Middle Ages.
Royal jelly
Royal jelly is the food for the queen. It is a bee's own product, which the nurse bees produce in their glands. The basic ingredient for this is perga. It contains many B vitamins, many minerals, proteins, sugars and fats. It is an excellent tonic for humans.
Beeswax
The beeswax that the bees need to build their honeycomb is secreted by four pairs of special glands on the worker bee's abdomen. It is mainly produced by young bees. Beeswax is germicidal. It is used to make candles, beeswax wraps, in the cosmetics industry (as a base for ointments, medical lipsticks etc.) and for the production of honeycombs.
Bee venom
It is used for ointments and rubs for various joint pains.
Honey bees may be small but the lessons we can learn from them are big. Their selfless work for the benefit of people urges us to live a selfless life for the benefit of our fellow men and for the glory of God.
Willi Arbeiter studied mechanical engineering. He has been a hobby beekeeper for 65 years and even now, at the age of 80, he still has a medium-sized apiary.
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