Nature is amazing. So much going on everywhere, all the time, at such a neat, organic pace.
I woke up this morning with the intent of trying a stupid experiment before getting to work on other things. Typically, a scout bee needs to find a hive/hivebox in order to draw the rest of the hive/swarm to the new “residence.”
When honeybees are swarming (splitting off from their current hive and searching for a new home), they load up on honey, ball up around the old queen, and leave the old hive. When the swarm is balled up and resting on a tree or other such location, scouts go out to search for potential homes.
If a scout finds a nice place to live, the bee returns to the group and does a special “dance.” This dance signals others to go check out the new potential digs. If these bees also like the location, they’ll come back and do the same “dance,” lending credence to the first scout’s initial funky moves.
Various other scouts will “dance” and advertise their newly found, promising, respective spots. Ultimately, the location with the most “dancers” backing it wins out. It’s a truly decentralized decision making process, which is pretty damn cool!
My stupid experiment.
Back to the story. I woke up and decided to catch a “scout” Japanese honeybee on my own, and place it inside my newly created hive box. I call this stupid because forcing a family into a home and locking them in for five minutes, when they aren’t even in the market, and hoping they stay because they like the honey on the walls, isn’t the most natural way to do things. It’s a bit...forced, isn’t it?
That said, when I finally got my little glass jar up to the entrance, the bee went directly inside after smelling the honey. Before I had added the extra dollop, the poor soul was struggling like hell to get away. One whiff of the new honey, however, and in she went.
The bee exited the top of the hive momentarily (I need to fix the roof ><), and buzzed away.
I have no idea if this bee will report anything back to her friends, or if the plentiful honey inside the hive box will be noted for later reference, but hey, I had a great day in the sun, learning a lot.
There are so many varieties of bees! I caught a few that were entirely the wrong bee. I learned to identify the different buzzes, shapes, and colors of the various types to some extent today. I also got to witness all kinds of other cool critters going about their daily business as well.
So yeah, we’ll see what transpires. Even if nothing does, I learned a lot and had a relaxing day. Don’t be afraid to try a few “stupid” ideas now and then. If you have a passion to do something, it means there’s a reason for it, for you!
Peace!
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as DLive and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)