Hive thriving

The bee felt a wave of relief as it re-entered the hive. It had travelled a long way and nearly been caught in a spider's web. No wonder the tiny creature felt stressed out.

Not long ago, scientists would have called this nonsense. Because a bee has a brain the size of a poppy seed, they thought it could not experience suffering. But new research paints a different picture.

In his book What a Bee Knows, Stephen Buchmann argues that bees can feel fear, optimism, playfulness and frustration. They can also distinguish one human face from another, and possibly even dream.  

The relationship between humans and bees is a very old one. A spear point estimated to be 40,000 years old was attached to the shaft with beeswax.¹

Ancient pictures of bees have been found on rocks in countries as far apart as Egypt, Turkey and Australia. The MayaA group of indigenous peoples of Central America. people in Central America worshipped a bee god.

In many cultures, bees are a symbol of hard work and wisdom. A hive can contain thousands of bees working as a team in a highly organised way. Each has a particular role.

Worker bees collect pollen, make honey and care for the queen. Drones scout for food and protect the hive. Other bees look after the larvaeInsects in the next stage of development after they have emerged from eggs. A caterpillar is a larva..

Farming depends heavily on pollinationThe process through which pollen is taken from one plant to another so that new seeds can be made. by bees. But they are suffering badly from humans' treatment of the natural world. They are often poisoned by pesticides and deprived of their habitats.

A particularly worrying thing is colony collapse. This is when every bee in a hive dies in a single season. Stephen Buchmann believes this is partly because modern farming methods make bees very stressed.

He hopes that recognising that bees have feelings will make people treat them better. A Californian company called BeeHero is developing ways to check on their wellbeing.

Should bees run the world? 

Yes: Bees are incredibly well-organised, hard-working and unselfish. The hives they live in are models of harmony. The world would be a far better place if parliaments operated in the same way.

No: Bees simply do what they are programmed to do. They have no individuality and cannot try new things or take the initiative, which is essential if a community is to make progress.   

Or... In a way they already do. The Western honeybee pollinates three quarters of the fruit, vegetables and nuts that we eat. Without them our whole system of producing food would fall apart.