[Peter Horry]

Animal, especially birds and insects, do astonishing things but I think some of the attributes, accomplishments we give them say more about us that the subjects of our research.

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

"Animal, especially birds and insects, do astonishing things but I think some of the attributes, accomplishments we give them say more about us that the subjects of our research."

Peter,
If you study honeybees, you will see many incidences where they demonstrate incredible intelligence and abilities that were not taught to them by man as they had these abilities long before man began beekeeping.

One example is their building of the comb in their hives. They have been building it the exact same way for eons. They build perfect little adjacent hexagons, slanting slightly upward at a degree used by all hives and the cell dimensions are consistent throughout all the colonies. Mathematicians have studied these structures and know they are the optimal in efficiency. They build with no tools of measurement other than their own instinct.

Another example is the "waggle" dance a forager does to tell the other bees how to get to the nectar source he has just found. The dance communicates perfectly the direction (angled degrees from the sun) and the distance to fly. Again the honey bee has been doing this dance long before man's intervention.

And one more example that comes to mind.... The worker bees cap off the cells where nectar is stored, when that nectar reaches the optimal and perfect moister-content.. thus declaring it "ripe" and ready to be called "honey". We can measure the moister with a refractometer instrument and always find that the bees were correct in their measurement.

There are many many more examples:

• How the Queen, on her mating flight, flies farther than her own male drones can go to insure the sperm to be of a more diverse gene pool
• How the bees know when they need to raise a replacement queen and how they go about doing it
• How the honeybee takes a "GPS-like" sighting of the sun and triangulated-spaced objects, and then can make a straight "beeline" back to her own hive when she is full of nectar and ready to return home.
• How they heat and cool their hives
• and the list goes on and on

The bees do communicate, with each other by pheromones, and with us in other ways. I can listen to the sound in the hive and know whether they are angry or content. I know when I can tend to them with no protective gear and when I will need it. It is difficult to explain, but a beekeeper establishes a very special link with the hives and if wise will allow the bees to be the "boss" and set the pace as they wish. They seem to know what is best. They remain very gentle and respond to gentle treatment and love.

Believe me, I am not giving them nor imagining human traits in them. Their traits are their own and many times ones we humans would do good to emulate. There is an exception (LOL), one trait we humans don't want to copy is the relationship of the drones (males) to the workers (females).... their set up works perfectly in the bee-world, it would not be good in our world. If you are curious about what I am talking about, go read up on it.... it's fascinating!