BEESWAX

Bees are a Living Symphony of Nature

If Bees disappear,

The pollination of flowers

Could be done I presume, by humans every year.

We could dress up in bee costumes as we tower

Over the beehives,

Buzzing with honeycombs.

Climate change continues to proliferate

Across the globe as we stay alive

As bees are still here to live among

We humans.

Pesticides proliferate

Crops, plant life, the environment today

Without bees

Wildflowers would wilt

To the ground

Eliminated

As the chain of sustaining life is profound

Up to the Bees

Who buzzed around

The globe

To help humans

I am told

Until,

We know science & education

Certain peeps hate

Climate change

Deny it

Scrap it

Swat it

As not important beeswax

Bees carry pollen across plants, flowers, and the environment

Of life as we know it

We would not exist

Bees pollinate 70% of the crops that feed 90% of the world

As the globe swirls around the sun

Without them,

We would lose food like almonds, apples, berries, and coffee

Fruit and caffeine in your coffee dies without bees pollinating

Bee extinction could trigger our planet to die an excruciating

Death to all and it would seem

To create a massive ecological and agricultural crisis

Of life.

Bees are tiny heroes

in the blossoming symphony of nature

for nature in its highs and lows

They work tirelessly,

carrying pollen from one bloom to the next one

under the sun,

as they weave threads together

of life as they spread

love to hold our ecosystem together

in all kinds of weather

Through their buzzing ballet,

they create abundance for all living species,

and the soil

We toil

To create life in a ballet dance

Of chardonnay

Wine

To dine

On fruits

Veggies

Bees pollinate

Subjugate

Their hard work for all

To not eliminate

But to proliferate

Our existence as we know

As we travel the roads of life

As we sow

Our seeds of growth of worth

As the bee’s ballet

across the globe

across the valley

the mountains we climb

to our adobe

where we lay our head

in our bed

of dreams

it seems

without bees

we would all be dead.

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Voice Over materials as written by Vicki after researching for hours looking at those cute little creatures called bees.

Imagine a world without the soft hum of bees. No flowers bursting in vibrant colors. No sweet scent of orange blossoms in the air. No crisp apples to crunch into, no blueberries for your morning pancakes. It feels quiet and empty.

Bees are tiny heroes often overlooked in the grand symphony of nature. They work tirelessly, carrying pollen from one bloom to the next, weaving together threads that hold the ecosystem intact. Through their buzzing ballet, they create abundance feeding not just us, but birds, animals, and the soil itself.

The scary thought is that bees are disappearing. Climate change, pesticides, habitat destruction are taking their toll. Without bees, the chain breaks. Crops falter, Wildflowers wilt, and the balance tilts.

Bees have a sophisticated communication system that relies on a combination of methods:

1. Pheromones (Chemical Signals):

**These are chemical substances that bees release to communicate specific messages to other bees in the colony.

**Different pheromones can signal a variety of things, including:

**Queen Pheromone: Shows the presence and health of the queen, suppresses worker bee ovary development, and attracts drones for mating.

** Alarm Pheromones: Released by guard bees when the hive is threatened, alerting other bees to danger and triggering defensive behavior.

** Nasonov Pheromone: Released by worker bees to mark the entrance of their hive and attract returning foragers or swarming bees to a specific location. It has a distinctive lemony scent.

**Brood Pheromones: Signals from the developing larvae that influence worker bee behavior, such as feeding and care.

**Foraging Pheromones: Bees can leave scent trails on flowers to guide nestmates to good food sources.

2. The Waggle Dance (Mechanical Signals):

**This is perhaps the most famous form of bee communication, used by forager bees to communicate the location of food sources (nectar, pollen), water, or new potential hive sites to their nestmates.

** The dance is performed on the vertical comb inside the hive and involves a figure-eight pattern with a straight "waggle run" in the middle.

** Direction: The angle of the waggle run compared to the vertical comb indicates the direction of the resource compared to the sun. For example, if the bee waggles pointing straight up, the food source is directly towards the sun. If it's at a 60-degree angle to the left, the food is 60 degrees to the left of the sun.

**Distance: The duration of the waggle run shows the distance to the resource. A longer waggle run means a farther distance.

**Quality: The vigor of the waggle dance and the number of repetitions can show the quality and abundance of the resource. The dancing bee may also share a sample of the nectar she collected.

3. Other Dances and Signals:

**Round Dance: Used to show food sources are nearby (within about 50-100 meters of the hive). The bee simply runs in circles, occasionally reversing direction. It doesn't convey specific direction.

**Tremble Dance: Performed by returning foragers with large nectar loads, thought to encourage receiver bees to help with unloading the nectar.

**Shaking Signal (Dorsoventral Abdominal Vibration - DVAV): Used to stimulate inactive bees into foraging.

** Buzz Run: Associated with swarming, possibly indicating the colony is about to leave.

**Grooming Invitation: A bee will vibrate and present a specific body part to ask for grooming from another bee.

** Piping: Queen bees produce "tooting" and "quacking" sounds, and worker bees also make piping sounds, the meanings of which are still being researched but are likely involved in communication during swarming or queen emergence.

4. Touch and Taste (Trophallaxis):

**Bees also communicate through physical contact, such as antennation (touching with antennae), which can convey various signals.

**Trophallaxis is the direct transfer of liquid food (nectar or regurgitated honey) mouth-to-mouth between bees. This not only shares resources but also transmits chemical signals and possibly plays a role in social cohesion and sharing information about food quality.

By using this complex repertoire of chemical, mechanical, and tactile signals, bees can coordinate their activities within the colony with remarkable efficiency, ensuring the survival and success of the hive.

Resources from research are:

Wikipedia, Microsoft Copilot, Google, and MSN research.

I WROTE THIS!

Written by

Vicki Lawana Trusselli

Trusselli Art