Are they resting? Are they having a little chat? Whatever they’re doing, somehow you can tell that they’re all taking their jobs very seriously.
That’s another thing that makes me think, “Bees are amazing.”
I’m pretty sure I could never pull that off. Even if everyone around me told me, “Take it easy. Get some rest,” I don’t think I could work that hard at doing absolutely nothing.
There are colonies where the queens are busy laying eggs for the colony from early in the morning, and yet, for some reason, the brood just isn’t developing.
Colonies where the number of worker bees keeps shrinking.
Colonies where a forager comes home with her honey stomach packed full of nectar, having risked her life to get back, only to find that there’s no one there to receive it from her mouth.
This is an important time of year. The colonies need to build up their strength for the winter ahead. And yet, we find hives dealing with all sorts of problems.
And even in those hives, there they are: Worker bees just wandering around, apparently doing absolutely nothing.
We listen to their conversations and try to help in whatever ways we can.
I wonder if we've actually heard them properly.
And yet, I have to say, everyone in every hive has been incredibly gentle with us lately.
It reminds me of what things were like around this time three years ago. Back then, just walking toward the hives was enough to make it feel like someone was saying,
“Hey, old man! You put your hand anywhere near us and I'm gonna get you!”
It was a pretty tense relationship back then.