Lessons from Bees

Honeybees can teach us some important lessons about living together. They are amazing in their capacity to work together for the common good.

Honeybees can reflect and acquire knowledge. They collect nectar from flowers, learn how to store it in their stomachs, and bring it back to the hive.  

They work together as a team. Some bees gather the nectar; worker bees chew it and turn it into honey. Each has a job, and they do it diligently. Since each honey bee produces only about one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, they have to work very hard.

We can learn efficiency from bees. According to The Bee Conservancy newsletter, a large hive can house up to 60,000 bees, travel 55,000 miles and visit two million flowers to produce one pound of honey.

They know how to build relationships. They not only take nectar from flowers, but they pollinate flowers by transferring pollen to other flowers.

Every bee has a role to play: the queen lays the eggs, drones mate with the queen, worker bees clean the hives and collect the nectar. They cooperate with each other in order to produce the honey. They are also problem solvers and do waggle dancing to communicate.

Bees are willing to sacrifice for the good of the whole community. They are not lazy or jealous or try to outdo the other bees. They live together in harmony.  Who knew that bees could teach us so much?