[Seasons: Spring XVII]
The bee hive that quietly hummed through the winter becomes more active as the weather warms in spring. Winter is an equalizer, as every bee left in the hive has only two tasks: keep things clean and survive. Spring comes along, the chores diversify, and the font of the hive looks like a middle school courtyard when the the bell rings to end the day.
All that activity is calculated. Every bee has a job, including at least nine distinct roles.
Nurse - a bee’s first responsibility is to work the “nursery”. After cleaning their own hatching cell and preparing it for the next egg, a young bee will feed the brood.
Undertaker - the coming and going of tens of thousands of bees inevitably results in the death of bees. While not a glamorous job, someone must deal with all those carcasses. That’s the undertakers job; they remove the dead and other various body parts of the wounded.
Architect - these bees build comb. As a bee ages, it develops the ability to secrete wax, the foundation of the comb structure. Along with the wax, these bees collect propolis from trees resin to repair cracks in the comb.
Forager - without the foragers, human agriculture ceases to exist because these bees are responsible for pollination. Each forager, from sun up to sun down, scour a three mile radius from the hive looking for pollen and nectar to bring back to the community. Foragers get the most attention because their work is easiest to witness and the most beneficial to humans.
Minus the press and attention, no bee’s work is less important than any other’s. Spring triggers every bee into increased, calculated, critically important work. The meaning of their work is not found in the attention they receive but in the success of the hive community. (We have plenty to learn from this definition of “meaning”.)
