Page 46 - Magnificence Everywhere

THE SKILLS OF MASON BEES
Mason bees are living creatures that attract attention because of the care they
demonstrate in building a nest. When a female bee who wants to build a nest finds
a suitable place, she cleans it. However, in order to build a nest, she first needs to
find a source of mud. If she cannot find mud, she finds some finely textured soil and
turns it into a soft paste by mixing it with her saliva.
A mason bee begins its nest construction by scraping a piece of mud from the
ground with her jaw. She carries the mud between her legs and molds it into a pel-
let. She adds more mud to the pellet. Then, holding the pellet with her lower jaw,
the female bee comes back to her nest.
When the bee comes to the place where she will build a nest with the mud, she
does not begin to work in a haphazard, disorganized way. When they build their
tunnel-like nests, mason bees always follow a definite plan. In line with this plan,
the mason bee uses the first loads of mud to build the back partition of the first cell
that will constitute the blind end of the tunnel. Then, she builds up mud in the
shape of a crescent at some distance from the partition. This marks the site of the
next partition she will build after she lays her egg in the first cell.
With the completion of the cell, the mason bee begins to collect food to store
there. On her first tour, she stores pollen at the rear of the nest. Over the next tours,
she leaves some honey that she makes into a thick paste with her jaws on the pollen
she left during her previous tour. In this way, she completes initial preparations for
the egg she will lay.
As soon as the bee leaves the last pollen load in the nest, she immediately begins
to lay her egg. After laying the egg, the female bee begins to build walls for the other
mud partition she had marked before. Following a certain sequence, the bee contin-
ues the egg-laying and cell-building processes until the cells constituting the nest
form a row. The structure of the cells is standard. Each cell contains an egg and
stored food and is separated from the adjacent cells by a mud wall.
After the last cell is completed and closed, the female bee leaves an empty space
between the last brood cell and the nest entrance and finally closes this opening
Magnificence Everywhere spring in their cells and lead to their deaths. 6
with a thicker plug than an ordinary cell partition. This plug prevents other crea-
tures from making their nests in front of the nest which would imprison the off-

It can be seen at every stage of nest building that there is a clear wisdom and in-
telligence behind all the conduct of bricklayer bees. In a verse, Allah informs us that
bees are creatures that act with the inspiration of Allah. In fact, not only bees, but all
the living creatures in the universe are inspired by Allah, the All-Powerful, the
Wise.

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