Page 160 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

158 THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

in this vein for some time, before deciding years—or hundreds of years—
later, that the hexagon was the most ideal form, is quite nonsensical. To
claim such a thing is to suggest that bees possess as much reason and con-
sciousness as human beings. Neither reason nor conscience permit such a
claim to be believed.
Bees were created by God. They underwent no evolutionary process.
They never underwent any change. The moment they were first created,
they had exactly the same features as they possess now.

Conclusion
As we have seen throughout this book, most of the tasks performed by
bees are quite astonishing to human beings. During their brief life spans of
only a few weeks, bees perform all the jobs in the hive in a specific order.
From caring for the young to construction, from food gathering to honey
production, they succeed at every one.
The bee’s nervous system, which enables all these jobs, consists of
around 7,000 neurons. A human being has some 2 million times that num-
ber. 138 Yet as we have seen in some considerable detail, bees are able to
carry out all these tasks to perfection:
-They perform a series of complicated tasks in the hive, such as feeding
the larvae, cleaning, air conditioning, maintenance and repair.
-They are able to distinguish between friendly and hostile bees.
-They are able to give directions according to the angle of the Sun.
-They are able to perceive ultraviolet rays.

-They are able to calculate the weight of the pollen they are carrying.
-They are able to carry out in-flight corrections to their course by look-
ing at the brightness of the sky and landmarks and perceiving odors along
their route.
-They are able to calculate the distance they have covered in flight.
-They can measure the frequency of the movements in the dance per-
formed in the hive and thus calculate the distance of the food source.
-Even though the dance takes place in a vertical plane, they are able to