Page 79 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

Harun Yahya
77

hairs on their abdomens—which males lack.
- Female bees have wax glands; males do not.
- Female bees construct combs, whereas males are unable to.
- Females can carry out the “bee dance,” but males cannot.
- Unlike males, females are able to collect food.
- Female bees nurse the young, unlike the males.
In winter, only female bees are to be found in the hive, because the
males are either expelled from the hive or killed before winter’s arrival. As
spring approaches, however, the worker bees begin to build cells for male
eggs. The queen then lays in these cells eggs which will hatch into drones.
The males emerge from these cells in early May. 67
These months are generally when the old queen leaves the hive to es-
tablish a new colony and when new queens are raised in the hive. During
this period, the new queen needs to engage in mating flights in order to be
able to lay eggs, which is one of the reasons why the workers raise male
bees.
Despite the male bees’ lack of abilities, the workers take great care of
them until they mate with the queen. Five or six workers need to work
non-stop to feed just one of the 400 to 500 male bees in the hive. In other
words, some 2,000 to 3,000 worker bees do nothing else than care for the
drones for a specific period of time.
No more than 10 males are necessary for the queen to mate.
Nevertheless, a bee community raises hundreds of drones. Despite all the
work that must be done in the hive, the workers spend a large part of their
time taking care of the males. This task is most important because the
queen has to find males when she departs on her mating flight. Bearing in
mind the fact that bees have enemies such as dragonflies, and that the
drones have no sting or venom to defend themselves with, one can more
clearly see the importance of their being raised in large numbers.
Despite their serving no other purpose at all, the way that the drones
receive enormous care from the workers for a specific period is an impor-
tant precaution, taken for the security of the entire hive. There is of course
a special purpose behind this—ensuring the continuity of the hive by

Adnan Oktar