THE
TINY PRODIGIES THAT PRODUCE HONEY
Do you know who
makes the honey on your breakfast table?
You
will probably reply, "yes!" We all know that bees make honey. However,
do you know just how much these bees work to make the honey from the moment
they are born until the moment they die, or just how giving and intelligent
they are? Come on; let's study together how Allah has created the bees…
In a beehive,
there is one queen, a few hundred male bees and a workforce of thousands
of infertile female bees, the worker bees. (The total number of bees in
the beehive can reach 80,000). The worker bees perform all the activities
inside the hive. Some duties of the worker bees are as follows:
Building
the honeycomb, cleaning and protecting the hive, feeding the queen bee
and the male bees, caring for the bee larvae, and feeding them with the
royal jelly, honey and pollen, building cells for the eggs to grow in,
cleaning these rooms, maintaining the heat and moisture inside the hive,
collecting nectar, pollen, water and resin, etc.
Now, let's take
a look together at what type of life the worker bee leads.
A worker bee lives
between 4 to 6 weeks. For 3 weeks after its birth it lives inside the
hive. Its first job is to take care of the growing bees. It feeds the
baby bees with the honey and pollen it takes from storage.
When the worker
bee becomes 12 days old, suddenly, beeswax starts to be produced
in its body. The beeswax is extremely important for bees, because
the bees build their honeycombs with beeswax. You will see the picture
of a honeycomb.
Isn't it neat?
Could you have made such neat hexagons side by side without a ruler? Furthermore,
take a blank piece of paper and start to draw hexagons from one end of
the paper while a friend starts to draw from the other. Were you able
to come up with a neat honeycomb shape, right in the middle of the paper,
without leaving any spaces? You weren't able to, right? This is something
that even adults are unable to manage. Your teachers, parents, even your
grandparents would not be able to achieve such a task. To be able to do
this, you would need some instruments and you would have to do very complicated
calculations. However, the tiny bee, even when it is just 12 days old,
can make such a perfect honeycomb. What's more, it does this without using
any instruments.
 
It is impossible to form a perfectly hand-drawn
honeycomb.
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All the bees start
making hexagonal honeycombs from the corners, and meet in the middle.
You might have noticed that the honeycombs are the same height. How can
a bee manage such tasks that even humans are not able to carry out and
with such excellence? You see Allah is the One Who lets the bee do these
things. Allah has created the bee with this talent.
The responsibilities
of the worker bee are not just these. Among its duties, until it is 3
weeks old, are storing royal jelly and pollen in the honeycombs, keeping
the beehive clean and throwing dead bees and garbage outside the beehive.
During the last stage of its 3-week duty, it starts its last task of serving
as a security guard and protecting the beehive from enemies. When the
three weeks are over, the bee becomes skilled enough to collect royal
jelly, pollen and water.
The worker bee
becomes exhausted after working non-stop for another 2 to 3 weeks and
dies.
During their brief
lives, the bees work non-stop. In addition, no one teaches them the work
that they are supposed to do. They start to work straight after birth.
Just think, if a new-born baby were to get out of its bed, first make
its bed, wash up, and then begin to take care of the other babies; wash
them, feed them, dress them. Isn't this just impossible? Yet, bees manage
such an impossible task, because Allah has created them with the capabilities
to do so.
The
Honey Bees that Dance

Bees dance by making movements resembling
the figure "8". Their dance has a purpose: To show their
co-workers the location of a food source.
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Did anyone ever
tell you that bees have a dance? Some bees look for a food source outside
the beehive. After flying about all day long, they find their own source
and take with them as much royal jelly as they can, and then they return
to their hive. There is still a lot more royal jelly left at the source
but the bee cannot collect it all without the help of the other bees.
The scout bee keeps the location of the food source in mind and quickly
returns to the hive to gather its friends. It starts to make moves that
resemble the number 8 on the honeycomb. The numbers of times the bee turns
or shakes its abdomen are signals that indicate the distance of the food
source from the hive. By the end of the dance, the other bees have understood
the location of the food source and they quickly leave for the flowers
that are their new food source.
Where do you think
tiny bees have learnt how to communicate by dancing? Of course, the One
Who has given them this knowledge is their Creator and Protector, Allah.
Did
You Know that Bees Make Honey for Us as Well?
Bees can produce
much more honey than they need. As you know, bees make honey in their
abdomens. Their tiny bodies make enough honey for themselves as well as
for people.
 
The bee stores honey in the cells it builds
so perfectly. Here is the amazing honeycomb of the bee!
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But why are the
bees so giving? Why don't they just make honey for themselves rather than
thinking of our needs as well? Honey is very nutritious for people. This
is the reason why Allah has created bees with the ability to make honey
and has ordered them to make it in great quantities. Allah says in a verse
in the Qur'an:
Your Lord revealed
to the bees: "Build dwellings in the mountains and the trees, and also
in the structures which men erect. Then eat from every kind of fruit and
travel the paths of your Lord, which have been made easy for you to follow."
From inside them comes a drink of varying colours, containing healing
for mankind. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect.
(Surat an-Nahl: 68-69)
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