Anthropomorphism is the term for when human characteristics are given to animals.  Humans love to project their humanity onto animals.  This is why people think their dogs want to be dressed in Halloween costumes and why once a year you read about a person who thought it was a good idea to jump into a zoo enclosure.  “The gorilla was just so cute and cuddly.  I didn’t think he would try to rip my face off!”  People do the same thing with honey bees.  Honey bees are viewed as industrious, peaceful, and happy creatures, but did you know that honey bees are capable of murder?

Honey bees work for the good of the colony.  Honey bee colonies are referred to as superorganisms.  Each honey bee acts like a single cell, and the colony acts like the body.  Every bee knows its role even if that role happens to be murder.  Honey bees commit murder in two distinct situations.  The first is when two queens are in the same colony.  This doesn’t happen very often.  I am only aware of two scenarios when a hive might have two queens.  The first is if two queens hatch at about the same time in a previously queenless colony.  The second scenario is when a beekeeper buys a queen and introduces it into the colony because the beekeeper thinks the colony is without a queen. Bees are tricky, though.  Sometimes the colony will make a new queen while the beekeeper is off buying a queen.  When two queens are in the same colony, they fight each other to the death.  As far as queen bees go, much like the Highlander, there can be only one.  (Shout out to all of you GenX kids who understand the Highlander reference.)  The second murderous situation happens every fall when the temperatures drop.  The colony no longer needs the drones (aka boy bees) because no mating is going to happen during the winter.  The colony must conserve all its energy to survive the winter.  Drones only do two things:  mate with queens and eat.  Since no mating is happening, the bees aren’t going to tolerate the drone’s gluttonous ways.  The worker bees, which are all female, kick the drones out of the hive.  The bees guard the hive entrance to keep the drones from getting back inside.  It’s a pitiful struggle, and I always feel sorry for the drones when I watch this happen.  The drones are like, “Hey, don’t you remember all the good times we had together when we listened to Maroon 5 and split a sixer of honey?”  The worker bees guarding the entrance are like, “Hey, remember when you ghosted us once our wings became tattered from foraging all day?”  Drones can’t last one day outside the hive.  Banishment is a death sentence.  It’s murder. 

Honey bees are extremely efficient and industrious, but honey bees don’t show mercy or compassion.  When you strip away all the anthropomorphism fluff, honey bees, like all creatures in the natural world, are designed for only one thing……survival.  Honey bees become homicidal if it advances their cause.  This is the point in the story where we, as humans, have the chance to flip the script on the natural world.  We can be like a honey bee and do whatever is necessary to survive at all costs, or we can embrace the divinity inside of us.  Humans are the only creatures that can make the choice to help others even when we gain nothing.  We can even help people when it costs us deeply.  A bee would never do that. It’s hard though, and while we were made in the image of God, we still drag around our humanity like Bob Marley’s chain.  We have good intentions, but as the Apostle Paul says, “I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. – Romans 7:15”  Just because something is hard doesn’t mean you should stop trying, though.  Take this as a challenge.  Show radical love and kindness even when it costs you deeply.  I know you can do it. You can be better than a bee.    

Now I must go pick out Halloween costumes for my dogs.