272
Subtle Agroecologies
sweeping (sweeper bees), keeping watch (guard bees) and ventilating the hive to keep its internal
temperature constant at around 35°C–36°C. Finally, from the 21st day, the worker bee takes fight
and becomes a bee foraging for water, pollen, nectar and propolis. We can thus observe how the
worker bee begins its industrious life with a sort of training period and that, in a crescendo of experience and responsibility, reaches the apotheosis, or highest point, of its life at the 21st day, from
when on it exteriorises its work for the hive. The lifespan of the foraging worker bee is variable
depending on the season and external conditions and may be up to 6 months in the winter period
(Menestrina, 2017).
Now, let’s discover the virgin queen who makes a nuptial fight at 3 days of life: on the running
board of the hive, we see a ‘ping-pong ball’ that darts vertically towards the sky: it is the queen
surrounded by the drones, coming from up to 15 km away. Once it was supposed that only a maximum of 3 drones would fertilise her, but today, we know that it can be up to 24, and this ensures
a very important genetic variability as she takes from all of them the seed that will serve for the
rest of her life (Fontana, 2017). The bee family regenerates itself through swarming: the old queen
ages and moves away making room for the newborn virgin queen and along with all the bees who
are able to fy creates a new family in another hospitable place. It is thus that from a frst colony,
we now have two, less numerous ones, both of which have to work hard to recreate winter stocks.
Awareness of the needs of bees may bring us to better understand the needs of the environment
in relation to human activities (Menestrina, 2019). Further, we may take bees as an example of
community, and for the ‘ancients’, the practice of beekeeping was considered a gateway to the inner
journey, so much so that it was recommended to all novices (Thun, 2000).
EVIDENCE ON THE PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL
CHARACTERISTICS OF BEES
Research has enabled us to understand more about the complex relationship of the bee with the rest
of nature. The bee (along with the ant) produces formic acid as part of its venom. Flying from fower
to fower, the bee scatters this formic acid and in doing so makes it available to nature, so that,
according to Steiner (in his 1923 lectures The Bees, nos. 7 and 8 (Steiner, 1998)), the soil does not
rot or become desertifed and so that plants are revitalised. A testimony from biodynamic winemakers explains that in a clean and healthy environment, the bees do their utmost to repair individual
grapes damaged by hail, thus avoiding the rotting of the whole bunch (Magrini, 2014).
Recent studies (Khait et al., 2019) have discovered that stressed plants emit airborne sounds
that can be recorded remotely, in acoustic chambers and in greenhouses, and that plants possess a
faculty akin to hearing, which allows them to hear the buzzing of bees nearby and consequently
produce a sweeter nectar to attract the insects to them (Veits et al., 2019). The researchers found
that the plants’ fowers vibrated mechanically in response to these sounds, suggesting a plausible
mechanism whereby the fower serves as the plant’s auditory sensory organ. Both the vibration and
the nectar response were frequency-specifc: the fowers responded to pollinator sounds, but not to
other frequency sounds.
Heat plays an important role in their organisation, and in winter, the hive is maintained at a constant temperature, the only example among insects of living in homeotherms, which is otherwise
peculiar to mammals (S.I.M.A, 2015). The nectar from different origins is accumulated by the
single bee in its stomach, regurgitated and eaten by the next bee. It is sometimes said that the bee is
the smallest ruminant on Earth. The honey forms in this way, passing through about 30 individual
animals, and fnally matures in the cells of the comb in the warmest place of the hive. A universal
food is thus born for the whole swarm, which provides them all with the energy they need to maintain a uniform temperature. In homeopathic medicine, Apis is an excellent remedy for acute and
subacute infammations of the skin, mucous membranes and joints, refecting its relationship with
heat (S.I.M.A, 2015).
Subtle Agroecologies
sweeping (sweeper bees), keeping watch (guard bees) and ventilating the hive to keep its internal
temperature constant at around 35°C–36°C. Finally, from the 21st day, the worker bee takes fight
and becomes a bee foraging for water, pollen, nectar and propolis. We can thus observe how the
worker bee begins its industrious life with a sort of training period and that, in a crescendo of experience and responsibility, reaches the apotheosis, or highest point, of its life at the 21st day, from
when on it exteriorises its work for the hive. The lifespan of the foraging worker bee is variable
depending on the season and external conditions and may be up to 6 months in the winter period
(Menestrina, 2017).
Now, let’s discover the virgin queen who makes a nuptial fight at 3 days of life: on the running
board of the hive, we see a ‘ping-pong ball’ that darts vertically towards the sky: it is the queen
surrounded by the drones, coming from up to 15 km away. Once it was supposed that only a maximum of 3 drones would fertilise her, but today, we know that it can be up to 24, and this ensures
a very important genetic variability as she takes from all of them the seed that will serve for the
rest of her life (Fontana, 2017). The bee family regenerates itself through swarming: the old queen
ages and moves away making room for the newborn virgin queen and along with all the bees who
are able to fy creates a new family in another hospitable place. It is thus that from a frst colony,
we now have two, less numerous ones, both of which have to work hard to recreate winter stocks.
Awareness of the needs of bees may bring us to better understand the needs of the environment
in relation to human activities (Menestrina, 2019). Further, we may take bees as an example of
community, and for the ‘ancients’, the practice of beekeeping was considered a gateway to the inner
journey, so much so that it was recommended to all novices (Thun, 2000).
EVIDENCE ON THE PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL
CHARACTERISTICS OF BEES
Research has enabled us to understand more about the complex relationship of the bee with the rest
of nature. The bee (along with the ant) produces formic acid as part of its venom. Flying from fower
to fower, the bee scatters this formic acid and in doing so makes it available to nature, so that,
according to Steiner (in his 1923 lectures The Bees, nos. 7 and 8 (Steiner, 1998)), the soil does not
rot or become desertifed and so that plants are revitalised. A testimony from biodynamic winemakers explains that in a clean and healthy environment, the bees do their utmost to repair individual
grapes damaged by hail, thus avoiding the rotting of the whole bunch (Magrini, 2014).
Recent studies (Khait et al., 2019) have discovered that stressed plants emit airborne sounds
that can be recorded remotely, in acoustic chambers and in greenhouses, and that plants possess a
faculty akin to hearing, which allows them to hear the buzzing of bees nearby and consequently
produce a sweeter nectar to attract the insects to them (Veits et al., 2019). The researchers found
that the plants’ fowers vibrated mechanically in response to these sounds, suggesting a plausible
mechanism whereby the fower serves as the plant’s auditory sensory organ. Both the vibration and
the nectar response were frequency-specifc: the fowers responded to pollinator sounds, but not to
other frequency sounds.
Heat plays an important role in their organisation, and in winter, the hive is maintained at a constant temperature, the only example among insects of living in homeotherms, which is otherwise
peculiar to mammals (S.I.M.A, 2015). The nectar from different origins is accumulated by the
single bee in its stomach, regurgitated and eaten by the next bee. It is sometimes said that the bee is
the smallest ruminant on Earth. The honey forms in this way, passing through about 30 individual
animals, and fnally matures in the cells of the comb in the warmest place of the hive. A universal
food is thus born for the whole swarm, which provides them all with the energy they need to maintain a uniform temperature. In homeopathic medicine, Apis is an excellent remedy for acute and
subacute infammations of the skin, mucous membranes and joints, refecting its relationship with
heat (S.I.M.A, 2015).