Arts
The Fable of the Honey Beeby Barry J. Northern A honey bee worker emerged from her brood cell and immediately set about cleaning, for her new baby sister would need the nursery soon. The Queen Bee inspected her work. "One has not cleaned it well enough. One must try harder."Princess was mortified, for she only desired to be worthy in her mother's eyes. From then on she vowed to work harder than any other worker bee in the hive.Princess and her sisters were eager to see the outside world and smell the flowers, for the source of nectar and pollen must be wonderous indeed, but it is the way of honey bee workers to attend to many tasks before they are old enough to go out and forage.Firstly, Princess nursed her new larval sister, feeding it her own jelly. She enjoyed watching her sister grow, knowing that her elder sister had done the same for her. Before long it was time to ween the new princess onto honey and pollen, and the flow of jelly turned to one of wax.After that, Princess left the brood cell and worked hard to impress her mother. She and the others used Princess' wax to build the combs and seal new honey within its cells.Some of her sisters became attendants to the Queen. Princess was disappointed to not have been chosen, but she worked hard, and contented herself with dreams of flowers.One day, an old forager came home with a substance from the flowers that Princess had never seen before. She took it in her hands."It is sticky.""Yes," said the old worker, "we need you to spread it around the hive entrance. It helps keep the hive clean.""Right away!"Princess rushed to the entrance, eager for her first glimpse at the outside world, marvelling at what other amazing things the flowers might provide. When she got to the entrance, her sisters were busy plastering the sticky stuff around, and such was the intensity of their activity, she felt compelled to join them in earnest and did not stop to glance at the bright outside.As Princess worked she became hot, and she noticed the others around her becoming sluggish. A large entrance guard bee came up to her."The propolis is helping, but we need more water to cool the hive. Go out and fetch some from the leaves outside the entrance."Princess swallowed. "But I've never been outside before."The guard laughed. "There is nothing to it. Just remember to stay away from any stranger bees, for if you pick up their smell my brothers might not let you back in."As Princess walked towards the entrance, she became concerned about the effects of the heat. The mortuary bees could barely lift the dead away from the hive. The feeders struggled to carry honey to the drones in their crops. Worst of all, the fanning bees' wings were flapping too slowly to cool the hive.By the time Princess reached the entrance, her only thought was to collect water, and so on her first foray out into the world, she did not stop to look at the glorious sun in the blue sky, nor at the wide green leaves around the hive, nor the stretches of blue flowers carpeting the floor beneath her.Thence forth, whenever Princess left the hive, first for more water, and as she grew older and flew further, for more pollen and nectar, her thoughts were always bent on the list of tasks she had yet to do. She never once stopped to enjoy the fruit her hard work had wrought.One day, she flew further than ever before, and she began to struggle against the weight of her old body, and feel a creaking in her wings. She landed on a large rose and set about collecting nectar as she had always done. She had heard tell of the beautiful rose, but even so, as soon as her crop was full, she headed straight back.The entrance guard bees waved her through, and when she landed a young princess came and took the nectar and pollen from her. When the worker had emptied Princess' crop she felt no lighter. She tried to move, but she found she could not.A mortuary bee glanced her way a couple of times, and when Princess lay down, she came over."It is almost your time.""No.""You have served the hive well. We honour you. You will rest among the flowers.""I wish to see them."Either her voice had grown weak, or the mortuary bee ignored Princess, for she did not answer her, and walked away to find help.As Princess lay there, she spotted a young worker hurrying out towards the entrance, and remembered the days of her youth. The hive was cold today. Princess smiled when she saw the young worker pause for a moment on the lip of the hive. Even the sun was cold. The young worker was still there, looking up at the sky with wonder in her eyes. The light was fading. The young worker flew out. Princess hoped she would stop to smell the rose.The Fable of the Honey Bee by Barry J. Northern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.Hosted by The Internet Archive, download MP3here.Music by Eileen Hadidian and Natalie Cox from the album, Dolce Musica, tracks 17 (Star of County Down) and 12 (Lord Gallway's Lamentation), and provided by magnatune.com