The Education and Adventures of Glory: A Princess in the Kingdom of Apis Mellifera Lingustica

She emerges on her first day of royalty, unaware of how important her life will be. The name is not as complicated as it looks. The translation from Latin to actual comprehension is: Apis (bee), Mellifera (honey-bearing), and Lingustica (Italian). This European honey bee is the subspecies of the western honey bee, Apis Mellifera Linnaeus. Really, there are over 16,000 species of bees. There are Russians, Germans, Hawaiians, Africans, and of course, the Italians. We don’t discriminate and include all species of bees here for educational purposes (and maybe some voice overs). It depends on the context and my mood.  

Chewing away the thin layer of wax covering her cell permits her to escape and complete her metamorphosis, two antennae reach out beyond the confines of her room. She stretches out a skinny arm from the Hexagon cell that has been her birthing suite for the last 21 days. It is 4.9 x 4. 9 mm—exactly. She crawls from the cell and utters a sideways yawn with her little fingers covering her tiny bee mouth.

How her sisters know when the size is right to build the birthing suite (sleeping cell) is beyond the comprehension of even the most educated professors and bee doctors. The construction of the cells doesn’t come with a superintendent. This is nature showing how powerful and smart and perfect it can be if we just let it take its course. Nature that is. Nature’s course. All natural like and left alone.

Yes, Apis Mellifera are amazing and ingenious creatures. Glory is born with the blueprints for building not just a simple (not so simple) cell, but for building a community. A unified family that has one common goal: survival. Imagine our young genetically predisposed to always thinking of the tribe first. Always working towards the survival of the family. The food and water and shelter and most of all: love of the family.

She emerges on her first day of royalty unaware of how important her life will be. The name is not as complicated as it looks:) The translation from Latin to actual comprehension is: Apis (bee), Mellifera (honey-bearing), and Ligustica (Italian). This European honey bee is the subspecies of the western honey bee, Apis Mellifera Linnaeus. Really, there are over 16,000 species of bees. There are Russians, Germans, Hawaiians, Africans, and of course, the Italians. We don’t discriminate and include all species of bees here for educational purposes (and maybe some voice overs). It depends on the context and my mood.   

Chewing away the thin layer of wax covering her cell permits her to escape and complete her metamorphosis, two antennae reach out beyond the confines of her room. She stretches out a skinny arm from the Hexagon cell that has been her birthing suite for the last 21 days. It is 4.9 x 4.9 mm—exactly. She crawls from the cell and utters a sideways yawn with her little fingers covering her tiny bee mouth. 

How her sisters know when the size is right to build the birthing suite (brood cell) is beyond the comprehension of even the most respected scientists. The construction of the cells doesn’t come with a superintendent. This is nature showing how powerful and smart and perfect it is if we just let it take its course. Nature that is. Nature’s course. All natural like and left alone.

Yes, Apis Mellifera are amazing and ingenious creatures. Glory is born with the blueprints for building not just a simple (not so simple) cell, but for building a community. A unified family that has one common goal: survival. Imagine our young genetically predisposed to always thinking of the tribe first. Always working towards the survival of the family. The food and water and shelter and most of all: love of the family.