bee (bê) noun
1. a. Any of several winged, hairy-bodied, usually stinging insects of the superfamily Apoidea in the order Hymenoptera, including both solitary and social species and characterized by sucking and chewing mouthparts for gathering nectar and pollen. b. A bumblebee. c. A honeybee.
2. A social gathering where people combine work, competition, and amusement: a quilting bee.

- idiom.
a bee in (one's) bonnet
An impulsive, often eccentric turn of mind; a notion.
[Middle English, from Old English bêo. Sense 2 perhaps also alteration of dialectal bean, voluntary help given to a farmer by his neighbors, from Middle English bene, extra service by a tenant to his lord, from Old English bên, prayer.]

bee

bee (bê), flying INSECT of the superfamily Apoidae, having enlarged hind feet for pollen gathering and a dense coat of feathery hairs on the head and thorax. Bees feed on POLLEN and nectar; the latter is converted to HONEY in the digestive tract. Most have stings connected to a poison gland. Bees may be social, solitary, or parasitic in the nests of other bees. Social bees include bumblebees, stingless bees, and honeybees. A typical colony of social bees has an egg-laying queen, sexually undeveloped females (workers), and fertile males (drones). Workers gather nectar, make and store honey, and protect the hive. They care for the queen and larvae and perform complex patterned dances to communicate the location of pollen sources to one another. After being fertilized by a drone, the queen spends her life (usually several years) laying eggs. Honeybees are raised commercially for honey and for the WAX they produce for their nests (combs) and as agricultural cross-pollinators. So-called "killer bees" are essentially African honeybees that are much more aggressive than common honeybees when disturbed. They were introduced into the New World in Brazil during the mid-1950s and have since spread north to the U.S.

A well-perfected system of communication exists among the honeybees. In studies of bees begun in the early 1900s, the Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch determined many of the details of their means of communication. In a  paper published in 1923, von Frisch described how after a field bee discovers a new source of food, such as a field in bloom, she fills her honey sac with nectar, returns to the hive, and performs a vigorous but highly standardized dance.

• post hardcore track _We Heart Our Hive_ MP3 (160k) by Q & Not U off of _No Kill No Beep Beep_ on Dischord (2000)
• metallic hardcore track _Center Of The Hive_ MP3 by Agoraphobic Nosebleed off of split with Converge on Relapse (1999)

During this ceremony the other workers scent the fragrance of the flowers from which the dancer collected the nectar. Having learned that food is not far from the hive, and what it smells like, the other bees leave the hive and fly in widening circles until they find the source.

Numerous bees in the hive closely follow the dancer, imitating her movements.

Honey is mentioned in the Talmud and the Bible, as well as in the records of ancient China, Greece, and Rome. Bee carvings have been found on the temple walls of ancient Egyptians. Indeed, references to honey and its healing powers are found in ancient papyri dating back to 5000 BC. Bee pollen then and now is described by some as "a life-giving dust".

Although the bee has not been deified by the ancient Egyptians, it was worshipped as a source of eternal life. The tomb of the ancient Egyptian king Ramses III (1198-1167 BC) has bee designs in it. In most Egyptian funeral vaults, bees are shown in all phases of honey gathering.

Hindu writings dating back from around 1500 BC also contain references to pollen and honey, as Hindus believed that eating these substances would enable them to maintain good health in both body and mind. In fact, Krishna, the Hindu deity, has been depicted as a bee..... Ancient Roman records also talk about the benefit of honey. Welsh and Celtic folklore has abundant references to the sweet substance. At one point in their history, the Welsh paid their taxes in measures of honey.

Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine, wrote, "Honey and pollen cause warmth, clean sores and ulcers, soften hard ulcers of lips, heal carbuncles and running sores."

"...the Great Mother was known as the Queen Bee and her priestesses were Melissae, the Bees. Pindar says that the Pythian priestess at Delphi was known as the Delphic Bee, and her emblematic bee appeared on Delphic coins. The officiates at Eleusis were Bees.

The name Melissa is an ancient title referring to a priestess of the Great Mother or to a nymph (the full-grown larva of bees are called nymphs)...

The Cretan Zeus was born in a cave of bees and was fed by them, and Zeus also had the title of Melissaios, Bee-man; he fathered a son, the hero Meliteus, by a nymph who hid the child from Hera in a wood, where Zeus had him fed by bees. Dionyous was fed on honey as a babe by the nymph Makris, daughter of Aristaeus, protector of flocks and bees.

As emblems of the goddesses Demeter, Cybele, Diana, Rhea and the Ephesian Artemis, bees are lunar and virgin. The bee appears on statues of Artemis and some of her priests were called Essenes - King Bees - Pausanias says that the word 'Essene' means King Bee. With the Essenes, 'King Bees' were priestly officials.
Christ was called the 'aetherial bee'.(by the Church)

  - _Dictionary of Symbolic & Mythological Animals_, Cooper

Sent from: Tiffany Lee Brown  <magdalen@well.com>
[ mod's note: amazingly reminiscent of the movie by David Blair?]
 The short version: Researchers at the far extremes of where advanced  mathematics intersects quantum mechanics found they've been impossibly  trumped by dancing honeybees.
 [From www.npr.org :]
 [8.] [QUANTUM BEES] -- Robert talks to mathematician Barbara Shipman about  her cross-disciplinary discovery. In mapping a six-dimensional figure onto  two-dimensions, she recognized the pattern as that of the honeybee's ritual  dance. To her, this implies that bees can sense the quantum world, since it  is in that realm that six-dimensional geometry has real meaning. The bees use the dance to communicate to others in the hive the location and distance of a pollen source:

the dance that honey bees do to tell their hivemates where they have found a good food source. The bees change the form of the dance acording to the location of the flowers that constitute the source. The surprising thing is that there may be a deep mathematical reason for how the dance changes form. The reason is related to a space in symplectic geometry known as a "flag manifold." Although no one is suggesting that honey bees understand flag manifolds, it is possible that the instincts which control their behavior are wired in such a way that the principles of this kind of geometry apply.

Dancing for Your Dinner: How honeybees communicate nectar sites to their fellows Who dances? Who watches?
Scout bees (workers) find food sources.

Role of worker bee changes over its 6 month lifetime.

Elements of the dance
Direction of center line in figure-8 dance in relation to the vertical corresponds to      direction of food source in relation to the sun. (3 light sentitve spots on head)  vibrating of abdomen (wings?) during walk through center line corresponds to flying time.   Scout bee offers others regurgitated nectar, identifying nature of the food source.

How it was researched

     Numbering of bees in hive.
     Observing which bees find provided food source.
     Observing which bees dance/which bees watch.
     Observing which bees subsequently fly to the. provided food source.

Other Points

     Dance-like activity one might see in a hive that is not this dance
     Some scientists say this research was faulty: Maybe we don't really understand the dance.

We all know that the waggle dance is the name given to one of the most important parts of the honey bee dance language (taken from von Frisch's term 'tail-wagging dance'), but did you know it's also the name of a beer made with honey in addition to barley malt?  (I assume the name comes from the honey connection, and not only from the behavior of heavy consumers).

This honey bee uses 500 kg of honey in every 100-barrel batch, so it's definitely not a token effort.  The resulting brew is (I'm told) golden in color, with a notably firm and smooth body, a touch of sweetness with suggestions of orange and lemon, and a flowery dryness in its long finish.  It has 5 percent alcohol and is a cask-conditioned draught.

Waggle Dance is available in around 200 pubs, mainly those owned by the brewers Vaux in the north of England, at around 1.45-1.65 pounds per pint (an ancient British measurement, still used by drinkers, of just
over 0.5 litre).

Date:         Tue, 9 Jul 1996 15:18:08 -0800
Reply-To:     Discussion of Bee Biology <BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU>
Sender:       Discussion of Bee Biology <BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU>
From:         Adrian Wenner <wenner@lifesci.ucsb.edu>
Subject:      Bee dance reply - I

We have once again had a flurry of exchange on the honey bee language controversy --- the fourth time in a little more than a year on various networks (this time primarily on the SOCINSCT network).  Not much new seems to have emerged, particularly since bee language proponents have yet to address fully the list of 16 problems with the dance language hypothesis that I posted on the Internet last January.

Some points, though, beg for further comment.  However, Bruno Latour's 1987 comment (as quoted in the book, ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY...) applies here:     "We have to understand first how many elements can be brought to bear on a controversy; once this is understood, the other problems will be easier to solve."

Rather than attempt to reply to the several points raised in one lengthy message, I will post sequentially a few relatively short comments about each point raised in the last few weeks.
 

********  FIRST COMMENT (Just what is the bee language hypothesis?):

We once had a concise statement of the language hypothesis, but too much evidence is now at variance with that original hypothesis (as outlined in the 16 points posted in January).  Some individuals still have a deep attachment to the idea of a "language" use by honey bees but seem to no longer embrace any concise scientific statement of that hypothesis.    Under the circumstances, Julian O'Dea's alternative ("idiothetic/mnemonic") hypothesis seems as likely as the dance language hypothesis as an explanation for the teleological question, "Why do bees dance?"  (He asked:  "But why has so little attention been paid to the possibility that the bees do the dances [in order to memorize] the location of resources?")

Deep conviction to a hypothesis may reflect an unconscious commitment to a status quo attitude of the scientific community; however, as one scientist wrote (paraphrased):  The strength of a conviction has no bearing on whether a scientific hypothesis is true or not.   (In that connection, witness what happened with the "cold fusion" episode).

Enlightment on that point may be found in one section of an excellent book, as follows:  Fleck, Ludwik.  1935.  Pp. 20-51 in GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF A SCIENTIFIC FACT.   Univ. of Chicago Press.  (translated
into English and republished in 1979.  [To order (only about US$12):
1-(800) 621-2736 --- ISBN:  0-226-25325-2]

Look for the SECOND COMMENT that follows shortly (why "compromise" has little place in science).

                                                                        Adrian

Adrian M. Wenner                         (805) 893-2838 (UCSB office)
Ecol., Evol., & Marine Biology           (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Univ. of Calif., Santa Barbara           (805) 963-8508 (home office & FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106

Date:         Tue, 9 Jul 1996 19:52:27 -0800
Reply-To:     Discussion of Bee Biology <BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU>
Sender:       Discussion of Bee Biology <BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU>
From:         Adrian Wenner <wenner@lifesci.ucsb.edu>
Subject:      Bee dance reply - II

On the question of bee "language":

******** SECOND COMMENT ("Compromise" does not lead to progress in science)

In this recent interchange we were once again asked to believe:  "1) sometimes the bees do dances, and their nestmates use the information in these dances to influence where they themselves seek forage, and 2) [at] other times the bees still do the dances but their nestmates make little or no use of the dance information [as to] where they end up foraging."    That position seems to serve as a "security blanket" of sorts.  If I do an experiment with only single controls (as von Frisch, Gould, and other language proponents have done) I can get results supportive of the language hypothesis --- that is, condition #1 (above) prevails.  However, if I do strong inference or double controlled experiments (as Wenner and co-workers did) and obtain evidence not in agreement with the language hypothesis (whatever that might be now), then condition #2 (above) prevails.  We thus have a peculiar circumstance --- any set of results is acceptable, and we need not concern ourselves with hypothesis testing.

However, where would we be today if geneticists in the 1940s and 1950s had compromised, as follows:  "sometimes DNA carries the genetic information and sometimes protein carries that information."   (Would we
have "genetic engineering" today?)  Or, what if Pasteur and fellow scientists had compromised:  "sometimes life arises by spontaneous generation and sometimes life can only come from life."   (Would we have pasteurized milk today?)

I suggest that bee language proponents now get together and agree upon a concise scientific statement of the hypothesis they believe in, one that can be tested experimentally.  (Language proponents now seem to agree that
the conclusions of von Frisch were not justified on the basis of the evidence he had gathered.)

On this point I am reminded of a recent statement by Harold B. Hopfenberg (1996.  "Why wars are lost."  AMERICAN SCIENTIST.  84:102-104):

"The biased hypothesis...provides valuable scaffolding for sincere inquiry as long as the methodology and subsequent interpretation of data do not result in the confusion of hypothesis with conclusion."

Look for the THIRD COMMENT  that follows shortly (Why scientists necessarily rely more on experimental results than on "consensus").
                                                      Adrian

• Cover of book _Out Of Control_ (1994) by Kevin Kelly depicts bees.
• film - _Wax - The Discovery of Television Among The Bees_ (vhs/ntsc)directed by David Blair

• Anomalog:
  • Shoplifter Releases Bees As Diversion
  • Justin Timberlake & A Bee Makes Man Crash Car
• t-shirt _Tell The Bees - Belief, Knowledge, and Hypersymbolic Cognition - The Museum Of Jurassic Technology_
• track _Another Set Of Bees In The Museum_ MP3 (160k) by Olivia Tremor Control off of _Black Foliage: Animation Music_ CD on Flydaddy (1999)

• The average worker bee makes 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime.
• On an average day, a queen bee lays about 1,500 eggs.
• Groupings: "a grist of bees"; "a swarm of bees".
• Honeybees have a type of hair on their eyes.
• Bees have 5 eyes. There are 3 small eyes on the top of a bee's head and 2 larger ones in front.
• In Greek, "Melissa" means "bee".
• The Greek God Pan was the god of beekeeping.
• Male bees will try to attract sex partners with orchid fragrance.
• The honey bee was a sacred symbol of Artemis , and was an important design on Ephesian coins for almost 6 centuries.
• Bees were the tears of Ra, the Egyptian sun god.
• Bees are fully grown when they are born.
• In India, Krishna, as an avatar of Vishnu, has a blue bee in the middle of his forehead.  Siva is represented as a tringle surmounted by a bee. Kama, god of love, has a bow-string of bees. Soma, the moon, is called a bee.
• Any female bee in a beehive could have been the queen if she had been fed the necessary royal jelly. All female bees in a given hive are sisters.
• The Sarmoung mystery school dealt with sacred dances, most of which were performed by women, cloaked in later centuries in the dervish attire of the Islamic (Sufi, especially) influence. These dances are still performed.  "Sarmoun" is Persian for "bee". The more accurate spelling is SARMOUNG, and according to the Merkhavat book, from the old Armenian texts, this mystery school derived from Babylon circa 2500 BC.

• track _Finite Bees_ MP3 (vK) by Coil off of _The Angelic Conversation_ CD (1994)
• SUMMER SOLSTICE - BEE STINGS 7"   1998 Eskaton/World Serpent  ESKATON 013     UK
• Bee Stings / Summer Substructures CDEP    1998    Eskaton/World Serpent           ESKATON 014     UK
• _Bee Stings_ MP3
• _GlowwormsWaveforms_ MP3
• Summer Substructures
• _A Warning From The Sun (for Fritz)_ MP3

        The 7" is limited to 1300 copies on "honey" yellow vinyl and 50
        copies on green vinyl signed by John, Peter, Drew and Bill Breeze.

        The CDEP was deleted on Autumnal Equinox when the third part of
        the series was released.

        Vinyl etching:
        Side A - HONEY FROM THE HORNET'S NEST
        Side B - FOR HARRY CROSBY AND HARRY SMITH

• 604 track _Extra Life (Extended Version)_ MP3 (256k) by Time Bees off of _Fusion vs. Confusion_ CDx2 on Exogenic (2000)

• 604 track _Funktrance_ MP3 (224k) by Timebees

• 604 dub track _Mi-Loony-Um (A Floating Butterfly Stings Like A Bee Mix)_ MP3 (192k) by Hallucinogen off of _Hallucinogen In Dub_ CD on Twisted (2002)
• mix term from Muhammad Ali slogan "i float like a butterfly, sting like a bee"

• artcore release _Eucalyptus_ 12" by Pitchfork on Nemesis (1990)
  • cover depicts bee
  • members later to form Drive Like Jehu
• experimental ethnic rock track _Emir Of The Bees Migration_ MP3 by Secret Chiefs 3 off of_First Grand Constitution & Bylaws_ on Amarillo/Mimicry (1996/2000)
  • this is a bonus track on the 2000 re-release only

• indie pop track _Ohio Town Saved From Killer Bees By Hungry Vampire Bats_ MP3 by Jad Fair & Yo La Tengo off of _Strange But True_ on Matador (1998)
• lo fi indie rock track _Beesting_ MP3 (192k) by Ugly Casanova off of _Sharpen Your Teeth_ on Sub Pop (2002)
• progressive art rock track _Ant Man Bee_ MP3 (160k) by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band off of _Trout Mask Replica_ 12"x2 (1969)

• instrumental hip hop breaks track _Bee Aware_ MP3 (192k) by Company Flow off of _Little Johnny From the Hospitul: Breaks & Instrumentals, Vol. 1_ on Rawkus (1999)
• 604 track _Tee Bee Tea_ MP3 (192k) by Mino off of _Flowin'_ compilation CD on Flow (2000)
• noise punk track _Free The Bee_ MP3 by Melt Banana off of _Teen Shiny_ on A-Zap (2000)
• noise rock track _Queen Bee & Her Pals_ MP3 by Sonic Youth off of _Psychic Hearts_ (1995)
• glitch dub track _Bees Inside_ MP3 (160k) by TRS-80 off of _Backup: 01_ on Invisible (2001)
• jazz pop track _Honey Bee_ MP3 (160k) by Jane Siberry off of _Maria_ (1995)
• track _Amplification Of The Queen Bee_ MP3 by Rye Coalition off of _Lipstick Game_ on Gern Blandsten (1999)
• grunge track _Beeswax_ MP3 by Nirvana off of _Incesticide_ CD (1992)
• dark drum & bass track _Surreal Uncut (Tee Bee Remix)_ MP3 (192k) by Hive off of _Surreal Killer Remixes_ 12" on Violence Recordings #004 (2002)
  
• art rock ambient track _Beekeeper's Apprentice_ MP3 (224k)(32:38)(53.6megs) by David Sylvian off of _Approaching Silence_ CD (1999)
• track _The Bees_ MP3 (vK) by Belly off of _King_ CD (1995)
• oldschool rave track _Eye Bee M_ MP3 (112k) by Commander Tom off of _Eye Bee M_ 12" on Tripoli Trax #069 (2000)(UK)
• track _Black Tree In The Bee Yard_ MP3 (160k) by The Sea & Cake off of _Fawn_ on Thrill Jockey (1997)
• release _Bee Cave Sounds_ CD by Dunderhead on Worm Interface
• track _Bee-Queen_ MP3 by Console off of _Rocket In The Pocket_ on Matador (2000)
• easy listening track _Sky Hold The Sun_ MP3 (160k) by The Bees off of _Sunshine Hit Me_ 12" on We Love You #006 (2001)
• metalcore track _Sonic Waves Of Bees_ MP3 (192k) by Old Man Gloom off of _Meditations In B_ on Tortuga (2000)
• track _Bees Won_ MP3 (256k) by Oxes off of _Oxxxes_ on Monitor (2002)
• lo fi twee pop psychobilly track _Pajama Party In A Haunted Hive_ MP3 by Beat Happening off of _Black Candy_ on K (1989)
• abstract lo fi minimal techno track _Bee Is A Chicken_ MP3 (vK) by Safety Scissors off of _Blust_ 12" on Cytrax #016 (2000)
• track _Gee Bee_ MP3 by Flowchart
• neo psychedelia garage rock track _Spanish Bee_ MP3 by Brian Jonestown Massacre off of _Thank God For Mental Illness_ on Bomp (1996)
• sound effect track _Bees_ MP3 (96k)
• track _Chasing A Bee_ MP3 by Mercury Rev off of _Yerself Is Steam_ CD (1991)
• 604 track _Bees (Live Mix)_ MP3 (160k) by Xerox & Freeman off of _Human Race_ on HOM-Mega

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