“We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children.” 1 Thessalonians 2:7.
A beehive may contain 20,000 to 40,000 or more bees, including the all-important queen, a few male (drone) bees, and workers. The whole activity of a hive centers around the queen, who often lays 2,000 eggs or more daily. In addition to the queen’s area, the section of the hive set aside as a nursery is also very important. Here the queen deposits the eggs, one to a cell. While she does this “nurses” feed her bee milk from glands in their heads and keep her spotlessly clean.
The nurses also take care of these eggs until they hatch into grubs. The nurses then prepare “royal jelly” which is fed to the grubs for two days. After this the diet is changed to a mixture of pollen and honey, called “bee bread.” When a grub grows big enough to fill its cell it weaves a silken web around itself, and a nurse makes a wax cover for it. Twenty-one days later a fully developed bee comes out.
What responsibilities these nurses have! Although they have no leader, each one seems to have its own duties and knows just what to do. Such wonderful instincts were given to honeybees when the Lord God first created them, and He never allows them to change.
The hive workers also take nectar and pollen from the outside workers (foragers). They change it into honey, royal jelly or bee bread, as required using special chemicals in their bodies. Other workers are used as guards at the entrance of the hive. In hot weather they all work to make air-conditioning by vigorously fanning their wings to circulate the air. When it gets cold they group together and go through exercises that raise the temperature to just the right degree. Who do you think taught them to do these things?
Some of the eggs produce male bees, called “drones.” These drones do no work and are fed by the workers. Once a year the queen chooses one of them for a mate, the father to the thousands of little ones she will produce in coming months. The workers then lose patience with all the other drones, and they are killed or driven out of the hive.
At the end of two to three weeks nurses give up their inside work and become foragers. Their work is so difficult that their life span in this activity is only a month or so. During this time each bee collects enough nectar to make about one and a half teaspoonfuls of honey.
The beehive and its busy bees pride an amazing display of God’s creation. It shows us His power in preserving His works over the ages of time. The activities of the bees are also an example for all of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. We see how the bees work together, are never lazy and never quarrel. This is just what the Bible tells us to do: “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.” Hebrews 10:24.
If you know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour how happy it is to encourage and work with others in ways that are pleasing to Him. The Scripture again tells us: “That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2.
ML-03/21/1982