After about three days, the eggs that the queen placed into the cells with enormous sensitivity hatch and white, maggotlike larvae emerge.1 These hatchlings have no eyes, wings or legs. They bear no resemblance to bees at all.

The worker bees feed the newly-hatched larvae with great care and selflessness. In fact, it has been established that worker bees will visit any single larva some 10,000 times during its period of growth.2 For the first three days after they hatch, the larvae are fed on royal jelly. During this larval stage, the young bees are fed constantly and undergo their greatest physical development. As a result of their regular feeding during this phase, the larvae's weight increases by up to 1,500 times in only six days.3

In the hive, there are thousands of larvae, and as many worker bees to look after them. These nurse bees are in a constant state of motion and easily monitor the eggs and larvae. Although the feeding needs of these thousands of larvae change from day to day, there is never any confusion. The worker bees never grow confused over such details as the age of the larvae or each one's nutritional needs.

This is most astonishing, because in the hive is a very large number of larvae of different sizes, from eggs laid by the queen at different times. The workers adopt a feeding program for the young bees during the larva stage, based on how many days old they are. Nevertheless, the nurse bees experience no problems with their feeding of the larvae.

The larvae within the hive continue growing in specially prepared combs, and on the seventh day, a surprising phenomenon transpires. Each larva stops eating, and worker bees seal the entrance to its cell with a lightly domed wax cover.4 At this point the larva imprisons itself here by spinning around itself a papery cocoon from a substance it generates itself.5

The bee larvae thus move on to their pupal stage. Before we examine the details further, one particular point requires special attention-the nature of the substance from which they weave their cocoon, produced by the two silk glands on the larva's head.

Bee larvae, resembling maggots, hatch after three days from eggs laid by the queen.(left) Within 6 days, bee larvae reach 1,500 times their body weight and are barely able to fit into the cells. (middle) After that, growth stops and their pupal stage begins. (Right)

One characteristic of this substance is that after coming into contact with the air, it hardens very quickly. The protein known as fibroin which it contains is a powerful bactericide and prevents infection. Scientists studying bees estimate that the cocoons they weave protect these pupae from germs.

The material used in weaving the cocoon consists of a combination of different chemical substances in specific proportions:

• The elastic protein fibroin makes up 53.67%, a compound that includes glycol (66.5%), alanine (21%), leucine (1.5%), arginine (1%) and tyrosine (10%).
• Sericin, a gelatin-like protein that consists of 29% serine, 46% alanine and 25% leucine, constitutes 20.36%.
• Other proteins constitute another 24.43%.
• 1.39% is wax.
• Fat and resin constitute 0.10%.
• Coloring material adds a trace element, at 0.05%.6

Above is the anatomical structure of larvae, whose care is undertaken by other bees. It is absolutely impossible for such a creature, which resembles an eyeless morsel of flesh, to make its own decisions and to produce the chemical substances necessary for its development.

The formula for this thread with which the larvae spin their cocoons is produced in exactly the same way in each bee. For millions of years, bee larvae have weaved their cocoons using thread with that exact formula. Moreover, the bee larvae produce this complex substance only when they need it, just before their pupal stage. Bearing these facts in mind, a number of questions arise. For instance, how is this substance suddenly produced in the larva's body? Can a larva, without eyes, wings or legs, which has never seen the world and is unaware of the kind of life it will lead, decide on its own to produce such a substance? Did the larva hit upon the formula for the protective chemical substance on its own? Did it succeed in producing it by itself? Who placed these necessary chemicals in the larva's body?

It is of course impossible for the larva-which is unable even to move by itself, whose care is provided by other adults, which is unable to see or hear and possesses only the most basic vital functions-to form the thread used in the cocoon on its own. Even claiming that such an ability were possible would be to distance oneself from science and reason, because such a claim would be tantamount to accepting that the larval bee possesses the information needed to manufacture the chemical formula and is capable of mathematical calculations. That would be an unscientific fantasy.

However, one most important point needs emphasizing here. Even if the creature in question did possess conscious awareness, that would still alter nothing, because it is out of the question for any living thing to develop, on its own, a system, which doesn't already exist in its body. Human beings, for example, are the only living things in nature which possess logic and reason. Despite that, however, it is impossible for humans to develop inside their own bodies' systems to enable the production of even a very simple chemical formula. That being so, it would be illogical and irrational to maintain that an insect could no something that human beings, with their reason and consciousness, cannot.

How does the thread used by the larva in cocoon spinning come about? In order to answer this question, let's first enumerate the substances that constitute it. One of these, fibroin, is a combination of glycol, alanine, leucine, arginine and tyrosine, in specific proportions. Another of its components, sericin, is a compound of very exact proportions of serine, alanine and leucine. The thread used by the larvae in spinning their cocoons also contains such substances as wax, fat and resin.

As we have seen, a large number of chemical substances need to come together in very exact proportions to form the thread. Suppose we now conduct an experiment and wait for the simplest substance among these to come into being by itself. No matter how long we wait, no matter what processes we carry out, the result will always be the same. Whether we wait for days, months, or even millions of years, not one of the atoms comprising these substances, let alone those substances themselves, can ever come into existence by chance. That being so, it's totally illogical and irrational to claim that each substance in the thread the larvae use to spin their cocoons emerged by chance, and that later-again by chance-they came together to form the thread itself.

The formation of this thread is just one of the many processes necessary in order for a bee to hatch out of its chamber and become able to fly. All these mechanisms have to be present in order, at exactly the same time, in order for the larva to develop into an adult bee. The slightest defect, and the bee larva will fail to develop, leading to its death. That, in turn, will lead to gradual extinction of the species. The conclusion we reach is that, contrary to what evolutionists would have us believe, bees did not emerge of their own accord over the passage of time, but came into being in a single moment, with all their systems in working order. This shows that bees are the work of a Creator. That Creator is God, Who rules the entire universe and Who possesses superior wisdom.

It is God Who sets out the sorts of features that bees should possess, Who creates all of these in a perfect form, Who inspires the larva to spin its cocoon-and Who, in short, directs every action that bees take.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• 1.Hayvanlar Ansiklopedisi (Encyclopedia of Animals), C.B.P.C. Publishing Ltd./Phoesbus Publishing Company 1969/77, p.98
• 2.Encyclopedia Americana, 1993, USA, Vol.3, Int. Headquartes, Danbury Connecticut, p.439
• 3.Encyclopedia International, Grolier Incorporated New York, Vol.2, p.473
• 4. Encyclopedia Americana, 1993, p.439
• 5. Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, Compton&Company Chicago, 1961, USA, p.106
• 6. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari, Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life, Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II / Part-II, 1992, Ankara,
  p.43

This article is based on the works of Harunyahya www.harunyahya.com