After having become adults and beginning to forage, bees can undertake all jobs. Their three-week life span is sufficient for this.

We have already mentioned that changes take place in the bee's body throughout her development, and how jobs in the hive change in direct proportion to bodily changes that take place at different times in the bee's body. But these changes are not irreversible. A bee's organs can regain their previous functions if the needs of the hive require it. For example, when the hive suffers any damage, either through an enemy attack or as the result of fire, adults no longer engaged in making wax may start to do so in order to repair the damage. Similarly, if the possibility of a problem in feeding the larvae arises, there may be others whose hypopharyngeal glands come back into operation to aid the nurse bees. When the honey stock is insufficient, a greater number of bees may forage out to collect nectar, or if the hive urgently needs to be cooled down, then the other bees stop whatever they are doing and immediately start ventilating with their wings. If the hive comes under a major attack, most of the bees join in its defense, and hundreds of workers congregate at the entrance to the hive to repulse the assault together.36

In short, every bee in the hive knows what sorts of needs may arise, and thus how and where they need to act. As we have seen so far, there is a "group consciousness" prevailing in everything bees do, allowing them to fulfill their responsibilities in a most successful manner.

Considering all this information, a most important conclusion emerges. To maintain that bees acquired all their behavioral and physical characteristics either of their own will or else by chance conflicts with reason, logic and science. Details such as the fact that all bees of the same age behave in a similar way, and that the order within the beehive has persisted unchanged ever since the appearance of the first bees, are clear indications that these insects are directed by an intelligence. All the knowledge they possess is given them by an Entity possessed of intelligence. It is God, with His infinite knowledge, Who inspires in bees what they need to do and what tasks they will undertake at different times. God creates everything within a specific order:

He is God-the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Surat al-Hashr: 24)

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• 36.Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey Bee, pp.107-109