Starting on their tenth day, the bees leave the hive for the first time and familiarize themselves with the world outside. At this point, the wax glands on the bees' abdomens begin to develop, maturing on the twelfth day and becoming ready to produce wax.19 The activities of the hypopharyngeal glands have now been halted. Now 12 days old, the workers stop feeding the young and set about constructing honeycombs consisting of identical hexagonal cells. (Since this is a particularly complex procedure, we'll examine it in detail later in this book.)

When bees return to the hive pollen-laden, they either distribute it to the other bees or else store it in the combs.

There is no need for the bees to constantly build combs in their hive. They construct them only when the site they live in fails to respond to requirements or when they migrate elsewhere. Apart from that, they generally use wax to repair the combs-a task that does not take up that much time. During this period, the bees perform three other very important jobs.

Two of these involve distributing foodstuffs-pollen and nectar-collected from the outside to the other bees and storing them in the comb cells. The bees take the honey from the nectar-gathering bees on their return to the hive, divide it among their hungry fellows as appropriate, and store the rest in honeycombs.20

Major Cleaning in the Hive

During this period, the third job performed by the worker bees is cleaning the hive, which is essential to the health of the colony. Bees of this age drag outside the hive all sorts of waste material-comb caps that have served their purpose, the bodies of bees which have died, remains of cocoons and waste materials from bees that have newly emerged from their cells-and deposit it some meters away.21

However, if something is too large for them to carry, they cover it with a substance known as propolis, also known as bee glue, which they produce by adding saliva to the sticky resin that they gather from the buds of some trees. They then collect this substance in special structures called pollen baskets on their hind legs and carry it back to the hive. One characteristic feature of propolis is that it prevents any bacterial growth.22

As can be seen in the pictures to the side and above, bees use their mandibles to scrape resin off of trees.

Bees make a particularly accurate use of propolis's bactericidal qualities. By using it to cover intruding insects that they have killed but which are too large for them to drag outside the hive, they engage in a kind of mummification process.

If you carefully consider this last sentence, you will perceive the most astonishing details. Consider the way in which propolis is used and the functions performed by the bees.

First of all, bees apparently know that when a living thing dies, its body will decay and that the substances resulting from its putrefaction could sicken the hive's inhabitants. Somehow, they are also aware that in order to prevent its decay, the dead creature needs to be subjected to a specific chemical process. And so they use propolis, with its property of killing bacteria, for this mummification process.

But how do the bees-emerged as adults less than a month ago-know that this creature will decay and how to eliminate its eventual harmful effects? Furthermore, how could they have thought of using, much less manufacturing-the propolis? Who taught them to do this? How did the bees discover this substance in the first place? How did they come by the formula and learn to produce it? How did they transmit the knowledge of its formula to other bees and hand it down to subsequent generations of their own?

Clearly, bees can have no "advance knowledge" of such subjects as the knack of mummification, the ingredients and production of the antiseptic substance or how it can be used-much less that their own bodies have developed a system to manufacture this. Bees cannot think out all these details for themselves. Neither can they have possibly learned these processes, which require intelligence and knowledge at every stage, by chance, since chance cannot lead to conscious, rational behavior.

All this shows that bees must have been taught to carry out all these processes by another Intelligence. All of this has been inspired in bees by God, the Creator of all beings. Like everything else on Earth, bees submit to God, the Almighty Lord and Absolute Ruler of the universe:

Exalted be God, the King, the Real. There is no deity but Him, Lord of the Noble Throne. (Surat al-Muminun: 116)

The Diverse Uses of Propolis

Bees also use propolis in the construction of their hive, employing this material to repair crevices and holes in the walls. Moreover, in some volcanic regions such as in Salerno in southern Italy, where temperatures often get very high, it has been observed that the addition of propolis into wax, the raw material of the combs, raises the melting point of the wax so that the combs do not melt.23

When it comes to the collection and dispersal of propolis, there is a literal division of labor among the bees in different parts of the hive. A propolis-bearing bee returns to the hive in a different way than one carrying pollen. The pollen-bearer looks for an empty cell in which to deposit its cargo. But the propolis-bearer goes to a construction zone where this substance is needed and shows to the other bees what it has collected. If the workers need propolis, they approach the bearer and take as much as they need from its basket. They then immediately mix it with wax, forming a sticky adhesive that they use in the construction process.

Everything in the heavens and everything in the Earth belongs to God. All matters return to God. (Surah Al ‘Imran: 109)

The striking point is that the propolis-bearing bee does not become involved in the construction work, but waits for its fellows engaged in the task to relieve it of its load.24 Every member of the bee colony has its own particular job. Each one takes care of its own assignment, and the bees help out on another job only when something goes wrong in it. For that reason, a bee does not become involved in both resin gathering and patching and mummification, or also in dragging outside what has been mummified. Although every bee in the hive possesses the ability to perform all these tasks, it performs its own task in the best possible manner and leaves the other jobs to those of its fellows responsible for them.

Concerning the lives of the worker bees, one very important point must not be forgotten. All the changes of task in worker bees throughout their 5- to 6-week life spans are related to changes in their bodies. While some glands cease to function, new ones begin to go into action for an entirely different work.

During the bees' comb-making period, for instance, their wax glands develop. During the nursing phase, the glands mature that provide food for the larvae. When they reach the sentry phase, suddenly their glands start to secrete venom. If this were a chance development, then a great number of problems would be experienced. During the larvae tending phase, for example, venom might be secreted in the bees' bodies instead of royal jelly. That would spell the death of all the larvae and the extinction of the bees. Yet no problem actually arises during the course of all these changes, because everything happens in a very controlled manner, within a flawless order. It would be impossible for such an ordered system to come about through chance development.

In the fourth stage of their lives, worker bees undergo another change of function.

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• 19.Hayvanlar Ansiklopedisi - Bocekler (Encyclopedia of Animals—Insects), p.97
• 20.Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of Bees), p.75
• 21.Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey Bee, p.96
• 22. Ibid., p.85.
• 23. Karl von Frisch, Animal Architecture, A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book/Harcourt Brace Jovanavich, Inc., New York and London, p.95.
• 24. Ibid., p.94.

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