Hello, hello to all in our hive! We hope you are finding moments of peace and wonder tucked into the fabric of your summer life. It’s so important that we do our best to stay present to the absolute gift of life.
We said in our last newsletter that we wanted to share with you some studies that show bumblebees’ remarkable intelligence. Jazi is doing a good job at not being jealous of her cousins’ creativity but rather appreciating them while knowing she is shining in her own unique way. After all, none of them have written a memoir like Bee-Coming Strong, at least not that we know of! 😉 🐝
You might remember that in our very first newsletter we shared the ingenuity of bees in the volcanic eruptions in the Canary Islands. These black bees used propolis to seal all the cracks and holes in their hives and then ate from their stores of honey. They were pros in dealing with this crisis!
Ok, so honeybees are smart and creative. But what about their cousins, the bumblebees? A newly published study in Science showcased the sheer ingenuity of the bumblebee. It was already determined that these little guys like to play with balls, know how to count, can recognize faces, and enjoy rhythm. Amazzing, right? This new study shows they can also spontaneously problem-solve! They basically used tools to solve complex problems. This is the first time it has been proven that invertebrates can do this. It’s a stunning development, really.
The bumblebees were first shown that there was sugar water in a fake blue flower on the ground. Then the flower was moved onto the ceiling of a short box they were in, one which was too small for them to be able to fly to the ceiling. They figured out how to use the little ball that was provided as a ladder so they could reach the ceiling! Those wonderful bee-ings, with brains the size of a sesame seed, were able to ingeniously find a solution for a situation they had never experienced.
Check out this 30-second video:
So what else might be going on in those brains? We tend to think we human beings are the smartest, but in reality, there is a brilliance in other creatures that we only have glimmers of. I loved one comment that someone made about this finding. I won’t copy the whole thing, but it’s worth thinking about…
“Human beings are funny. We’re the only creatures in the world that make assumption that every other creature is more stupid than us when in reality different creatures have different sensor capabilities and experience their reality differently than ours, Different eyesight, different noses, different senses, different feelings, different problems to solving [sic] and different reasons for wanting to even solve a problem. I mean, if you don’t have to swim across the lake, why would you?… The diversity of this planet is a beautiful thing. Judging a fish for its ability to climb a tree doesn’t make it dumb… It just doesn’t need to.”
Next, this 49-second video really blew me away. Jazianzza recently told me that bees can “unsting”, that is, remove their stinger from us if we just give them the time. They generally don’t mean to sting us, knowing it will be the end of their lives if they do. They often get scared or stepped on, etc., and thus stinging is a reflex reaction. But look at this little one removing her stinger from someone who was patient enough to allow it…
Are you ready for one last, short video of a woman who gave a bumblebee a new lease on life, and in turn, had her own life forever changed? Check out this 1-minute video….
Thank you for joining us for this month’s Jottings by Jazianzza. Please remember to take the time to consciously breathe, as MamaQueenzieBee taught Jazi, delight in the smallest of life, and appreciate the miracle of life itself.
“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.”
— Aristotle