The humble honeybee can control temperature in astounding ways — from keeping the hive cool during heat waves to cooking their enemies alive.
Some kinds of honeybees can control the temperature in their hivesImage: Trischberger Rupert/Zoonar/picture alliance
Advertisement
Hornets can be vicious. Some like nothing more than smashing their way into a beehive, decapitating its inhabitants and leaving the colony in ruins. But the hornet that dares attack a Japanese honeybee colony might get more than it bargained for.
As the hornet hones in, a defensive army swarms the attacker. Hundreds of bees buzz so furiously, the temperature at the heart of their dense mass rises to 46 degrees Celsius (about 115 degrees Fahrenheit). When the swarm dissipates, it leaves behind a dead hornet — cooked alive by its would-be prey.
A wild honeybee hive nestled in the branches of a peach treeImage: Zhang Zhiwei/Zoonar/picture alliance
The "hot defensive bee ball" is a high-stakes tactic — a few soldier bees usually lose their lives along with the hornet — and not common to all species of bee. But its principles of working together for the good of the colony, and skillfully controlling temperature, are echoed in beehives around the world.
A temperature-controlled 'superorganism'
Unlike mammals, insects can't regulate their own body temperature. But working together, the beehive acts like "superorganism" with a steady internal warmth.
To raise their young, honeybees need to keep their home within a cosy 33 to 36 degrees Celsius. Luckily, bees can sense temperature changes of just a quarter of a degree. And they have a knack for insulated architecture that any environmentally minded homeowner might aspire to.
If the temperature is off by just a couple of degrees, bee pupae may suffer deformities Image: H. Bellmann/F. Hecke/blickwinkel/picture alliance
They carefully select sheltered sites to build their hives, and use propolis — made from resins gathered from plants — to plug holes and keep out drafts and moisture. The "brood chamber" itself is encased in layers of pollen, honey and wax. And if that isn't enough, adult bees huddle their fuzzy bodies together to keep one other, and their young, warm.
Keeping cool in a warming world
Insulation keeps warmth out as well as in, and during heat waves, bees also proactively work to keep the colony cool — gathering water, which they distribute in droplets throughout the hive, and fanning air through its chambers with their wings.
A honeybee gathers water from moss, bringing droplets of moisture back to keep the hive coolImage: Klaus Nowottnick/picture alliance
The climate crisis is taking its toll on bees, and causing some populations to fall out of sync with the flowering plants they depend on for food. But researchers are looking into whether their impressive thermoregulation abilities might help bees survive in a warming world.
Bees — what are we without them?
A world without bees — can you imagine? Ony then, when our supermarket shelves are empty and our lives no longer sweet in quite the same way, might people realize just how dependent we are on these industrious insects.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/N. Armer
Sugarsweet crystals
What can be seen here is probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think of bees — honey! Here the sugar crystals have been magnified 100 times with the help of a polarized light. For one jar of honey, bees have to visit between 450,000 and 3 million flowers.
Image: Imago/Chromorange
Visibly empty
Many people don't realise that honey is just a fraction of the food bees help produce. The above photo shows what a supermarket would look like if bees didn't exist. That amounted to 60% of the items on the shelves. Various spices, marinades, dairy products, and even scented toilet paper, are all possible in part thanks to the efforts of bees.
Image: Penny/Rewe Group
#Notallbees
Not all bees are the same. A wild bee, for example, does not produce honey but it's a key pollinator. It's also particularly at risk of extinction. Bumble bees are also among the wild bee species. Honey bees, on the other hand, have less to worry about because they are domesticated and highly managed for agricultural use, with their hives kept by humans.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/U. Anspach
An apple a day no more
Of course there are other pollinators besides bees — butterflies, flies and birds, for example. But about a third of our fruit and vegetables rely on pollination by bees. These include apples, pears, strawberries and cucumbers. And we would all be reluctant to do without them, wouldn't we?
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F.Rumpenhorst
Beeswax is vital to our food industry
How is it possible for our chocolate, sweets, fruit and vegetables to look so beautiful? Bees, of course. Or, more specifically, E901 — beeswax. It gives chocolate its beautiful shine and makes vegetables look waxed and appetizing, as well as ensuring they retain moisture and stay fresh. It's also used as a glazing and separating agent for candy so that gummy bears don't all stick together.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
No more cocoa, either
And about chocolate — without bees, there wouldn't be much of it. Bees are responsible for pollinating a lot of cocoa. If it came to it, the only option could be to pollinate by hand, which would be extremely labor-intensive and much less efficient. The same goes for nuts, by the way.
Image: picture-alliance/Prisma/C. Heeb
Coffee kicks for everyone
It's not just humans that like coffee. Bees do too, as an experiment with coffee-free and coffee-infused sugar water has shown. At the same time, bees do the work to pollinate our coffee beans, to maintain our (hopefully) never ending supply of caffeine.
Image: Deutscher Kaffeeverband e.V.
A toast to our bees!
By now it's clear how much we benefit from the hard work of bees and how different our lives would be without them. But we shouldn't just pay tribute to them on World Bee Day. Appreciating bees means protecting them. The most restrained use of pesticides helps. Insect boxes also provide safety, nesting and hiberation. And flowers in a balcony box or fruit trees outside are a safe source of food.
