The Altruistic Gene

The mark of a sophisticated society is one which encourages natural evolution. It encompasses the ability to communicate effectively with all who share the same environment while synchronizing behaviour to enable a safe and productive atmosphere in which the essentials of life – food, shelter and the ability to procreate - are all assured. Some social species like Homo sapiens do, at times, exhibit signs of such civility. Honeybees, however, are a shining example of how to thrive within a complex ecosystem within an atmosphere of peace and selflessness while dealing with complex social issues.

For millions of years these industrious, enlightened creatures not only captured the spirit of coexistence to sustain their whole, but they practice the act every single day. Honeybees live in peaceful coexistence, never in competition. Together they build communities that are safe and secure for all those within. They accomplish this honeybee nirvana by assisting an entirely different species maintain their specific environment. In the true spirit of interdependence, honeybees combine motive, means and opportunity to create a zero-carbon, zero-waste society characterized as hardworking, self sufficient and sustainable.

In the Wild
The vast majority of bees are a solitary species spending their time caring for themselves and their offspring. Only a few species of bees actually spend their daily lives in some form of colony. None is more impressive than the genus Apis mellifera. Literally meaning honey-carrying bees, when in their natural setting, all is their domain. On the wing, they are limited only by the absence of suitable forage. They explore millions of flowering pedals in backyards, orchards, gardens, herb beds, farmers’ fields, parks and meadows from late spring to early fall.

Ecologically minded, honeybees harvest their nutritional needs without as much as disturbing a single pedal of the plant they visit. Unlike other munching insects such as caterpillars, beetles and fruit flies that dine on the host’s leaves, stems and seeds, honeybees prefer their dinner takeout style. Once foraging is complete, this home-loving species flies back to her nest to deliver her harvest. Then, before she takes flight again, she downs a quick meal of bee bread dipped in homemade honey made by her industrious sisters and aunts.

Considered one of the wonders of our natural world, wild (feral) honeybees are an interesting blend of engineer, nursemaid and magician. Colonies contain up to 20,000 residents. Yet, despite their enormous numbers honeybees remain, for the most part, invisible. Hidden from view, their nests are impressive examples of adaptation and engineering. Using their limbs and mandibles as tools, they build interlocking hexagonal structures which are considered to be one of the strongest, light-weight structures known to humankind. Outlasting summer’s blaze and winter’s fury, generations of honeybees live out their existence in the same structure for years.

Home Sweet Home
These self-possessed functionalists accommodate their specific purpose by building their nests in dark, dry enclosed spaces. Because they create a surplus of food -- honey from nectar and bee bread from pollen -- they build nests to include large storage areas which have the capacity to hold at least 15 liters of honey (just over 63 cups).
Honeybees never sleep, nor do they hibernate during the winter. Their constant activity means they are in continuous need of a safe food supply. The stored surplus guarantees the entire colony is well fed.

Over-wintering as a colony is unique to the genus of honeybees. In the fall, everything slows down. As days cool and the colony’s numbers decrease, the remaining honeybees put their focus on sustaining a warm and cozy environment. During this time, there are very few offspring. Those born during the fall do not care for the brood. Rather, they develop a padding of fat in their abdomen which helps them survive the cooler months, while caring for the Queen. In the bitter cold of winter worker bees congregate to form a compact globe. A muted mellifluous shhhhing sound emanates from the collective as their soft, furry bodies endlessly brush against each other to generate warmth for the entire nest. This warming sphere reaches temperatures up to 25ºC (77ºF) ensuring the inhabitants of the nest will survive until the warming days of late spring return.

Honeybees, much like humans, also harvest natural plant chemicals. Propolis (think acropolis) is a sticky plant resin harvested from conifer and poplar trees. Useful to both species, propolis is full of antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties. It has been used by the human race for over 3,000 years to fight off infections. Worker bees collect the plant resin from the buds and trunks of the trees for much the same reason.

Gathering can be a slow process. Often taking over an hour to bite off tiny fragments of resin, honeybees pack the tiny chunks into their pollen baskets, the corbicula located on their hind legs. Once delivered to the nest, other worker bees use the powerful plant chemical to fill in small cracks in the nest walls to keep the structure waterproof and free of drafts. They use propolis to attach their combs to the top and sides of their housing structure. Once affixed, these sturdy combs fill up quickly. Each 30 square centimeter can hold up to a kilogram of honey or 2.2 pounds. Then they really get creative. Should an unwelcome intruder be too large to eject from the nest, honeybees embalm the predator in the plant resin to protect the colony from deadly bacterial infestation.

Propolis also plays an important role in the nursery. To protect their young from any undesirable bacterial or parasitic growth, honeybees use a thin layer of propolis proactively to varnish the inside of the brood cells before the queen lays her egg. Then, as the days grow shorter and temperature drops, they mix the resin with bees wax to seal off the only entrance to the nest in preparation for the long days of winter ahead.

Renos
When building or repairing their nest, the youngest honeybees work collectively in large clusters to raise their body temperature to produce the wax necessary to aid in renovation efforts. Slowly secretions of warm wax, the size of a pinhead, appear from four pair of glands located under their abdomen. Weighing no more than one mg each -- less than a single rice crispy -- some slivers of wax are taken to areas of the nest that require maintenance. Others are taken by the older, more experienced honeybees to create the transparent, hexagonal chambers which will ultimately store their food and cradle their young.

Taking up to 80,000 waxy scales to make a single honeycomb, these chambers are built to exact specification. All new comers to the community are identified by the size of the chamber or cell. Cells that are long and hang vertically are reserved for the new queens. The smallest ones hold the fertilized eggs which mature into sterile female worker bees 21 days later. Larger cells hold the unfertilized eggs that become male drone bees in 24 days. All eggs pass through the same metamorphic process going from larvae to pupa then emerging as young adolescence honeybees. None have the ability to fly. But exactly how a Queen manages to lay both unfertilized and fertilized eggs still remains a mystery of Nature.

Altruistic Gene
While all this highly evolved process represents the pinnacle of a sophisticated social organization it’s altruism that’s at the heart of its success. During the HoneyBee Genome Project, scientists believe they located the honeybee’s altruistic gene which has made the insect one of the most advanced species on Earth.

Altruism is the social glue that enables a complex society to evolve and function. Honeybee loyalty is unwavering. Every action they undertake supports the common heritage of the entire community. Collectively they build complex architecture using intricate systems of division of labour. They organize defense and warfare and their expressions of personal sacrifice are unheard of in most of the animal kingdom.

Queens and their workers have identical genotypes but queens live two orders of magnitude longer and can lay one egg per sec for several years. So the vast majority of colony members spend their lives helping the Queen to reproduce rather than increase their direct fitness by generating their own progeny. In so doing, by helping their closest relative, the mother Queen to reproduce, the sterile worker honeybees ensures their genes are passed along. And while it may be an evolutionary enigma, inconsistent with basic Darwinian theory, it’s a genetically encoded law that helps maintain the harmony of the entire colony.