Paolo Fontana Bees as a model of sustainability and beekeeping as an experience involving nature and human history English translation by Paul Tout TANTA EST NATURA RERUM, UT PROPE EX UMBRA MINIMA ANIMALIS INCOMPARABILE EFFECERIT UIDDAM IN VERONA MMXIX ARTEMIS EPHESIA ARISTAEUS UNA APIS NOTES AND REFLECTIONS WITH AN OPEN HEART, ON THE NULLA APIS WORLD OF BEES, THEIR EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR ROLE IN ECOSYSTEMS, ON THE ROLE OF THE HONEY BEE IN THE FORMATION OF HUMAN CULTURE, ON THE HISTORY OF BEEKEEPING AND MY FIRST NATURAL BEEKEEPING EXPERIENCES WITH TOPBAR HIVES, MOVING TOWARDS THE BEEKEEPING OF TOMORROW. Biodiversity Friend 9 Paolo Fontana The Joy of Bees Bees as a model of sustainability and beekeeping as an experience of Nature and human history For Cinzia First English Edition 2019 Your hands are made of beeswax, holding the world like fine honey ISSN 2421-387X 1 ISBN 978-88-940945-8-9 if one agrees to lose oneself with you Camilla and Carlotta Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. 2 © Copyright 2019 WBA Project srl - Verona (Italia) WBA onlus Scientific & editorial commitee: Barrientos-Lozano Ludivina, Ciudad Victoria (Mexico) Casale Achille, Sassari (Italy) Daccordi Maurwo, Verona (Italy) Giachino Pier Mauro, Turin (Italy) Gui- dolin Laura, Padua (Italy) Kleukers Roy, Leiden (Holland) Massa Bruno, Palermo (Italy) Onore Giovanni, Quito (Ecuador) Osella Bartolomeo Giuseppe, L’Aquila (Italy) Peck Stewart B., Ottawa (Canada) Roig Fidel Alejandro, Mendoza (Argen- tina) Salgado Costas Jose Maria, Leon (Spain) Stoch Fabio, Rome (Italy) Tretiach Mauro, Trieste (Italy) Vailati Dante, Brescia (Italy). Editorial director: Pier Mauro Giachino Italian project: Gianfranco Caoduro Graphic project: Jacopo Berlaffa Cover: Watercolour by Valentina Verlato www.valentinaverlato.com Recommended bibliographic citation: Fontana P., 2019. The Joy of Bees. Biodiversity Friend 9; WBA Project Ed., Verona: XXXII-716 pp. Principle manager: Simone Bellini - Authorization n. 116753 dated 08/06/2006 All rights reserved. The rights of translation, electronic storage and reproduction by any means are reserved for all countries, 1 Piccini D., 2017. Regni. Manni: 112 pp. (translated) unless authorized by the publisher. 2 The Bible, Psalms, 127, 4. A bee settling on a flower has stung a child. And the child is afraid of bees and declares that bees exist to sting people. A poet admires the bee sucking from the chalice of a flower and says it exists to suck the fragrance of flowers. A beekeep- er, seeing the bee collect pollen from flowers and carry it to the hive, says that it exists to gather honey. Another beekeep- er who has studied the life of the hive more closely says that the bee gathers pollen dust to feed the young bees and rear a queen, and that it exists to perpetuate its race. A botanist notices that the bee flying with the pollen of a male flower to a pistil fertilizes the latter, and sees in this the purpose of the bee’s existence. Another, observing the migration of plants, notices that the bee helps in this work, and may say that in this lies the purpose of the bee. But the ultimate purpose of the bee is not exhausted by the first, the second, or any of the processes the human mind can discern. The higher the human intellect rises in the discovery of these purposes, the more obvious it becomes, that the ultimate purpose is beyond our comprehension. Lev Tolstòj War and Peace , Epilogue, Part One, Chapter 4 Index FOREWORDS Foreword by Richard Jones 21 Foreword by Ignazio Floris 24 Foreword by Christie Hemenway 26 Under the patronage of: Selections from the forewords to the fi rst Italian edition 28 A note from the translator 29 To the English readers with love 31 DON’T PANIC Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta 37 “Are ‘api’ happy?” 38 Th e aim of the poet should be wonder 42 With the fi nancial support of: Th e test of all happines is gratitude 46 Chapter I EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT BEES... BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK Natural history of honey bees Bee fi rst 53 The importance of in-depth knowledge of the honey bee A funny little old world 55 Insects and humankind From that fateful day... 57 Insect evolution A true fl ower child 59 Honey bee evolution Hazy angels on the grassy riverbank 63 Honey bee anatomy Th e little people 75 Honey bee sociality Una apis nulla apis 77 The hive superorganism Chi non lavora non fa l'amore 82 An introduction to the structure of honey bee society There’s only one mother 83 Beehive Radio 136 The queen bee and sex determination in the honey bee Comunication in honey bees We are what we eat 87 I want to see youdance 139 The nutrition of the larvae Honey bee dances Pax multa in cella, foris autem plurima bella 91 The fourth caste 143 The birth of the queens and the process of swarming The comb Amica omnium 95 Prêt-a-porter or haute couture 149 The fertilization of the virgins queens Cell dimensions in the comb Better an egg today than a chicken tomorrow 102 To paint a large wall doesn’t take a big brush but a great brush 151 The commencement of egg-laying The problem of the large cells in wax foundations The smile of the queen 102 Everything in its place, a place for everything 154 More on egg-laying The functions of the various types of cells and the structure of the comb Workers of the world unite! 104 My house, little as you are... 158 Worker bees and pollen collection More on the form and structure of the combs Role-playing games 106 Seven years of fatty cows and seven of lean cows 159 The succession of roles in worker honey bees The reason a honey bee society endures Let’s go and harvest the wheat 109 What makes the train go? 161 Forager bees Complexity in a honey bee colony Game of Drones 111 Casino Royale 162 Egg-laying in worker honey bees The strategies employed to accumulate abundant stocks Power to the workers! 113 “The superfluous, a very necessary thing” 163 The importance of the worker honey bees The apparently excessive stocks in certain honey bee colonies In cauda venenum 114 Trento in summer, Feltre in winter 165 The sting and venom in bees Thermoregulation in honey bee colonies Chance made us sisters, the heart made us friends 118 The Magna Graecia 168 Relatedness between worker bees in a given colony Reproduction in honey bee colonies: swarming He’s all his mother 119 Health tourism 171 The drones Swarming’s sanitary role Bar Sport 123 Long is the path, but great is the destination 173 Drone aggregation areas The various phases of swarming Parenti serpenti 124 Vita nova 177 Inbreeding and false males What happens after swarming Ogni scarrafone è bello a mamma soja 125 The bee's dining-hall 180 The extraordinary importance of the drones Honey bee nutrition “It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage” 128 Without effort there is no honey 182 How long bees live How much work does honey cost the honey bee? The bee is a nerd 131 Apis mellifera or Apis mellifica? 185 Honey bee intelligence Does a bee collect or produce honey? Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses 133 Just a spoonful of sugar 187 Honey bee sense organs The composition of honey Bees are not vegan 188 Many enemies, much honour 241 Honeydew Honey bee enemies Mother’s pets 190 The Ego is not master in its own house 255 The honey bee’s microbiota Some final considerations on the hive superorganism “OK, Houston, we’ve had a problem here…” 193 The bees and the Cyclopes 258 How does fertilization of flowers occur? The marvels of honey bee biology Ecce panis angelorum 194 Bee pollen Chapter II The beehive is a Stradivarius! 197 THE CELESTIAL GIFT Propolis OF ETHEREAL HONEY Like the Etruscans 201 Honey bees and humankind Relations between honey bee colonies The true bees 205 Aerii mellis caelestia dona 261 The genus Apis Introduction to the chapter on the relationship between honey bees and humankind When in Rome do as the Romans do 206 The adaptation of honey bees to their local environment Bee hunters 262 Hunting the honey bee “Mia faza, mia raza” 211 Apis mellifera is divided into subspecies and not ‘races’ Religion is the opium of the peoples 268 Bees and the birth of spirituality Born free 213 The honey bee is not a domestic animal The Great Mother 270 The cult of the female deity in relation to honey bees Better wed over the mixen than over the moor 214 The subspecies of Apis mellifera Tremate, tremate, le streghe son tornate 279 The Wicca religion One ligustica is no ligustica at all 220 Genetic variability within the various subspecies Virgin mother 280 From the Great Mother to the Virgin Mary The fundamental law of life 222 Biodiversity Made in Veneto 287 The goddess Reitia of the ancient Veneti A strange game. The only winning move is not to play 224 The negative effects of selection carried out by beekeepers The tears of Ra 290 Honey bees in the mythology of Ancient Egypt Don Abbondio’s mule 225 Buckfast bees The sacred bee 291 Honey bees in the sacred books of the great religions Uno su mille ce la fa 227 Local bees and resilience The profane bee 300 Honey bees in profane literature The super bee 229 Highlty-selected super-bees and their associated problems Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit 304 The honey bee has contributed to the development of human societies I will survive 231 Colonies not managed by beekeepers Bee-keeping in Egypt 307 Apiculture in Ancient Egypt Verba volant 233 Protection of the various subspecies of Apis mellifera The Prometheus of agriculture 313 Non vobis 237 The myth of Aristaeus and the spread of apiculture Honey bee