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7.5.2 Aspects of Bee Life History
The most impressive aspect of the honeybee TEK of the Solega is the detailed and
in-depth awareness of the life cycle of honeybees, including, in particular, astonish-
ingly accurate elements of honeybee reproductive biology. Astonishing, because
unlike many other animals, looking between the legs of an insect like the honeybee
tells an observer remarkably little about its gender, and therefore its potential role in
reproduction. Moreover, the sexual habits of the reproductive members of a honey-
bee colony are extremely hard to observe,^8 and any long-term attempts at observing
the inner workings of a hive —either within the dark confi nes of a crevice or tree
hollow, or high up among the branches of tall trees—would be met with consider-
able indignation by hundreds, if not thousands, of well-armed, well-coordinated,
fl ying insects.
Such diffi culties are refl ected in the fact that the knowledge of bee genders in
Europe—whose cultures have a long history of beekeeping—did not emerge until
the late seventeenth century, when Dutch biologist Jan Swammerdam decided to
look at the internal organs of the so-called ‘king’ bee under the newly-invented
microscope, and discovered that ‘he’ had ovaries. Until then, it had been widely
the rising of the Pleiads. (The bee, then, makes the wax from fl owers. The honey,
however, it does not make, but merely gathers what is deposited out of the atmo-
sphere; and as a proof of this statement we have the known fact that occasionally
bee-keepers fi nd the hives fi lled with honey within the space of two or three days.
Furthermore, in autumn fl owers are found, but honey, if it be withdrawn, is not
replaced; now, after the withdrawal of the original honey, when no food or very little
is in the hives, there would be a fresh stock of honey, if the bees made it from fl owers.)
( History of Animals, V: 22)
The Solega have no doubt that honey (or at least its precursor) is produced
by the same fl owers on which honeybees forage. Several different types of
honey are distinguished, including the now rare nela hu:vina je: nu ‘honey
from groundcover fl owers’ (see Chap. 5 for further discussion). Other honeys
include the highly viscous matti hu:vina je:nu ‘ matti fl ower honey’, which
crystallises readily, ne:ri hu:vina je:nu ‘ ne:ri fl ower honey’, which is also
thick, honne hu:vina je:nu and beṇḍe hu:vina je:nu which are watery (the lat-
ter is greenish), and the manasi:ge hu:vina je:nu , which also quickly turns
into je:nu shakkare ‘honey sugar’.(^8) In the European honeybee Apis mellifera at least, this occurs once in a queen’s lifetime, when she
leaves the hive for a ‘nuptial fl ight’. During this time, she is eagerly sought out by drones that
detect her pheromones, chase her, and mate with her while in fl ight; the queen may mate with
several drones, and stores their sperm within her body for life.
7 Honeybee Lore