Bees on a honeycomb.
Hiob/Getty Images
We’re making a big buzz about bees! Our pollen-collecting friends get so much done, and we’re taking a look at how they live. We’ll bust some bee myths and meet some honeybees for a look at life inside the hive.
Our mystery sound is from a listener (here’s a hint: they recorded the sound in Alaska!), and our Moment of Um answers a buzzworthy question: Why do beehives look like hexagons?
And! One episode on bees just isn’t enough. We’ll be back next week with more buzz on pollination.
Want to hear more about bees? Listen to The buzz about bees pt. 2 (https://www.brainson.org/episode/2020/09/15/the-buzz-on-bees-pt-2)
Educators - Lesson Plan for Brains On! - The buzz on bees, pt. 1 (Right Click to Download)
Audio Transcript
Download transcript (PDF)
SPEAKER 1: You are listening to Brains On, where we're serious about being curious.
SPEAKER 2: Brains On is supported, in part, by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, it's over here.
MENAKA WILHELM: No, no, no, no, no.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, shoot.
MENAKA WILHELM: Here, watch again. Waggle, waggle, waggle. Buzz, buzz, buzz. Waggle, waggle.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, it's a long waggle. OK. OK. So, it's over here.
MENAKA WILHELM: No, not the junk closet.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Gah. Oh. Ow. Oh. Oh. Double shoot. Oh, hey, that's where my rubber penguin was.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hey, Sanden and Menaka. That's quite a mess you're making.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, hey, Molly.
MENAKA WILHELM: Hey, Percy Joy. Hey, Harlan.
PERCY JOY: What exactly are you looking for?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Menaka hid a bouquet of flowers.
MENAKA WILHELM: And I'm telling Sanden where to find it, using my bee dance. Waggle, waggle, buzz, y'all.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, yeah, I've heard some bees can give each other directions to the location of flowers using a special kind of bee dance.
PERCY JOY: Yeah, they give directions based on the angle of the sun and the distance to the flowers. It's super cool.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Exactly. We're practicing our bee direction dances, so we can earn the bee navigation badge for our bee squad troupe.
HARLAN: Bee squad? What's that?
MENAKA WILHELM: It's a nature skills group based on the brilliance of bees.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, let's do the pledge.
MENAKA WILHELM: OK. A bee squad cadet is friendly, not sour.
SANDEN TOTTEN: A bee cadet knows that small things have great power.
MENAKA WILHELM: A bee cadet makes the most of each hour.
SANDEN TOTTEN: And takes care of the Earth, especially flowers.
MENAKA WILHELM: We're still larva cadets.
SANDEN TOTTEN: But we're working our way up to bumble bee besties, and then, one day, the pollinator posse.
HARLAN: Whoa, sounds like a cool club.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, and I got to say, I totally dig those yellow and black uniforms.
PERCY JOY: Well, good luck getting that badge, you two. We're going to go tape an episode.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Bee excellent to each other.
MENAKA WILHELM: And pollinate on, dudes.
MOLLY BLOOM: Welcome to Brains On from American Public Media. I'm your host, Molly Bloom. And with me today are siblings Percy Joy and Harlan from Austin, Texas. Hi, you two.
PERCY JOY: Hi.
HARLAN: Hi.
MOLLY BLOOM: So today, we're all abuzz about bees. And Harlan and Percy Joy, I know you know bees super well. Can you tell us how bees so well?
PERCY JOY: We actually have our own bees on our property.
MOLLY BLOOM: So can you describe, Harlan, what the hives look like?
HARLAN: They are big boxes, but they have three boxes. And then, it's stacked into one.
MOLLY BLOOM: So three separate boxes in one bigger box?
HARLAN: Yes, kind of.
MOLLY BLOOM: And when you look inside, how many bees does it look like?
PERCY JOY: More than a hundred.
HARLAN: Yeah, probably more than a hundred.
PERCY JOY: More than a thousand, probably. It's a lot.
MOLLY BLOOM: So when you have a collection of hives like that, it's called an apiary. So how long have you had an apiary?
HARLAN: Six-- I think, six years.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow, so almost pretty much your whole lives. So do you help take care of the bees?
PERCY JOY: Yes.
HARLAN: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: What kind of stuff do you help out with? You go first, Percy Joy.
PERCY JOY: Well, we help keep the bees off the porch when we're doing the honey because we have to close the screen door so that they can't get to us. When we do go get the honey, we have to use the smoker so that they calm down.
MOLLY BLOOM: Do you ever get stung?
HARLAN: Yes, I've gotten stung by a bee in my pool.
PERCY JOY: I've gotten stung by the bee twice.
HARLAN: Everyone thinks they're super dangerous, but their stings don't hurt that bad.
PERCY JOY: And some people think that their job is to sting you, but, really, that's not their job.
MOLLY BLOOM: Right, stinging is not what they're about, right?
PERCY JOY: They actually die after they sting someone, so they'd rather not.
MOLLY BLOOM: So it is not in their best interest to sting you at all.
PERCY JOY: Nuh-uh.
MOLLY BLOOM: And can you tell me what we're hearing in the background right now, Harlan?
HARLAN: Roosters. My rooster, Tomato, and then his little partner, my sister's rooster, Sunrise.
MOLLY BLOOM: How many other animals live with you?
PERCY JOY: We have nine chickens. Two of them are roosters. We have two goats--
HARLAN: A dog and a cat.
PERCY JOY: --a dog and a cat, And, as you know, bees.
MOLLY BLOOM: So do you think of the bees as your pets?
HARLAN: There are my many, many, many, many, many, many, many, thousand many sisters.
MOLLY BLOOM: So how do you think of them? Do you think of them as your pets or your family?
PERCY JOY: I think that they're cute, but I don't think of them as my pets or my sisters.
GROUP: Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, Brains On.
MOLLY BLOOM: Well, today's topic was inspired by this question.
ELVIS: Hi. My name is Elvis from North Bay, Ontario. My question is, why are bees important?
MOLLY BLOOM: So how would you to answer this question? Why are bees important?
HARLAN: Without the bees flowers wouldn't get pollinated. And so, bees wouldn't make honey.
PERCY JOY: And without bees, it'd be hard to grow crops as well.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, bees are important for a lot of different reasons. And it turns out, the bees are so important, that we actually need two episodes to tell you why. In this first episode, we're going to start with some bee basics and tell you about life in a hive.
Our second episode will cover the wonders of pollination. So let's start with some bee facts. Can we get some buzz-worthy music?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Bees are found on every continent except for Antarctica.
PERCY JOY: Yeah. Bees haven't mastered polar fleece technology yet.
HARLAN: Bees evolved from wasps.
MOLLY BLOOM: So bees and wasps are different. You might think some wasps are bees because some species of wasps, like hornets and yellow jackets, look like the yellow and black bees.
HARLAN: But they're not bees.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wasps get their protein by eating meat, which means they're carnivores.
PERCY JOY: Bees, on the other hand, they get their protein from pollen, which is a sticky powder found on flowers.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are a few bees that eat dead animal flesh, but they're super uncommon compared to the pollen-gatherers.
HARLAN: Bees also have special hairs to help them gather pollen.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's right. Their hairs are branched. That means under a microscope, each hair splits off in different directions at the end, like the branch of a tree. This helps more pollen stick to them.
HARLAN: That makes bees super important.
MOLLY BLOOM: One third of all the food we eat is pollinated by animals. That means, an animal visits a flower, gets pollen on it, and carries it to another flower. This lets a plant grow things, like fruits and nuts.
PERCY JOY: And here in North America, a whole lot of that pollination is done by bees.
HARLAN: Without them, humans and other animals might starve.
MOLLY BLOOM: So bee thankful for our itty bitty busy buzzy bodies. We're going to talk more about pollination in our next episode. There's a lot to say about--
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh, hey, you guys are still taping.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, we're actually right in the middle of--
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, don't worry, Molly, you won't disturb us.
MOLLY BLOOM: No, I think you're disturbing us.
MENAKA WILHELM: We're about to earn another bee squad badge.
HARLAN: Neat. I want to see that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Great. Because I told our squad councilor to meet us here for the test.
HARLAN: What's this badge for?
MENAKA WILHELM: Busting bee myths. It turns out, there are a lot of bogus bee facts buzzing about. And it's up to bee squad cadets to swat them down.
HARLAN: Cool.
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh, she's here. Are my wings on straight?
SHIELA COLLA: My name is Sheila Colla. I'm an assistant professor and conservation biologist at York University in Toronto, Canada. And today, I will be your bee squad counselor.
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh, man, I hope I studied enough.
SHIELA COLLA: All right, bee cadets, let's do some bee myth-busting.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We're totally ready, squad leader Sheila.
SHIELA COLLA: All right, Sanden, bust a bee myth.
MENAKA WILHELM: OK. OK. Oh, one myth is that bees are all social creatures that live in hives and work in groups. In reality, there are over 20,000 different types of bees, and only a small number of them live in big groups together and serve a queen. The rest live by themselves and lay eggs alone, maybe on a branch or in a small hole in the ground, not in a hive. Oh, and most bees don't make honey.
SHIELA COLLA: That's right. So when people think about bees, they often think of beehives and honey. But most of our bees are solitary. They don't live in hives. It'll just be one female laying eggs that will hatch later in the year or the next year. Almost none of our species make honey and store honey, and a very small proportion of bees live in hives. So bumblebees do and honey bees do, but that's less than 10% of the total number of species out there.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes, got it.
MENAKA WILHELM: Nice work. Way to buzz, Sanden.
SHIELA COLLA: Your return, Menaka. Bust another bee myuth.
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh. Oh. OK. OK, I got one. A myth is, bees are always black and yellow. In reality, some bees are black and yellow, but a ton of them aren't. They have a lot of different styles, and colors, and sizes. And a lot of times, when people see a black and yellow bug with wings, what they're really looking at is a yellow jacket wasp, which isn't a bee at all.
SHIELA COLLA: Yeah, great job. We have green bees, and blue bees, and orange bees, all sorts of different colors, and shapes, and sizes.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Excellent job, Menaka.
MENAKA WILHELM: Thanks, Sanden.
SHIELA COLLA: One more bee myth busted.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yes.
SANDEN TOTTEN: OK, our final bee myth is--
MENAKA WILHELM: That all bees can sting.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Sure, bees are famous for their stingers, but plenty of bees don't actually sting.
MENAKA WILHELM: And male bees never sting. Stingers evolved from a bee part called an ovipositor, and that's a structure that only females have. They use it to lay eggs. Male bees don't have this, so they can't sting.
SANDEN TOTTEN: But there are plenty of species of bees, where the female never evolved the stinger either. The ones that do sting tend to be those that live in hives because, obviously, they need to protect that delicious honey.
MENAKA WILHELM: Did we get it?
SHIELA COLLA: Yeah, that's right.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes, awesome. Way to go.
MENAKA WILHELM: We did it.
SHIELA COLLA: Woo, good job, bee squad. Here are your myth-busting badges.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yay, waggle, waggle, buzz.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes, one step closer to the pollinator posse.
MOLLY BLOOM: Nice job, you two.
PERCY JOY: Those were some super sneaky bee myths you busted.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yep. Now, can we please have our studio back?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, of course, we'll buzz right off.
MENAKA WILHELM: Buzz, buzz, bye.
MOLLY BLOOM: This seems like a good time to pollinate your ears with some sneaky audio. It's the--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
GIRL: (WHISPERING) Mystery sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Harlan, Percy Joy, are you ready?
HARLAN: Yes.
PERCY JOY: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
Whoa, I think we should hear that one more time. It's pretty short.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
I'm going to give you a little hint just to start, but this does not have to do with bees and honey. It's one a listener sent to us. So what are your guesses? Let's start with you, Percy Joy.
PERCY JOY: It sounds like-- since we, as Harlan mentioned, we have a pool. When the water is sucking in to filter, it sounds like that. But I don't know. It has that crunching sound to it.
MOLLY BLOOM: Excellent thinking. Harlan, what do you think?
HARLAN: Sounds like something spinning and then crunching a piece of salad. Like [MAKING SOUND].
PERCY JOY: A salad spinner?
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, love it. Very good guess. We're going to listen to it again and find out the answer a little bit later in the show.
PERCY JOY: So make like honey.
HARLAN: And stick around.
MOLLY BLOOM: We're working on an episode all about siblings, and we want you to be in it.
PERCY JOY: Are you a middle child, or maybe the oldest, or youngest?
HARLAN: Or maybe you're an only child.
MOLLY BLOOM: Whatever your status, tell us what's good and bad about it. Harlan, what's it like to be the middle child?
HARLAN: If one of my sister gets mad at me, and they don't want to play with me, I can just play with my other sister.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's pretty great. And Percy Joy, how do you feel about being the older sibling?
PERCY JOY: I like it because I get more responsibility. It's fun. I like it a lot.
MOLLY BLOOM: I'm an older sibling, too. It is pretty fun. We want to hear your experiences, too, listeners.
PERCY JOY: Record them and upload them at brainson.org/contact.
HARLAN: You can also send us mystery sounds and questions.
MOLLY BLOOM: Like this one.
MARIA: I'm Maria, and I'm five. Why do bee hives look like popsicles?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll answer that at the end of the show. Plus, we'll make a big buzz over the latest group to join the Brain's honor roll. And we're excited to tell you about our book. It's called Brains On Presents-- It's Alive. From Neurons and Narwhals to the Fungus Among Us.
It's super fun and full of facts. We're also doing some virtual events to celebrate the book. If you want to attend, hang out with me, Marc, and Sanden virtually, guess some mystery sound and some other fun stuff. Head to brainson.org/events.
You're listening to Brains On from American Public Media. I'm Molly.
HARLAN: I'm Harlan.
PERCY JOY: I'm Percy Joy.
MENAKA WILHELM: And I'm Menaka. Molly, guess what?
MOLLY BLOOM: What? Another bee batch?
MENAKA WILHELM: Almost as good, but different. The new season of RHOTH comes out this week.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Finally.
MOLLY BLOOM: RHOTH?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, it's an acronym-- R-H-O-T-H. It stands for Real Honey Bees of the Hive. It's the best reality TV show. It takes you straight into the lives of honeybees.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow, you guys have really gone all in on bees.
SANDEN TOTTEN: You've got to watch it, Molly. But don't jump right into the new season, which is fall in the hive. You'll be so confused. Here, let me find a recap of the bees' summer season first.
MENAKA WILHELM: Our favorite Real Honeybees recapper is Soraya Stewart. She's an actual researcher or a beesearcher. She's at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She'll catch you right up.
SORAYA STEWART: Here's what happened on the last season of Real Honey Bees of the Hive. The bees of the hive have been working tirelessly to keep the hive growing and thriving. So first, let's meet the real honey bees. The three kinds of honey bees that we see in the hive are queens, drones, and, of course, the workers. Beatrice is the queen bee.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: I'm Queen Beeatrice. My tagline-- the eggs aren't going to lay themselves.
SORAYA STEWART: Her entire role is to lay eggs. Beethan is a drone bee.
BEETHAN: Chilling around the hive is a skill. I got that chill skill. That's a Beethan trademark, but I'll let you play it for free.
SORAYA STEWART: In the summer season, Beethan doesn't do a lot inside of the colony. Beeanca is a worker bee.
BEEANCA: Me and all my worker sisters, we do the most around here. People say, Beeanca, how do you get so much done? And well, some of us are just talented.
SORAYA STEWART: Worker bees are the motor that keep the hive running because they perform so many different duties. So let's start with Beeatrice and Beeanca. Queen bees in the summer are constantly laying eggs around the clock.
BEEANCA: OK, Queen Beeatrice, we're ready for your egg. Over here, here's the empty cell for you.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: OK, on my way.
BEEANCA: Queen Beeatrice, do you ever wonder why we call the hexagonal cubbies in our hive cells?
QUEEN BEEATRICE: Nope. I just lay eggs in them.
BEEANCA: OK, well, that's a larger cell, so we'll have you lay a drone egg there, my queen.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: Beeanca, I know. I always measure before I lay an egg. I laid your egg and the eggs that became all your sisters in smaller cells. Now, less talking and more cleaning.
BEEANCA: Queen Beeatrice, do you ever get tired of doing the same thing, day in and day out? I'm tired of cleaning, and I've only been doing it since I left my cell, three whole days ago.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: This generation of worker bees has the shortest attention spans. You'll change jobs soon enough, Beeanca. Until then, keep cleaning.
SORAYA STEWART: So the next task in a worker bee's life is nursing the brood, and this often happens after about five days in the hive.
BEEANCA: Hello, baby bees, you cute little brood of our hive. It's snack time. And you know what's on the menu? Brood food. It's like a nutritious milkshake. I made it for you in the glands inside of my head. Here, I'll leave some in your cells for you, and you, and-- oh, you're a special bee baby, aren't you?
You're going to grow up to be a queen. So I'm feeding you a special food, called royal jelly. I made it special for you in my glands. And wow, you have a big appetite. Wow. This nursing gig is so much more satisfying than cleaning.
I didn't change jobs because of my attention span. It's what I meant to do as a worker. Forget what Queen Beeatrice said. Anyways, you, baby queen, you're going to be a way, queening your queen one day.
SORAYA STEWART: So in the summer season, the queens and the workers are all very much working towards growing the numbers in the hive.
MENAKA WILHELM: Time for a quick break. Be right back.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, Percy Joy and Harlan, you ready to give that mystery sound another go?
HARLAN: Sure.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is again.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
PERCY JOY: I still hear that sucking sound.
HARLAN: Now, it sounds like somebody's slurping spaghetti.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, excellent. You ready to hear the answer?
PERCY JOY: Yes.
MATTY: This is Matty.
ZACK: Zack.
MARGOT: And Margot.
MATTY: We're from Alaska.
ZACK: This is the sound of a sockeye salmon being filleted.
MATTY: We hear this sound a lot in Alaska because we fish for our own salmon.
MOLLY BLOOM: So, yes, after you catch a fish and you prepare it to eat, you are filleting it. So they are actually taking the skin off of the salmon and are getting ready to cook it.
PERCY JOY: That is--
HARLAN: Wow.
PERCY JOY: --unbelievable.
MOLLY BLOOM: So it is connected to food. You guys are right. You had salad spinner spaghetti, so something to eat, but it's a fish.
PERCY JOY: OK.
MOLLY BLOOM: Have you ever been fishing before?
HARLAN: Yes. We went to Montana a few, I think, a few months ago. I caught a-- I forgot the name of it.
PERCY JOY: Yellowstone cutthroat.
HARLAN: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Very cool.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SORAYA STEWART: And we're back. Next up, my favorite scene of the season.
BEETHAN: Hey, Beeanca. Oh, wait, are you sleeping?
BEEANCA: What? Who's there? Beethan. I was resting.
SORAYA STEWART: Worker bees rests in short bursts throughout the day.
BEETHAN: Oh, sorry, I couldn't tell because you look the same. Your eyes were open.
BEEANCA: Yeah, my eyes don't close, and yours don't either, Beethan. We don't have eyelids. But some of us have actual jobs to do besides sitting around the hive, hanging out, and eating honey.
BEETHAN: OK, I get it. Everyone thinks drones like me are lazy.
BEEANCA: Yeah. Do you know how many jobs I've had while you were just hanging out with your drone bros? I cleaned, then I took care of baby bees, then I tended to our queen, then I started receiving nectar deliveries, then I cleaned more, then I made more wax to build our home.
BEETHAN: I didn't ask for your resume. You know what I have to do one day, Beeanca?
BEEANCA: What, Beethan? Eat more honey?
BEETHAN: No. One day, me and all the other drones, we have to fly out of our cozy hive into the great unknown and try to find a queen from another hive to mate with. Then, she'll start a whole new colony. It sounds so difficult, but I have to do it so that our hive can live on in future generations of bees. It's a lot of pressure.
BEEANCA: Oh, wow. Yeah, that does sound overwhelming. Do you want me to get you some honey?
BEETHAN: Yeah, thank you. That would be so nice. That's what I originally wanted to ask you, to be honest. All you workers run the honey show around here, so I need your help to find the honey and stuff.
SORAYA STEWART: Overall, this is my favorite season yet.
BEEANCA: Let's all say our favorite thing from the summer, so far. Queen Beeatrice, you go first.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: OK. I loved laying you and your sister's eggs. You've actually all made me so proud.
BEEANCA: Oh, Queen Beeatrice, I loved making you proud. I actually can't decide what my favorite job was. I loved all my jobs.
BEETHAN: I think you guys pretty much know this, but my favorite thing was when workers fed me honey. I'm sorry I have to leave the hive to go find a mate, but I'm so glad I got to spend part of the season with you.
BEEANCA: Oh, Beethan, yeah, that was great.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: Yeah, good luck out there. Real honey bees at the high forever. We'll meet new worker bees in the winter season. I can't wait.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We did it. We got our next badge.
MENAKA WILHELM: We're in the bumble bee besties now.
PERCY JOY: Awesome.
HARLAN: Yeah, congrats.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Thanks. We passed our final test, with the best score possible.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yeah, a B.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Next, we're going to work on leveling up to join the elite ranks of the pollinator posse. We're going to study with some treats at Froyo Fortress.
MENAKA WILHELM: I'm going to get the root beer moat float. Come meet us there after the show.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sure. Where is it?
MENAKA WILHELM: Take two waggles and a buzz past Fifth Street. See you there.
HARLAN: There are lots of different kinds of bees. Some make honey and live in hives, but many don't.
MOLLY BLOOM: But all bees gather pollen.
HARLAN: For bees who live in hives, the queen bee lays all the eggs.
MOLLY BLOOM: Drone bees are the male bees who will leave the hive to mate with a new queen.
PERCY JOY: And worker honey bees do all kinds of jobs around the hive.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode.
PERCY JOY: Next week, more buzz about bees.
HARLAN: We'll talk more about pollination and why it's so important.
PERCY JOY: Brains On is produced by Marc Sanchez, Sanden Totten, and Molly Bloom, and Menaka Wilhelm.
MOLLY BLOOM: Many, many thank you's to Megan Brown. We also had production help from Christina Lopez and engineering help from Johnny Vince Evans. Special thanks to Mike Kilbourne, David Jarre, and Elyssa Dudley.
PERCY JOY: Brains On is a nonprofit public radio podcast.
HARLAN: Your support allows us to keep making more episodes.
MOLLY BLOOM: You can support the show at brainson.org/fans.
HARLAN: Now, before we go, it's time for the Moment of Um.
SPEAKER 3: Why do bee's hives look like hexagons?
JESSICA KEVILL: Hello. My name is Dr. Jessica Kevill, and I work at the University of Minnesota, where I research honeybee viruses and also other animal viruses. So the honeybee needs to build the honeycomb because they need a space to be able to store their honey.
One average honeybee will make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey, and it takes 2 tablespoons of honey to make one ounce of wax. So the honeybees will need a lot of honey. And this will require a lot of work from the worker bees in terms of flower visits and bringing back nectar to the hive and then converting that into honey.
Because it's so expensive, in terms of honey, to build the wax, what the honey bees have done is they have had to design a really efficient system. And one way that they've done this is by building these hexagon shapes because it requires the least amount of wax material to build for the maximum amount of strength to be able to store the honey.
But not only do they build their hexagonal shape to store their honey in. They build them on a slight angle so that the honey cannot drip out of the honeycomb. So the bees are pretty clever. They're trying to minimize waste and drippage and maximize the amount of storage space that they have using as little amount of wax as they can.
So this hexagon structure is actually so effective in terms of material usage and honey storage, that we have actually started using honeycomb structures in materials that we need to be strong. So we use them for building bridges, the sheeting that goes on the outside of the airplane, the material that makes that is made from hexagonal shapes. So it's just the best shape in nature that the honeybee could find to be able to store its honey without the wax all collapsing, all the honey dripping out.
MOLLY BLOOM: These beautiful listeners are our favorites. It's time for the Brains honor roll. These are the amazing listeners who keep this show fueled with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives.
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
PERCY JOY: We'll be back soon with more answers to your questions.
HARLAN: Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER 2: Brains On is supported, in part, by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, it's over here.
MENAKA WILHELM: No, no, no, no, no.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, shoot.
MENAKA WILHELM: Here, watch again. Waggle, waggle, waggle. Buzz, buzz, buzz. Waggle, waggle.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, it's a long waggle. OK. OK. So, it's over here.
MENAKA WILHELM: No, not the junk closet.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Gah. Oh. Ow. Oh. Oh. Double shoot. Oh, hey, that's where my rubber penguin was.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hey, Sanden and Menaka. That's quite a mess you're making.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, hey, Molly.
MENAKA WILHELM: Hey, Percy Joy. Hey, Harlan.
PERCY JOY: What exactly are you looking for?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Menaka hid a bouquet of flowers.
MENAKA WILHELM: And I'm telling Sanden where to find it, using my bee dance. Waggle, waggle, buzz, y'all.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, yeah, I've heard some bees can give each other directions to the location of flowers using a special kind of bee dance.
PERCY JOY: Yeah, they give directions based on the angle of the sun and the distance to the flowers. It's super cool.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Exactly. We're practicing our bee direction dances, so we can earn the bee navigation badge for our bee squad troupe.
HARLAN: Bee squad? What's that?
MENAKA WILHELM: It's a nature skills group based on the brilliance of bees.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, let's do the pledge.
MENAKA WILHELM: OK. A bee squad cadet is friendly, not sour.
SANDEN TOTTEN: A bee cadet knows that small things have great power.
MENAKA WILHELM: A bee cadet makes the most of each hour.
SANDEN TOTTEN: And takes care of the Earth, especially flowers.
MENAKA WILHELM: We're still larva cadets.
SANDEN TOTTEN: But we're working our way up to bumble bee besties, and then, one day, the pollinator posse.
HARLAN: Whoa, sounds like a cool club.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, and I got to say, I totally dig those yellow and black uniforms.
PERCY JOY: Well, good luck getting that badge, you two. We're going to go tape an episode.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Bee excellent to each other.
MENAKA WILHELM: And pollinate on, dudes.
MOLLY BLOOM: Welcome to Brains On from American Public Media. I'm your host, Molly Bloom. And with me today are siblings Percy Joy and Harlan from Austin, Texas. Hi, you two.
PERCY JOY: Hi.
HARLAN: Hi.
MOLLY BLOOM: So today, we're all abuzz about bees. And Harlan and Percy Joy, I know you know bees super well. Can you tell us how bees so well?
PERCY JOY: We actually have our own bees on our property.
MOLLY BLOOM: So can you describe, Harlan, what the hives look like?
HARLAN: They are big boxes, but they have three boxes. And then, it's stacked into one.
MOLLY BLOOM: So three separate boxes in one bigger box?
HARLAN: Yes, kind of.
MOLLY BLOOM: And when you look inside, how many bees does it look like?
PERCY JOY: More than a hundred.
HARLAN: Yeah, probably more than a hundred.
PERCY JOY: More than a thousand, probably. It's a lot.
MOLLY BLOOM: So when you have a collection of hives like that, it's called an apiary. So how long have you had an apiary?
HARLAN: Six-- I think, six years.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow, so almost pretty much your whole lives. So do you help take care of the bees?
PERCY JOY: Yes.
HARLAN: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: What kind of stuff do you help out with? You go first, Percy Joy.
PERCY JOY: Well, we help keep the bees off the porch when we're doing the honey because we have to close the screen door so that they can't get to us. When we do go get the honey, we have to use the smoker so that they calm down.
MOLLY BLOOM: Do you ever get stung?
HARLAN: Yes, I've gotten stung by a bee in my pool.
PERCY JOY: I've gotten stung by the bee twice.
HARLAN: Everyone thinks they're super dangerous, but their stings don't hurt that bad.
PERCY JOY: And some people think that their job is to sting you, but, really, that's not their job.
MOLLY BLOOM: Right, stinging is not what they're about, right?
PERCY JOY: They actually die after they sting someone, so they'd rather not.
MOLLY BLOOM: So it is not in their best interest to sting you at all.
PERCY JOY: Nuh-uh.
MOLLY BLOOM: And can you tell me what we're hearing in the background right now, Harlan?
HARLAN: Roosters. My rooster, Tomato, and then his little partner, my sister's rooster, Sunrise.
MOLLY BLOOM: How many other animals live with you?
PERCY JOY: We have nine chickens. Two of them are roosters. We have two goats--
HARLAN: A dog and a cat.
PERCY JOY: --a dog and a cat, And, as you know, bees.
MOLLY BLOOM: So do you think of the bees as your pets?
HARLAN: There are my many, many, many, many, many, many, many, thousand many sisters.
MOLLY BLOOM: So how do you think of them? Do you think of them as your pets or your family?
PERCY JOY: I think that they're cute, but I don't think of them as my pets or my sisters.
GROUP: Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, Brains On.
MOLLY BLOOM: Well, today's topic was inspired by this question.
ELVIS: Hi. My name is Elvis from North Bay, Ontario. My question is, why are bees important?
MOLLY BLOOM: So how would you to answer this question? Why are bees important?
HARLAN: Without the bees flowers wouldn't get pollinated. And so, bees wouldn't make honey.
PERCY JOY: And without bees, it'd be hard to grow crops as well.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, bees are important for a lot of different reasons. And it turns out, the bees are so important, that we actually need two episodes to tell you why. In this first episode, we're going to start with some bee basics and tell you about life in a hive.
Our second episode will cover the wonders of pollination. So let's start with some bee facts. Can we get some buzz-worthy music?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Bees are found on every continent except for Antarctica.
PERCY JOY: Yeah. Bees haven't mastered polar fleece technology yet.
HARLAN: Bees evolved from wasps.
MOLLY BLOOM: So bees and wasps are different. You might think some wasps are bees because some species of wasps, like hornets and yellow jackets, look like the yellow and black bees.
HARLAN: But they're not bees.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wasps get their protein by eating meat, which means they're carnivores.
PERCY JOY: Bees, on the other hand, they get their protein from pollen, which is a sticky powder found on flowers.
MOLLY BLOOM: There are a few bees that eat dead animal flesh, but they're super uncommon compared to the pollen-gatherers.
HARLAN: Bees also have special hairs to help them gather pollen.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's right. Their hairs are branched. That means under a microscope, each hair splits off in different directions at the end, like the branch of a tree. This helps more pollen stick to them.
HARLAN: That makes bees super important.
MOLLY BLOOM: One third of all the food we eat is pollinated by animals. That means, an animal visits a flower, gets pollen on it, and carries it to another flower. This lets a plant grow things, like fruits and nuts.
PERCY JOY: And here in North America, a whole lot of that pollination is done by bees.
HARLAN: Without them, humans and other animals might starve.
MOLLY BLOOM: So bee thankful for our itty bitty busy buzzy bodies. We're going to talk more about pollination in our next episode. There's a lot to say about--
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh, hey, you guys are still taping.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, we're actually right in the middle of--
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, don't worry, Molly, you won't disturb us.
MOLLY BLOOM: No, I think you're disturbing us.
MENAKA WILHELM: We're about to earn another bee squad badge.
HARLAN: Neat. I want to see that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Great. Because I told our squad councilor to meet us here for the test.
HARLAN: What's this badge for?
MENAKA WILHELM: Busting bee myths. It turns out, there are a lot of bogus bee facts buzzing about. And it's up to bee squad cadets to swat them down.
HARLAN: Cool.
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh, she's here. Are my wings on straight?
SHIELA COLLA: My name is Sheila Colla. I'm an assistant professor and conservation biologist at York University in Toronto, Canada. And today, I will be your bee squad counselor.
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh, man, I hope I studied enough.
SHIELA COLLA: All right, bee cadets, let's do some bee myth-busting.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We're totally ready, squad leader Sheila.
SHIELA COLLA: All right, Sanden, bust a bee myth.
MENAKA WILHELM: OK. OK. Oh, one myth is that bees are all social creatures that live in hives and work in groups. In reality, there are over 20,000 different types of bees, and only a small number of them live in big groups together and serve a queen. The rest live by themselves and lay eggs alone, maybe on a branch or in a small hole in the ground, not in a hive. Oh, and most bees don't make honey.
SHIELA COLLA: That's right. So when people think about bees, they often think of beehives and honey. But most of our bees are solitary. They don't live in hives. It'll just be one female laying eggs that will hatch later in the year or the next year. Almost none of our species make honey and store honey, and a very small proportion of bees live in hives. So bumblebees do and honey bees do, but that's less than 10% of the total number of species out there.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes, got it.
MENAKA WILHELM: Nice work. Way to buzz, Sanden.
SHIELA COLLA: Your return, Menaka. Bust another bee myuth.
MENAKA WILHELM: Oh. Oh. OK. OK, I got one. A myth is, bees are always black and yellow. In reality, some bees are black and yellow, but a ton of them aren't. They have a lot of different styles, and colors, and sizes. And a lot of times, when people see a black and yellow bug with wings, what they're really looking at is a yellow jacket wasp, which isn't a bee at all.
SHIELA COLLA: Yeah, great job. We have green bees, and blue bees, and orange bees, all sorts of different colors, and shapes, and sizes.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Excellent job, Menaka.
MENAKA WILHELM: Thanks, Sanden.
SHIELA COLLA: One more bee myth busted.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yes.
SANDEN TOTTEN: OK, our final bee myth is--
MENAKA WILHELM: That all bees can sting.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Sure, bees are famous for their stingers, but plenty of bees don't actually sting.
MENAKA WILHELM: And male bees never sting. Stingers evolved from a bee part called an ovipositor, and that's a structure that only females have. They use it to lay eggs. Male bees don't have this, so they can't sting.
SANDEN TOTTEN: But there are plenty of species of bees, where the female never evolved the stinger either. The ones that do sting tend to be those that live in hives because, obviously, they need to protect that delicious honey.
MENAKA WILHELM: Did we get it?
SHIELA COLLA: Yeah, that's right.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes, awesome. Way to go.
MENAKA WILHELM: We did it.
SHIELA COLLA: Woo, good job, bee squad. Here are your myth-busting badges.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yay, waggle, waggle, buzz.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes, one step closer to the pollinator posse.
MOLLY BLOOM: Nice job, you two.
PERCY JOY: Those were some super sneaky bee myths you busted.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yep. Now, can we please have our studio back?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, of course, we'll buzz right off.
MENAKA WILHELM: Buzz, buzz, bye.
MOLLY BLOOM: This seems like a good time to pollinate your ears with some sneaky audio. It's the--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
GIRL: (WHISPERING) Mystery sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Harlan, Percy Joy, are you ready?
HARLAN: Yes.
PERCY JOY: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
Whoa, I think we should hear that one more time. It's pretty short.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
I'm going to give you a little hint just to start, but this does not have to do with bees and honey. It's one a listener sent to us. So what are your guesses? Let's start with you, Percy Joy.
PERCY JOY: It sounds like-- since we, as Harlan mentioned, we have a pool. When the water is sucking in to filter, it sounds like that. But I don't know. It has that crunching sound to it.
MOLLY BLOOM: Excellent thinking. Harlan, what do you think?
HARLAN: Sounds like something spinning and then crunching a piece of salad. Like [MAKING SOUND].
PERCY JOY: A salad spinner?
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, love it. Very good guess. We're going to listen to it again and find out the answer a little bit later in the show.
PERCY JOY: So make like honey.
HARLAN: And stick around.
MOLLY BLOOM: We're working on an episode all about siblings, and we want you to be in it.
PERCY JOY: Are you a middle child, or maybe the oldest, or youngest?
HARLAN: Or maybe you're an only child.
MOLLY BLOOM: Whatever your status, tell us what's good and bad about it. Harlan, what's it like to be the middle child?
HARLAN: If one of my sister gets mad at me, and they don't want to play with me, I can just play with my other sister.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's pretty great. And Percy Joy, how do you feel about being the older sibling?
PERCY JOY: I like it because I get more responsibility. It's fun. I like it a lot.
MOLLY BLOOM: I'm an older sibling, too. It is pretty fun. We want to hear your experiences, too, listeners.
PERCY JOY: Record them and upload them at brainson.org/contact.
HARLAN: You can also send us mystery sounds and questions.
MOLLY BLOOM: Like this one.
MARIA: I'm Maria, and I'm five. Why do bee hives look like popsicles?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll answer that at the end of the show. Plus, we'll make a big buzz over the latest group to join the Brain's honor roll. And we're excited to tell you about our book. It's called Brains On Presents-- It's Alive. From Neurons and Narwhals to the Fungus Among Us.
It's super fun and full of facts. We're also doing some virtual events to celebrate the book. If you want to attend, hang out with me, Marc, and Sanden virtually, guess some mystery sound and some other fun stuff. Head to brainson.org/events.
You're listening to Brains On from American Public Media. I'm Molly.
HARLAN: I'm Harlan.
PERCY JOY: I'm Percy Joy.
MENAKA WILHELM: And I'm Menaka. Molly, guess what?
MOLLY BLOOM: What? Another bee batch?
MENAKA WILHELM: Almost as good, but different. The new season of RHOTH comes out this week.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Finally.
MOLLY BLOOM: RHOTH?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, it's an acronym-- R-H-O-T-H. It stands for Real Honey Bees of the Hive. It's the best reality TV show. It takes you straight into the lives of honeybees.
MOLLY BLOOM: Wow, you guys have really gone all in on bees.
SANDEN TOTTEN: You've got to watch it, Molly. But don't jump right into the new season, which is fall in the hive. You'll be so confused. Here, let me find a recap of the bees' summer season first.
MENAKA WILHELM: Our favorite Real Honeybees recapper is Soraya Stewart. She's an actual researcher or a beesearcher. She's at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She'll catch you right up.
SORAYA STEWART: Here's what happened on the last season of Real Honey Bees of the Hive. The bees of the hive have been working tirelessly to keep the hive growing and thriving. So first, let's meet the real honey bees. The three kinds of honey bees that we see in the hive are queens, drones, and, of course, the workers. Beatrice is the queen bee.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: I'm Queen Beeatrice. My tagline-- the eggs aren't going to lay themselves.
SORAYA STEWART: Her entire role is to lay eggs. Beethan is a drone bee.
BEETHAN: Chilling around the hive is a skill. I got that chill skill. That's a Beethan trademark, but I'll let you play it for free.
SORAYA STEWART: In the summer season, Beethan doesn't do a lot inside of the colony. Beeanca is a worker bee.
BEEANCA: Me and all my worker sisters, we do the most around here. People say, Beeanca, how do you get so much done? And well, some of us are just talented.
SORAYA STEWART: Worker bees are the motor that keep the hive running because they perform so many different duties. So let's start with Beeatrice and Beeanca. Queen bees in the summer are constantly laying eggs around the clock.
BEEANCA: OK, Queen Beeatrice, we're ready for your egg. Over here, here's the empty cell for you.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: OK, on my way.
BEEANCA: Queen Beeatrice, do you ever wonder why we call the hexagonal cubbies in our hive cells?
QUEEN BEEATRICE: Nope. I just lay eggs in them.
BEEANCA: OK, well, that's a larger cell, so we'll have you lay a drone egg there, my queen.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: Beeanca, I know. I always measure before I lay an egg. I laid your egg and the eggs that became all your sisters in smaller cells. Now, less talking and more cleaning.
BEEANCA: Queen Beeatrice, do you ever get tired of doing the same thing, day in and day out? I'm tired of cleaning, and I've only been doing it since I left my cell, three whole days ago.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: This generation of worker bees has the shortest attention spans. You'll change jobs soon enough, Beeanca. Until then, keep cleaning.
SORAYA STEWART: So the next task in a worker bee's life is nursing the brood, and this often happens after about five days in the hive.
BEEANCA: Hello, baby bees, you cute little brood of our hive. It's snack time. And you know what's on the menu? Brood food. It's like a nutritious milkshake. I made it for you in the glands inside of my head. Here, I'll leave some in your cells for you, and you, and-- oh, you're a special bee baby, aren't you?
You're going to grow up to be a queen. So I'm feeding you a special food, called royal jelly. I made it special for you in my glands. And wow, you have a big appetite. Wow. This nursing gig is so much more satisfying than cleaning.
I didn't change jobs because of my attention span. It's what I meant to do as a worker. Forget what Queen Beeatrice said. Anyways, you, baby queen, you're going to be a way, queening your queen one day.
SORAYA STEWART: So in the summer season, the queens and the workers are all very much working towards growing the numbers in the hive.
MENAKA WILHELM: Time for a quick break. Be right back.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, Percy Joy and Harlan, you ready to give that mystery sound another go?
HARLAN: Sure.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, here it is again.
[MYSTERY SOUND]
PERCY JOY: I still hear that sucking sound.
HARLAN: Now, it sounds like somebody's slurping spaghetti.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, excellent. You ready to hear the answer?
PERCY JOY: Yes.
MATTY: This is Matty.
ZACK: Zack.
MARGOT: And Margot.
MATTY: We're from Alaska.
ZACK: This is the sound of a sockeye salmon being filleted.
MATTY: We hear this sound a lot in Alaska because we fish for our own salmon.
MOLLY BLOOM: So, yes, after you catch a fish and you prepare it to eat, you are filleting it. So they are actually taking the skin off of the salmon and are getting ready to cook it.
PERCY JOY: That is--
HARLAN: Wow.
PERCY JOY: --unbelievable.
MOLLY BLOOM: So it is connected to food. You guys are right. You had salad spinner spaghetti, so something to eat, but it's a fish.
PERCY JOY: OK.
MOLLY BLOOM: Have you ever been fishing before?
HARLAN: Yes. We went to Montana a few, I think, a few months ago. I caught a-- I forgot the name of it.
PERCY JOY: Yellowstone cutthroat.
HARLAN: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Very cool.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SORAYA STEWART: And we're back. Next up, my favorite scene of the season.
BEETHAN: Hey, Beeanca. Oh, wait, are you sleeping?
BEEANCA: What? Who's there? Beethan. I was resting.
SORAYA STEWART: Worker bees rests in short bursts throughout the day.
BEETHAN: Oh, sorry, I couldn't tell because you look the same. Your eyes were open.
BEEANCA: Yeah, my eyes don't close, and yours don't either, Beethan. We don't have eyelids. But some of us have actual jobs to do besides sitting around the hive, hanging out, and eating honey.
BEETHAN: OK, I get it. Everyone thinks drones like me are lazy.
BEEANCA: Yeah. Do you know how many jobs I've had while you were just hanging out with your drone bros? I cleaned, then I took care of baby bees, then I tended to our queen, then I started receiving nectar deliveries, then I cleaned more, then I made more wax to build our home.
BEETHAN: I didn't ask for your resume. You know what I have to do one day, Beeanca?
BEEANCA: What, Beethan? Eat more honey?
BEETHAN: No. One day, me and all the other drones, we have to fly out of our cozy hive into the great unknown and try to find a queen from another hive to mate with. Then, she'll start a whole new colony. It sounds so difficult, but I have to do it so that our hive can live on in future generations of bees. It's a lot of pressure.
BEEANCA: Oh, wow. Yeah, that does sound overwhelming. Do you want me to get you some honey?
BEETHAN: Yeah, thank you. That would be so nice. That's what I originally wanted to ask you, to be honest. All you workers run the honey show around here, so I need your help to find the honey and stuff.
SORAYA STEWART: Overall, this is my favorite season yet.
BEEANCA: Let's all say our favorite thing from the summer, so far. Queen Beeatrice, you go first.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: OK. I loved laying you and your sister's eggs. You've actually all made me so proud.
BEEANCA: Oh, Queen Beeatrice, I loved making you proud. I actually can't decide what my favorite job was. I loved all my jobs.
BEETHAN: I think you guys pretty much know this, but my favorite thing was when workers fed me honey. I'm sorry I have to leave the hive to go find a mate, but I'm so glad I got to spend part of the season with you.
BEEANCA: Oh, Beethan, yeah, that was great.
QUEEN BEEATRICE: Yeah, good luck out there. Real honey bees at the high forever. We'll meet new worker bees in the winter season. I can't wait.
SANDEN TOTTEN: We did it. We got our next badge.
MENAKA WILHELM: We're in the bumble bee besties now.
PERCY JOY: Awesome.
HARLAN: Yeah, congrats.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Thanks. We passed our final test, with the best score possible.
MENAKA WILHELM: Yeah, a B.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Next, we're going to work on leveling up to join the elite ranks of the pollinator posse. We're going to study with some treats at Froyo Fortress.
MENAKA WILHELM: I'm going to get the root beer moat float. Come meet us there after the show.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sure. Where is it?
MENAKA WILHELM: Take two waggles and a buzz past Fifth Street. See you there.
HARLAN: There are lots of different kinds of bees. Some make honey and live in hives, but many don't.
MOLLY BLOOM: But all bees gather pollen.
HARLAN: For bees who live in hives, the queen bee lays all the eggs.
MOLLY BLOOM: Drone bees are the male bees who will leave the hive to mate with a new queen.
PERCY JOY: And worker honey bees do all kinds of jobs around the hive.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode.
PERCY JOY: Next week, more buzz about bees.
HARLAN: We'll talk more about pollination and why it's so important.
PERCY JOY: Brains On is produced by Marc Sanchez, Sanden Totten, and Molly Bloom, and Menaka Wilhelm.
MOLLY BLOOM: Many, many thank you's to Megan Brown. We also had production help from Christina Lopez and engineering help from Johnny Vince Evans. Special thanks to Mike Kilbourne, David Jarre, and Elyssa Dudley.
PERCY JOY: Brains On is a nonprofit public radio podcast.
HARLAN: Your support allows us to keep making more episodes.
MOLLY BLOOM: You can support the show at brainson.org/fans.
HARLAN: Now, before we go, it's time for the Moment of Um.
SPEAKER 3: Why do bee's hives look like hexagons?
JESSICA KEVILL: Hello. My name is Dr. Jessica Kevill, and I work at the University of Minnesota, where I research honeybee viruses and also other animal viruses. So the honeybee needs to build the honeycomb because they need a space to be able to store their honey.
One average honeybee will make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey, and it takes 2 tablespoons of honey to make one ounce of wax. So the honeybees will need a lot of honey. And this will require a lot of work from the worker bees in terms of flower visits and bringing back nectar to the hive and then converting that into honey.
Because it's so expensive, in terms of honey, to build the wax, what the honey bees have done is they have had to design a really efficient system. And one way that they've done this is by building these hexagon shapes because it requires the least amount of wax material to build for the maximum amount of strength to be able to store the honey.
But not only do they build their hexagonal shape to store their honey in. They build them on a slight angle so that the honey cannot drip out of the honeycomb. So the bees are pretty clever. They're trying to minimize waste and drippage and maximize the amount of storage space that they have using as little amount of wax as they can.
So this hexagon structure is actually so effective in terms of material usage and honey storage, that we have actually started using honeycomb structures in materials that we need to be strong. So we use them for building bridges, the sheeting that goes on the outside of the airplane, the material that makes that is made from hexagonal shapes. So it's just the best shape in nature that the honeybee could find to be able to store its honey without the wax all collapsing, all the honey dripping out.
MOLLY BLOOM: These beautiful listeners are our favorites. It's time for the Brains honor roll. These are the amazing listeners who keep this show fueled with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives.
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
PERCY JOY: We'll be back soon with more answers to your questions.
HARLAN: Thanks for listening.
Transcription services provided by 3Play Media.
