Bees have a great sense of humour

"They won't do anything, don't get hysterical." She said this in a calm tone so as not to cause any more unnecessary panic. Of course, that was only partly true, because it had led to deaths.

It was a beautiful summer's day and most of the creatures were probably outside. The buzzing around the roses was really loud today, and there were hardly any seats left on the benches in the park. "They're doing something", a teenager exclaimed indignantly. "They're getting on my nerves."

The older woman replied in a calm voice: "They're more afraid of you than you are of them, you just can't make any sudden moves. If they don't feel threatened, they won't hurt you. Now hurry up! The day is long and we have a lot of work to do."

Then someone complained again about the threatening noises coming from the 'things', and others got quite angry about having to work here with so many of them. "Can't you ever work in peace?", someone from the team grumbled again. "I'm allergic to them, really. And there have been deaths in my family."

The forewoman muttered under her breath. But then she replied nonchalantly: "But that can usually be avoided. If you have to work around them, it's just a matter of staying calm. Nothing usually happens. They're not that fast, you know – and they don't follow you for long. If you don't act suspicious, you've got nothing to worry about. And as for the grumbling, that's just their way of communicating."

"Communicating?" One of the busy workers looked up and chuckled. "Do you really think they can talk to each other like we can? Come on!" Most of the group laughed, but the oldest woman wiped her face and said: "All living things communicate with each other, you should know that by now. Maybe only a few on the same highly evolved level as us, but they do. Just because we can't understand some creatures doesn't mean they can't speak in their own way." This sounded a little tired, for the sun had already lost some of its power and the day had been long.

"All right", said one of them, "many creatures can do that, I can see that. But these? I really can't imagine it. I mean, they're a pretty primitive species, aren't they?" The older woman couldn't resist launching into a lecture. She was talking about their special way of communicating, which had puzzled scientists for a long time, until they found out that it was not so much the body language or the dances that were important, but the sounds.

"What sounds? This grumbling and squeaking is their language?" They all looked amused, but the speaker was not disturbed by the interjection. "After all", she said in a firm tone, "we are dealing with a fairly intelligent species. Even if you cannot see it, you can see a constructive way of thinking in their hives. They understand the principle of production, even if their social structure is still a bit beyond us."

That was the end of the discussion, because the sun was setting fast and it was really time to stop working. Everyone left the meadow one by one to fly home in formation. One or two of the younger ones stayed a little longer, but they soon caught up. An older one thought with a little melancholy of her youth, when it had been one of her favourite pastimes to tease the ponderous humans with a few daring flying manoeuvres.

Bees have a great sense of humour. Don't they?

© "Bees have a great sense of humour": A short story by Izabel Comati, 01/2011. Photo of a honeybee: Lothar Seifert.