People are Busy Bees Too

Yesterday I opined on the behavior of bees. Their efficiency as they grazed from flower to flower impressed me. It occurs to me as well that as former hunter gatherers, we also show a strong tendency to remember where our food is.

This was brought home to me in a most powerful way by Steven Pinker in his book, "The Language Instinct". Besides proposing that the acquiring of language is an instinctive feature of infant development, he suggests a list of more than a dozen "families of instincts" on page 437 that are hard-wired in to every human being. Notably missing is "love", though it might be included under his designated instincts of Kinship and Mating.

I've been thinking about the instincts as Pinker describes around Intuitive Biology, Mental Maps of large territories, and Food means that we build habits in our day around what we eat, when we eat, and where we find it.

The bees follow a routine. They come back to the same place around the same time of day and expect to find their reliable source. They prefer reliable sources.

Similarly, we like our routines. Since I am attempting to change my base habits around food, I am acutely aware of the portions I take in. If absently I put down a half-eaten piece of toast or a partially finished can of pop, a niggling reminder remains that it is "not finished yet". If hubby manages to interfere by scooping the half-completed can of pop when I am distracted, I am upset. I have a sense of being deprived.

Over time, I can reset my stomach settings of what "complete" means. Being aware that I am fighting base biology rather than personal weakness provides some comfort.

It also makes me wonder about the ever increasing portion sizes that the food industry has foisted on us here in North America.

I remember as a child that a restaurant cup of orange juice came in a tiny glass (by today's standards). Why? That little glass represented a whole lot of squeezed oranges. Over time, that portion became larger and larger. We lost track of where those oranges came from, and how much work it represented.

The cup sizes and portion sizes we take for granted today are all out of proportion for our needs.

I do see a trend towards "less is more"; the 99 c burgers and the 100 calorie snacks for instance. Perhaps this is a sign that our society now worships conservation rather than excess; not only for our own bodies, but for the world.

Flowers and Bees

One of my great pleasures, as those of you who know me, is watching my garden grow. Long hours of contemplation means I have come to know my garden, and it's bees, pretty well. The bees make their way through the garden methodically, checking each flower in turn. He makes his circuit and leaves. A few hours later, he does his tour again.

His grazing pattern reminds me of my Farm Town character, bobbing and weaving with an economy of effort to each task. It made me think that the bee's life, just like all others, is concerned with survival. His ability to find a good feeding ground, and avoid wasted effort, could mean the difference between life and starvation.

I find he has a strong preference for simple flowers that bloom for a short time only, maybe a day. Watching a bee harvest flax flowers is always a delight. The long stems bow under his weight and then catapault him away when he's done. The flowers drop in the heat of the day and then there is a fresh bloom the very next morning. I love watching flax.

He avoids the long-lasting compound flowers as long as he can. Is it because with the new flowers he is guaranteed fresh? Have we as humans, in our desire for complex and exotic shapes and long-lasting blooms, complicated the bee's life?

An exception to the compound bloom avoidance theory, was this bee. Naomi and I took pictures. But he wasn't acting normally at all. He was either drunk or very near death. He literally rested on the flower as he took his drink. This was the first time I ever saw a "lazy bee".

Linda's Bees is a blog I follow. She watches over her bees with an intensity that I can relate to.