Epigraphs – Secret Life of Bees



Epigraphs – Secret Life of Bees

|Chapter |Epigraph |Brief Explanation of the Meaning of the Epigraph |Prediction of what the Chapter will be about|

| | | |based on the Epigraph |

|1 |The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of | | |

| |the community; if she is removed from the hive, | | |

| |the workers very quickly sense her absence. After | | |

| |a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable | | |

| |signs of queenlessness. –Man and Insects | | |

|2 |On leaving the old nest, the swarm normally flies | | |

| |only a few metres and settles. Scout bees look for| | |

| |a suitable place to start the new colony. | | |

| |Eventually, one location wins favor and the whole | | |

| |swarm takes to the air. –Bees of the World | | |

|3 |New beekeepers are told that the way to find the | | |

| |elusive queen is by first locating her circle of | | |

| |attendants. –The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs| | |

| |of Bees and Men | | |

|4 |Honeybees are social insects and live in colonies.| | |

| |Each colony is a family unit, comprising a single,| | |

| |egg-laying female or queen and her many sterile | | |

| |daughters called workers. The workers co-operate | | |

| |in the food-gathering, nest-building, and rearing | | |

| |the off-spring. Males are reared only at the times| | |

| |of year when their presence is required. –Bees of | | |

| |the World | | |

|5 |Let’s imagine for a moment that we are tiny enough| | |

| |to follow a bee into a hive. Usually the first | | |

| |thing we would have to get used to is the | | |

| |darkness. . . –Exploring the World of Social | | |

| |Insects | | |

|6 |The queen must produce some substance that | | |

| |attracts the workers and that can be obtained from| | |

| |her only by direct contact. This substance | | |

| |evidently stimulates the normal working behavior | | |

| |in the hive. This chemical messenger has been | | |

| |called “queen substance.” Experiments have shown | | |

| |that the bees obtain it directly from the body of | | |

| |the queen. –Man and Insects | | |

|7 |How did bees ever become equated with sex? They | | |

| |do not live a riotous sex life themselves. A hive | | |

| |suggests cloister more than bordello. –The Queen | | |

| |Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men | | |

Epigraphs continued. . .

|8 |Honeybees depend not only on physical contact with| | |

| |the colony, but also require its social | | |

| |companionship and support. Isolate a honeybee from| | |

| |her sisters and she will soon die. –The Queen Must| | |

| |Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men | | |

|9 |The whole fabric of honey bee society depends on | | |

| |communication—on an innate ability to send and | | |

| |receive messages, to encode and decode | | |

| |information. –The Honey Bee | | |

|10 |A bee’s life is but short. During spring and | | |

| |summer—the most strenuous periods of | | |

| |foraging—a worker bee, as a rule, does not live | | |

| |more than four or five weeks . . . Threatened by | | |

| |all kinds of dangers during their foraging | | |

| |flights, many workers die before they have reached| | |

| |even that age. –The Dancing Bees | | |

|11 |It takes honeybee workers ten million foraging | | |

| |trips to gather enough nectar to make one pound of| | |

| |honey. –Bees of the World | | |

|12 |If the queen were smarter, she would probably be | | |

| |hopelessly neurotic. As is, she is shy and | | |

| |skittish, possibly because she never leaves the | | |

| |hive, but spends her days confined in darkness, a | | |

| |kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor. . . .| | |

| |Her true | | |

| |role is less that of a queen than mother of the | | |

| |hive, a title often accorded to her. And yet, this| | |

| |is something of a mockery because of her lack of | | |

| |maternal instincts or the ability to care for her | | |

| |young. –The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of | | |

| |Bees and Men | | |

|13 |A worker [bee] is just over a centimeter long and | | |

| |weighs only about sixty milligrams; nevertheless, | | |

| |she can fly with a load heavier than herself. –The| | |

| |Honey Bee | | |

|14 |A queenless colony is a pitiful and melancholy | | |

| |community; there may be a mournful wail or lament | | |

| |from within. . . . Without intervention, the | | |

| |colony will die. But introduce a new queen and the| | |

| |most extravagant change takes place. –The | | |

| |Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men | | |

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