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The language of bee and honey

These words often show up in searches, so I decided to make a table of translations. I had guessed that many of them meant either “bee” or “honey” because they show up frequently, almost every day. So just for fun, here are those two words in 42 languages.

Language

Bee

Honey
Arabic نَحْلَـه، نَحْـل عَسَل
Bulgarian пчела мед
Chinese 蜜蜂 蜂蜜
Croatian pčela med
Czech včela med
Danish bi honning
Dutch bij honing
Estonian mesilane mesi
Euskera (Basque) erle ezti
Farsi زنبور عسل
Finnish ampiainen hunaja
French abeille miel
German Biene Honig
Greek μέλισσα Μέλι
Hebrew דְבוֹרָה דבש
Hindi मधुमक्खी शहद
Hungarian méh méz
Icelandic býfluga hunang
Indonesian lebah madu
Italian ape miele
Japanese みつばち 蜂蜜
Korean 벌 꿀
Lithuanian bitė medus
Latvian bite medus
Malay lebah madu
Norwegian bie honning
Polish pszczoła miód
Persian زنبور عسل
Pashto موچی شات
Portuguese abelha mel
Romanian albină miere
Russian пчела мёд
Slovak včela med
Slovenian čebela med
Serbian pčela мед
Spanish abeja miel
Swedish bi honung
Thai ผึ้ง น้ำผึ้ง
Turkish arı bal
Ukrainian бджола мед
Urdu شہد کی مکھی ، مگس شہد
Vietnamese con ong mật ong

Are bees insects or animals?

The short answer is yes, bees are both insects and animals. In fact, all insects are animals, and pretty much anything that’s not a plant, a fungus, a bacterium, a virus, or a protist is an animal too.

I’m dating myself here, but when I attended grade school, everything was either a plant or an animal—those were the only choices. I remember being completely stumped by a euglena, a single-celled organism that could swim, surround and absorb food, or—if the pickings were slim—just manufacture some food with its personal supply of chlorophyll. How convenient. I’ve been in restaurants where that would have been a welcome choice.

But ultimately common sense prevailed and now we have a bunch of so-called kingdoms in which to divide all those single-celled half-breeds of life. Depending on whom you talk to, in addition to plants and animals we have fungi, protists, and two types of bacteria.

But for simplicity’s sake, we can rule out all those oddballs for this discussion, because we know a bee is not a fungus, a bacterium, or any other fringy life form. That leaves plant or animal.

Animals have several characteristics that are simple to recognize, and some more technical ones which we don’t need to bother with. Here are the easiest to understand:

  • Animals are multicellular, meaning they are made up of more than one cell.
  • Animals eat. They bring food into their bodies for energy and nutrients rather than manufacturing their own food the way plants do.
  • Animals move. At some point in their life cycle, animals can move from place to place under their own power. They swim, walk, crawl, hop, fly, slither, wriggle, or roll—but they get there.
  • Animals lack rigid cells walls. Their bodies are soft and pliable rather than woody like a tree, fibrous like hemp, or crunchy like a carrot.

Since a bee has many cells, can eat, can fly, and is not woody, a bee is an animal. No doubt about it—it’s not even close to being anything else.

What makes an animal an insect is a little more complex, but generally an insect has

  • An exoskeleton (a hard exterior instead of bones)
  • Three pairs of legs
  • Three body segments
  • Most have antennae
  • Most have external mouthparts

As you can see, a bee fits that description as well. I’ve greatly simplified things here, but I want you to see that these classifications are not mysterious—they are made of things we can observe. If you know some basic biology, you can pretty much figure out what any creepy-crawly might be.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Fifteen ways to attract pollinators to your yard

Here are fifteen easy ways to assure you will have a plentiful supply of pollinators all season long. Although we’re half way through summer, it’s not too soon to start planning for next year.

  • Plant clover in your lawn. White Dutch clover planted in your lawn will attract dozens of pollinators. In addition, it fixes atmospheric nitrogen into a form the grass can use, resulting in a beautiful green lawn without the use of chemical fertilizers.
  • Plant at least some native species. Native plants attract native pollinators. Check with your local extension office if you are unsure of what is native.
  • Plant herbs. Herbs, especially those in the mint family, are very attractive to pollinators. This family includes thyme, oregano, sage, basil, peppermint, lavender, catnip and rosemary. As an added bonus, you get to use the herbs yourself.
  • Select plants with a wide range of bloom times. Native bees need food from spring until fall so plan to have something in bloom all season long.
  • Plant larval host plants. Some plants are not considered especially attractive in the garden but are necessary to certain species of pollinators. Milkweed, for instance, is vital to the larval stages of Monarch butterflies. Plant them in an inconspicuous place if you prefer, but have them available for the pollinators.
  • Avoid hybrid varieties. Many flowers that have been bread for beauty have lost the nectar or pollen that made them valuable to pollinators. Plants with double or triple rings of petals, or plants with unusual colors or variegated patterns are probably over-hybridized.
  • Leave open patches of mud. Many ground-nesting bees need open patches of mud for their homes or for building materials.
  • Provide a water source. It doesn’t need to be large or fancy. Just a wet spot under the end of a hose can help the insects.
  • Avoid excessive mulch. Too much mulch blocks entry to the ground. Ground-burrowing insects often cannot penetrate a heavy layer of mulch.
  • Add sea salt or wood ash to a bare patch of earth. Pollinators are often seen collecting minerals from salty or ashy areas. Your patch needn’t be large and it shouldn’t be overworked. If the insects need it, they will find it.
  • Provide nesting sites. Collections of reeds or holes drilled in blocks of wood provide great nesting sites. Tubes or blocks should be replaced periodically to limit disease build-up.
  • Leave dead trees and reeds standing. If a dead tree can safely be allowed to stand, it should be left as habit for bees, birds, and small rodents. Dead and standing reeds are a favorite of wild bees.
  • Leave an unmowed patch of grass and weeds in a protected spot. Tall grass provides protection, shade, and hunting grounds for many species of pollinators. Some pollinators—such as hover flies—feed on insects as well as nectar, so they do best in a place that provides an alternate food source.
  • Put a flower pot on every porch . . . and encourage your friends to do the same. The more plants that are available, the healthier our pollinators will be.
  • Use no pesticides. Until we reduce dependence on pesticides, items 1-14 are all for naught.

Rusty

Yellow bumble bee on blackberry
Yellow bumble bee on blackberry

“How do I kill my neighbor’s honey bees?”

This is an open letter to the person who looked for the answer to this question on my website:

Dear Angry Person,

In case you hadn’t noticed, the world population is edging toward 7 billion—that’s a 7 with nine zeros after it. Among these people are a whole lot that don’t like each other, and many who don’t like anything at all.

I don’t know what your problem is, whether you dislike bees, have an allergy, or don’t like your neighbor. But whatever the problem, you are definitely taking the wrong approach.

Talk to your neighbor about the problem or, if you can’t do that, talk through an intermediary. Go to a lawyer if you must, but do not try to kill your neighbor’s bees. You will only make your problem worse.

I have had neighbor problems in the past (nothing to do with bees) and I know it can be frustrating. The thing that helped us prevail, however, is that we stayed on the right side of the law. We let our neighbor do the dirty tricks, the trespassing, the theft, the stalking, and the slander. By the end, even his own lawyer didn’t believe him. Hard as it may be not to retaliate, it is the only thing a reasonable, productive member of society can do.

I guarantee that no one will look at you favorably for killing someone else’s bees. You just make yourself look stupid.

So go find someone to help you resolve this problem through negotiation. If your neighbor is in the wrong by keeping bees where it is not allowed, he will have to do things differently. If he is doing nothing wrong, then you are the one who will have to change. Get used to it. Get a life.

Rusty