I myself have been a beekeeeper. I later became allergic to the stings, after some years of keeping bees (for private enjoyment, not for business, though I had earlier worked for a beekeeper). I have done some significant research on bees, being interested in biology and entomology.

Entomology, in fact, was one of my favorite courses in college. One thing most people do not know about bees is that all of the worker bees, since they are female like the queen, are capable of laying eggs. Rarely they do. However, if a worker bee lays an egg, it must always become a drone (a male bee), because the workers are not fertilized. When a queen lays an egg, she chooses the gender of that egg by choosing whether or not to fertilize it from the sperm store she has. It is amazing that a queen only mates once, and then subsequently lays, during brooding season, from 2,000 - 6,000 eggs a day, and she will keep this up for 5 - 7 years. This means the sperm is somehow perfectly preserved in her for that long. I don't think scientists know everything about this yet.

The queen is the longest-lived bee. Drones last only a season. Workers, during the peak of honey gathering, will last only two weeks once they have left the hive to forage. They literally work themselves to death.

Every bee colony will have two scout bees whose sole job is to find food sources and alert the other foragers. Younger bees stay in the hive to nurse the brood, and maintain the hive temperature.

It would be impossible, from a practical standpoint, for the work inside the hive to cease at any point, especially during brooding. The young larvae must be fed, and the hive temperature and humidity of the honey maintained, or the brood or honey will spoil.

However, if the foragers ceased their labors for one day a week, it might extend their working lives significantly, and thus be a more efficient hive in the long run, especially if food sources were more scarce, or if the nectar/honey season were shorter.

In other words, having significant experience with bees, this state of things would not surprise me. The surprise would be to see that it was consistently the Sabbath day on which they rested...for then it must be studied how their clocks can work so well.

(Remember, there is nothing in nature which corresponds to our seven-day cycle. We have the rotation of the earth for a day, a lunar orbit for a month, and a solar orbit for a year--but nothing indicates our seven day week with the exception of the Creation Week tradition.)

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

I assumed this is only certain types of bees and not like the ones in the U.S. My parents raised bees and I remember many times on Sabbath I had to crouch real low going past the hives for a walk or I would get stung from the high activity of the bees.

I had thought before about a bee's life being short, but if they last only 2 weeks, would that imply they hatch out only at certain times to coincide with the Sabbath? Otherwise, it would be hard to imagine bees at different stages all resting at the same time. A large portion of their lives would be resting on the Sabbath. Hatching out one day different could result in twice the amount of rest period.

kland,

The bees will live for a few weeks inside the hive before becoming foragers. Thus, the total lifespan of the honey bee will usually be at least six weeks. But the two weeks of foraging until they've worked themselves to death applies only to those bees which do not "keep the Sabbath." What I was pointing out is that, probably, those bees in Brazil which rest one day a week would not die so quickly. One day of rest might extend their lifespan by several days, not just one day. So they may have lifespans outside the hive which were double, triple, or more, that of the typical honey bees.

Until we find a scientific observation on this, however, it is pure conjecture.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

That's clear now. I had thought you were saying that if they were not resting, those two weeks would be shorter yet. What you have clarified should be easy to determine. However, even if the types of bees in Brazil live longer, it's confounded by being a different type of bee and therefore can't make a direct comparison. The best way is to watch them. Who's going to fund it? Perhaps some of the funding could come from those sponsoring studies showing that people who eat more gain more weight?

I think this is a nifty idea that is great when it supports one's view but completely falls apart when or if further observations contradict those views. I believe one should be careful about basing their religion on an antidote which if shown to be false would invalidate it. Even when sharing with others. Imagine the results when you tell someone, the Sabbath is true because bees keep it. Then what happens if it is shown to be false, misinterpreted, or shown that other creatures keep Sunday or Wednesday. The Sabbath is true from believing the Bible is true.

Our basis for the Sabbath should be based solely on the Bible rather than on a because the bees are keeping it.

If this is true about the bees keeping the Sabbath, or resting on the Sabbath, then we should see this as an interesting event, rather than as a form of evidence or basis of our own need to keep the Sabbath, or rest on the Sabbath.

The sabbath keeping bees in not about proving the biblical sabbath, but rather digging into the wonders of our heavenly father principles of life and how He fulfills his laws in creatures that cannot read the bible or go to seminar to be convicted about the sabbath or other life fulfilling principles. Before Sin came into this world, all creation was in harmony with their Creator, and all were keeping the sabbath without knowing that they should keep the sabbath, and without knowing it was part of God's law.

That's what Dr.Lee talks about. By understanding how the Creator can communicate with it's creatures that don't go to universities and don't have an intellectual faculties like ours, how do they come to know the will of God. That's the essence of this phenomena. This essence will help us not be so Laodicean spirited and might bring us to depend more on God than our intellect and idols.

These bees are keeping the sabbath better than any of us, and there not as smart as us.

As keeping the Sabbath also involves worship and corporate worship at that by the assembling of ourselves together, are the bees doing that?

The answer to my question is an obvious no in that the bees do not have any intellect to do that.

If the bees are actually resting on the Sabbath, which would be an interesting phenomena, and I am not saying here whether they are or they aren't, then they are doing it out of some God given instinct.

I'm sorry, I guess I don't recall that. Where do you find it?

Where did I get that? A bit everywhere.

1. Isn't God's law is an expression of his love and wisdom including the sabbath?
2. Doesn't the harmony of the Whole universe "depend upon the perfect conformity of all beings, of everything, animate and inanimate, to the law of the Creator."
3. Isn't sin the Rebellion against God and His Laws?
4. Doesn't sin break the harmony in the whole universe? (I'm pretty sure Bible says that)
5. At Eden God blessed the 7th day, however, does it say that Adam and Eve knew about it? Did Adam and Eve knew about not to kill, or not to covet, or any of the other commandments?
6. Doesn't the Bible say the Sabbath is a forever commandment ?
7. Isn't the Sabbath the mark of God the Creator?
8. Doesn't EGW says somewhere that the Sabbath is observe in heaven?
9. Do you assume that God didn't give the Sabbath needed in his other creatures because God is uncapable of fulfilling that like in this example the bees?
10. Do you assume that only creatures with high level of intellect can keep the sabbath?

Ah, you conclude it.