THE FLIGHT OF THE BEE

The Flight of the Bee ~ 237 ~ THE FLIGHT OF THE BEE The bees make their hives at one place, but often have to travel many miles to other places to suck the nectar from the flowers. Sometimes they have to keep flying the whole day in order to do so, and observation of the bees has shown that when they leave home in the early morning, it is still dark, but that when they set off home in the evening, the sun has not yet set and it is still light. To leave in the morning darkness and return in the evening light is a very practical thing to do, because travelling in the morning means moving from dark to light while travelling in the evening means moving from light to dark. The bee takes into account the time span between its arrival and departure and makes its journeys accordingly. It knows that it can travel to distant parts without losing its way provided it does so in the daylight, but it can start its journey in darkness because it knows that daylight is not far away. Similarly, it avoids the possibility of going astray in the dark by being as close as possible to its hive in the evening when darkness is about to fall, so it sets off on its last journey home while it is still light.