Tuesday, March 28th, 2017 by Brandon Runyon

As an Entomologist, I get to hear a lot of Idioms, puns, and play on words related to insects. My favorite one to get into and explain has always been, “As busy as a bee”. The question I like to ask people who use this phrase is, “Just how busy do you think a bee is?” To start, for the bees to make just a quart of honey they have to cover over an estimated 48,000 miles to gather nectar needed. On top of these constant daily trips between flowers and the hive, the bees have a number of other jobs they have to do. All of the worker bees are female; the males get off easy in terms of work. A worker bee’s job will be related to how old the be is.  The older the bee is, the more dangerous the work. The younger bees take food throughout the hive and take care of the young. The middle age bees are the ones to find the flowers. The older bees are on guard duty and have to protect the hive. So, the next time you compare someone to a busy little bee, think about all the work the bees do each and every day.