The Fable of the Honey Bee

by Barry J. Northern

A honey bee worker emerged from her brood cell and immediately set about cleaning, for her new baby sister would need the nursery soon.
The Queen Bee inspected her work. "One has not cleaned it well enough. One must try harder."
Princess was mortified, for she only desired to be worthy in her mother's eyes. From then on she vowed to work harder than any other worker bee in the hive.

Princess and her sisters were eager to see the outside world and smell the flowers, for the source of nectar and pollen must be wonderous indeed, but it is the way of honey bee workers to attend to many tasks before they are old enough to go out and forage.
Firstly, Princess nursed her new larval sister, feeding it her own jelly. She enjoyed watching her sister grow, knowing that her elder sister had done the same for her. Before long it was time to ween the new princess onto honey and pollen, and the flow of jelly turned to one of wax.
After that, Princess left the brood cell and worked hard to impress her mother. She and the others used Princess' wax to build the combs and seal new honey within its cells.
Some of her sisters became attendants to the Queen. Princess was disappointed to not have been chosen, but she worked hard, and contented herself with dreams of flowers.
One day, an old forager came home with a substance from the flowers that Princess had never seen before. She took it in her hands.
"It is sticky."