2 MILLION BLOSSOMS


- tors, delivering tongues and tapping antennae, begging for water. The collectors then spurred into action. Coming in or out of the rock formation, bees didn’t


mind me. They smacked into my back and chest on blind         around me. I reached into the crack through the humming hole. Bees landed on my forearm, trundling toward and   dark and silvery surface, as if to prove it was real. The hole held, I calculated with tape measure and rough equation, twenty-two and a half gallons, give or take a few. Three feet long and a foot wide, it had collected where rain    crustaceans, suggesting the water has staying power. If the bees were hurried, I couldn’t tell. What bees,


 hurried? If I knew this rock and its creatures, if I spent time here, months, years, I’d know by the pumping of abdomens how much water they needed. One glance in


IT HOW HONEY BEES HOW HONEY BEES


COOPERATE WHEN PA el


d Few h stantly sa glas


se sitive larvae from overheating, a worker bee will regurgitate a water droplet, then fan her wings to evaporate the wa the same evaporative cooling y


Honey bees would agree—w er is the key com ponent of t their in-hive air conditioning system. T sensitive larvae from overheating, a worker bee will reg


p ens


Working alongside Drs. Tom Seeley and Michael Smith at Cornell University, I investigated the ability of honey bee  control their access to water. When we aimed a heat lamp at the broodnest, the bees responded quickly by fanning their wings,


 colony


 r


 12


soared ab 


s control the on


   s broodnest, combs conta long


dn


 eir acces


e Drs 


e s to watter.When w aim


om Seeley and Michael Smith at Cornell University, I in es 


  


°F) eve stiga


 med a heat lamp at the broodnest, the bees responded qu


  sp


ated the  uickly


en as ou h ab


bility


d tem eratures y of hone beey


  y b fan ng


nning the


  eir wings


oney 


  colony kept its broodnest, combs containing immature bees, at a comfortable 36°C (97°F) even as outside temperatures soared above 60°C (140°F)!bo e 60°C (140°F)! Working alongsiide





  y kept its


of a pool. The colon      0°


of a po


e colony delega es a special workforce to kee  


ny delegatttes a special workforce to keep t this air conditioning system runniing  


ndition aining immature bees, at a comforta


   able 36°


  °C (97°


ning syste  


em run ng while 





  utside mpe


nning while  


e  


the same evaporative cooling ou feel when you catch a gust of wind after stepping out ool. The


wate am


er droplet, then fan her wings to evaporate the water and coolter and cool the hi the hive:ve: g you feel when you catch a gust of wind after sttepp his air con


pone op


pini g out


Honey bees wou ent oft


H uld agree—watter is the key com- m- heir in-hive air conditioning system. To kee eep e urgittate a ss of wate glass of water on a hot summer da


stantly satisfying than a cool er on a hot summer day.


ew things are more in-things are more in- atisfying than a cool t


OOPERATE WHEN PARCHED in e


a hole like this, I’d read the humidity andy their broodnest, the swiftness and thirst oft


t


temperature in the workers,


and the state of water within two klicks.           


       - ter, poison, or irradiate this water, it was


pack from the site, but thet g out of the hole and zooming


eral months old. It tasted like rock, tasted clean. I could have loaded my entirey


rain, even if sev- bees had


 pressing, each bee fumbling


its crop-load into the desert, stretching ag lifeline back to the hive, a cave ceiling org hole in this vast, dry refuge.


Craig Childs has published more than a dozen books, his most recent Virga & Bone: Es- says from Dry Places. He is a contributing editor at Adventure Journal Quarterly and his work has appeared in T New Y


he Atlantic,


ork Times, and Orion. He lives in southwest Colorado.


s O E Thirst


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