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comment by briandmyers
briandmyers  ·  3691 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Short video of my bees

It is a bit like keeping pets, I guess, for a hobbyist like me. They are more like fish than like dogs or cats, though - they don't really care about me. And (this may sound harsh) I don't really care much about them as individuals. I have real fondness for each colony, but it doesn't bother me to squash one, if she's pestering me while I work the hive, for example.





uh_oh  ·  3691 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Talk about playing God.

humanodon  ·  3691 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That makes sense. I wouldn't expect bees to get cuddly . . .

wasoxygen  ·  3690 days ago  ·  link  ·  

How fair is it to say that the colony is the organism? That one should no more worry about individual workers than one does about the individual hairs shed by a furry pet.

briandmyers  ·  3690 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Very fair, I'd say.

The colony reproduces through swarming, and in many ways the colony behaves as a single, disjoint organism, with the queen acting as brain (i.e. hormone regulator) and also as female reproductive organ; drones bees act solely as the male reproductive organ, and workers provide every other function.

wasoxygen  ·  3690 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks, it's an interesting idea and that article led to content about superorganisms, Daisyworld, and rivet-poppers.