Buzz Buzz

"Buzz" just might be one of my favorite onomatopoeias, right along with "thwack" and "foont," the latter being the sound a Nerf ball or arrow makes when shooting out of a Nerf gun. Buzz, however, is the topic at hand as I am taking Bees & Beekeeping this semester. Today we saw the inside of a beekeeping supply store where you can buy smokers, hives, frames, and face protection gear (one of which could double as a fencing mask).

Bees are interesting little creatures; probably one of the most remarkable things about them is that while they "dance" to communicate to the rest of the hive the location of pollen and nectar sources, they used the position of the sun as a marker. If the bee's head is up (relative to the hive, I suppose), then the food sources are in the direction of the sun, usually south. According to some people, bees can even calculate the sun's position on overcast days and when it's on the other side of the world. It is slightly less impressive if you think of it this way:

Alan Davies: Why is so remarkable that they know where they live?
Stephen Fry: Because they only have 950,00 neurons as opposed to our 10 billion neurons in our brains.
Alan Davies: But they've only got one thing to remember: where they live.
- "Q.I."