A LESSON FROM THE BEES


by Mary Starrett
Constitution Party Communications Director

http://www.constitutionparty.com/news.php?aid=812

In 1934, a French mathematician concluded that bees should not be able to fly. After all, he reasoned, their small wing-to-body-size ratio showed they simply should not be able to pull off lift off. His empirical data showed that bees did not have what it takes to do what they did and had done for millennia.

Glad the bees paid no mind to Frenchy, because they might have taken the math whiz’s conclusion to heart and grounded themselves. After all, when all the calculations were in, the ‘facts’ showed bees can’t fly.

Of course, that’s nonsense, as anyone who’s actually observed a bee suspended in mid air knows. Bees can fly just fine, thank you.

Years later, a Caltech biologist worked on the conundrum and found that sure enough, honey bees don’t have an easy time of it because of their wing size and other challenges. He discovered that though bees have a harder time flying than other insects, they not only fly, but hover, even when loaded down with a full tank of nectar.

While most insects move their wings in long motions at about 200 beats a second, honeybees flap in short strokes at over 240 beats per second.

In other words, they have to work harder to fly.

In much the same way, nay-sayers have been busy as bees explaining why we could never expect a third party to get lift-off; that given the size of third party wings they should never be able to fly. But we who look beyond the ‘conclusions’ of the ‘experts’ say “nonsense.â€