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The Beehive As A Masonic Symbol
byJames A. Fischer,MPS

In the second section lecture of the
Master Mason Degree we are told that
"The Beehive is an emblem of industry,
and recommends the practice of that vir-
tue to all created beings, from the highest
seraph in heaven to the lowest reptile of
the dust. It teaches us, that as we came
into the world rational and intelligent
beings, so we should ever be industrious
ones, never sitting down contented while
our fellow creatures around us are in
want, when it is in our power to relieve
them without inconvenience to our-
selves .

When we take a survey of nature, we
view man, in his infancy, more helpless
and indigent than the brutal creation.
He lies languishing for days, months,
and years, totally incapable of providing
sustenance for himself, or guarding
against the attack of the wild beasts of the
field, or sheltering himself from the in-
clemencies of the weather. It might have
pleased the great Creator of heaven and
earth to have made man independent of
all other beings; but, as dependence is
one of the strongest bonds of society
mankind were made dependent on each
other for protection and security, as they
thereby enjoy better opportunities of ful-
filling the duties of reciprocal love and
friendship. Thus was man formed for
social and active life, the noblest part of
the work of God; and he that will so
demean himself, as not to be endeavor-
ing to add to the common stock of knowl-
edge and understanding, may be
deemed a drone in the hive of nature, a
useless member of society, and unworthy
of our protection as Masons. "

Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary de-
fines industry as:

"(1) skill, ingenuity; (2) habitual dili-
gence in any employment or pursuit;
steady attention to business, assiduity (3)
septematic labor or habitual employ-
ment. "

With these definitions in mind, let us
take a look at the Beehive and those that
inhabit it. These little creatures of God
have been around since before written
history. The bee and the beehive are
recorded on the pages of the Holy Bible.
We know that the Egyptians kept bees
and that their honey was regarded as a
most precious commodity.

The beehive has been used as collateral
in business dealings and has been consid-
ered valuable enough to be transferred in
wills. It is important enough a necessity
of life to be included in the exempt arti-
cles listed in a bankruptcy petition in the
United States even to this day.
The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an
insect by definition as it has three clearly
defined body regions with only three
pairs of legs, and two pairs of wings.
Within the hive live some 60,000 of these
little creatures in a harmony that only
God could create. These emblems of in-
dustry are hatched from some 500 to
1,000 or more eggs that are laid each day
during the laying season by one bee.
There is only one egg layer in a hive -
known as the queen. Her only purpose
in the hive is to lay eggs. She is neither
the ruler nor the governing force. Honey
bees are highly socialized in their colony
organization, and they possess fixed in-
stincts. Each one of these creatures does
the work that is needed when it is needed
without being told to do it.

There are castes within the hive. It
takes 21 days from the time the egg is laid
until an adult female worker emerges
from the egg cell. During the first 3 days
after emergence, worker bees clean the
cells from which the young bees
emerged. After this, they begin their
nursing activities by feeding older lar-
vae. Within 6 days old, they begin to feed
younger larvae and continue this activity
until 11 days old. About this time orien-
tation flights take place.

Honey bees have an uncanny sense of
direction. They fly by sight from one
landmark to another and always return
to the home hive. These flights will take
them up to two miles from their hive.
Even where there are multiple hives in
the bee yard, they will return to home
base. Each hive has a number of guard
bees who screen each arrival at the en-
trance to make sure there are no intrud-
ers .

By the time they are 13 days old they
begin hive work, in which they clean the
hive, take out dead bees and debris, pack
pollen, build combs, apply propolis
which they take from the propolis-gath-
erers and ripen the nectar.

The ripening of the nectar is a process
whereby the moisture content of the nec-
tar is lowered. This is achieved by con-
stant circulation of air throughout the
hive. This circulation is accomplished by
worker bees' constantly fanning their
wings. This fanning accomplishes two
things. Not only does it dehydrate the
nectar, it also cools the hive. Since bees-
wax melts at 145 F., it is essential that
the hive temperature be kept cooler to
avert the catastrophe that would result in
the hive should the wax combs begin to
melt and fall. One can actually feel a
current of air near the entrance of the
hive on a hot summer day. This remark-
able feat of cooling the hive is accom-
plished through only one opening in the
hive, measuring about 3/4 " high and 16 "
long. The bees will seal up any other
openings they find. As the moisture con-
tent decreases, the nectar ripens. At just
the right time the worker bees will seal
the new honey in the comb cell with wax.
In this stage it will keep indefinitely. Ed-
ible pots of honey and honey combs have
been retrieved from the tombs of Egypt.

On the first two days of this period,
when the bees are eighteen to twenty
days old, they do guard duty at the en-
trance to the hive. When twenty to
twenty-one days old, the bees become
field workers, bringing nectar, pollen,
water, and propolis into the hive. The
total life span of an emerged bee under
field conditions averages from thirty to
thirty-five days, less than that during the
peak nectar flow. During this rather
short life span, the worker bee, a female,
will carry enough nectar to the hive to
produce about one large drop of honey.

Honey bees are not aggressive by na-
ture. Rather, they will use just about any
means to discourage an intruder rather
than sting, since once a honey bee stings,
it dies.

Unlike wasps and bumble bees that
have a smooth stinger and can sting re-
peatedly, the stinger of the honey bee has
a barb at the tip that fastens into the
victim. Being thus fastened, when she
tries to fly away or is brushed aside, the
stinger is literally ripped from her, taking
a piece of gut with it. Consequently she
dies .

Honey is said to be the purest food
known to man. There are no known bac-
teria that can live in honey and it doesn't
spoil. Honey has been used to nourish
infants when nothing else would stay in
the stomach. It is a high energy food,
being a carbohydrate material with some
15 sugars making up 99.9% of the solids
and is often used by athletes who need
quick energy. Honey has been used to
preserve many things from foods to
human bodies. It is truly a remarkable
commodity that man has not been able
to duplicate.

In the process of gathering nectar and
pollen, the worker bees fly from blossom
to blossom, depositing a few grains of
pollen from one to another, thus pollinat-
ing the plants, a process that is very
necessary in the production of seed to
propagate the plants. There are very few
plants that do not need some sort of
pollination to produce to their greatest
potential. Thus it is said that the "bees
have kept the world alive; and the plants
of the world have kept the bees alive".

You will recall in the second section
lecture the human drone ". . .may be
deemed a drone in the hive of nature, a
useless member of society, and unworthy
of our protection as Masons. " The
drone bee is hatched from an unfertile
egg. The queen is somehow able to lay
fertile and infertile eggs at random dur-
ing her laying activities. The fertile eggs
are deposited in the perfect six sided
combs; the infertile ones in cells that
have been deformed by one cause or
another. Thus, a drone bee is said to have
a grandfather but no father. It takes
twenty-four days to hatch a drone bee,
the male of the species. Upon emerging
from the egg cell it begins its dull and
uneventful life. It neither forages nor
does hive work. It has no stinger, so it
cannot do guard duty. Yes, it is true that
a drone is needed to mate with a virgin
queen, but this only happens once in the
queen bee's lifetime and she lives a pro-
ductive life spanning three to four years.
The drone, incidentally, dies in the pro-
cess.

There is only one queen in a hive.
About the only thing the drone bee can
do is buzz. He cannot even feed himself
as his tongue is too short to reach the
nectar. The worker bees do take pity on
him and feed him as long as the nectar is
plentiful. Towards the end of summer,
when fresh nectar becomes scarce, the
workers of colonies headed by mated
queens prevent the drones from feeding
on the honey stores and eventually drag
them half starved and chilled, or even
dead, from the hive. When food is scarce
in summer, the workers pull the drone
larvae from their cells and throw them
out of the hive. So it is said that we should
not demean ourselves so as to become a
drone in the hive of nature.

Perhaps, after this short look into the
workings of a beehive, the real reason
that it was chosen as a Masonic symbol
is best said in the following definition
taken from Mackcy 's Encyclopcdia of Frcc-
masonry: "The bee was among the Egyp-
tians the symbol of an obedient people,
because, says Horapollo, of all insects,
the bee alone had a king. Hence, looking
at the regulated labor of these insects
when congregated in their hive, it is not
surprising that a beehive should be
deemed an appropriate emblem of sys-
tematized industry. Freemasonry has
therefore adopted the beehive as a sym-
bol of industry, a virtue taught in the
ritual, which says that a Master Mason
'works that he may receive wages, the
better to support himself and family, and
contribute to the relief of a worthy, dis-
tressed brother, his widow and orphans';
and in the Old Charges, which tell us
that 'all Masons shall work honestly on
working days, that they may live credit-
ably on holidays . " ' So may it be ! !

Note: This paper was presented before
Charlie Stroebel Council No. 247,
AMD, on October 10, 1992.

Relerences

Adams, John ~. Bcckccpin6 ~hc Ccn~k Craft. New
York: Doubleday & Co., 1974.

Aebi, Ormond & Harry. Thc Att of Bcckccping. Sanla
Cruz: Unity Press, 1975.

Duncan, Malcolm C. Duncan's Ri~ual of Fcccma-
sony.

New York: David McKay Company, Inc., n.d.
Grout, Roy A., Ed. Thc Hiuc and ~hc Honcy Bcc.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Cbampaign,
1949.

Jaycox, Elbert R. Bcckccping in ~hc Midwcs~. Ur-
bana:

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
1976.

Mackey, Albert G., Ed. An Encyclopcdia of F~ccma-
sony. Chicago: The Masonic History Company,
1924.

Morris,Rob,Comp. Wcbb'sMonito~ Mor~is'sEdi-
tion. New York: Charles E. Merrill Co., n.d.
Root, A. I., Ed. A B C and X YZ of Bcc Cultu~c.
Medina, OH: A. I. Root Company, 1975.

Stewart, Rev. K. J. Thc F~ccmason 's Manual.
Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co., 1854.

The Philalethes, April 1993
