Jan. 23, Fable

There once was an bee colony that was excited to return to foraging after the winter cold. First, they gathered lots and lots of pollen. They gathered too much pollen and did not have enough honey for the adults to eat. Many starved. They then went out and gathered all the nectar they could to make honey, but neglected gathering pollen. At that point, there was food for the adults, but not enough to feed the young—an important problem with colony health since adults only live 30 days. The colony swung back and forth between extremes, struggling mightily as they caused themselves undue stress. They colony survived the ensuing winter, but barely. They told all future colony children from then on to always be organized, plan ahead and pace themselves.