The Wild Bee Language Guide : Naming in Right Relation

The Wild Bee Language Guide

Naming in Right Relation

Reclaiming the words we use to reflect the wild autonomy of bees.

🐝 Wild Nest (Not Hive)

What it truly is:
A wild nest is the natural, self-made home of a bee — created without human interference, chosen with precision, shaped by the land itself. Whether in soil, stone, wood, or plant stems, it is a place of safety, continuity, and ancestral memory.

A wild nest is a site of sovereignty — built not for yield, but for life.

What “hive” implies — and why it doesn’t belong here:
The word hive refers to a human-made box, designed for managing honeybees in agricultural systems. It reflects a relationship of control, containment, and extraction. Using “hive” to describe wild bees erases their independence and folds them into a narrative of production.

Right Relation Reminder:

A hive is built for humans.
A nest is built by bees.
One is owned. The other is free.

🐝 Defence Pheromone (Not Attack Pheromone)

What it truly is:
A defence pheromone is a chemical signal released by honeybees when their nest or kin is threatened. It is not an act of aggression — it is a call to protect. This pheromone coordinates the group’s ability to respond collectively, not to hunt, but to hold the boundary. It is rooted in care, not violence.

What “attack pheromone” implies — and why it doesn’t belong here:
The term attack pheromone imposes a human narrative of war, projecting intention and malice where there is only instinctive protection. It frames the bee as hostile, when in truth the bee is simply responding to intrusion. This language justifies human fear and reaction, rather than correcting human interference.

Right Relation Reminder:

Bees are not attackers.
They are defenders of home, kin, and continuity.
The danger lies not in their response — but in our disruption.

🐝 Mother Bee (Not Queen)

What it truly is:
The so-called “queen” is not a ruler. She is a mother — the egg-layer, the vital continuation of the lineage. Her role is generative, not dominant. She does not command; she is attended to because her presence ensures the survival of the colony.

In wild colonies, she is selected through intricate relational processes — not crowned, but emerged. Her importance lies not in authority, but in offspring and continuity.

What “queen” implies — and why it doesn’t belong here:
The word queen imposes a human system of hierarchy, power, and monarchy. It turns a deeply cooperative and matriarchal system into one of imagined command. This language upholds the myth of control and paints the mother bee as a sovereign ruler, when she in fact depends on the collective — and serves it in return.

Right Relation Reminder:

She is not a queen.
She is a mother.
Her power is not rule — it is renewal.

🐝 Conservation vs. Beekeeping

There is no such thing as “conservation beekeeping.”
True conservation of wild bees cannot involve keeping, managing, or controlling them as one would in beekeeping.

What Conservation Means:
Conservation is about protecting wild bees in their natural habitats, allowing them to live freely and autonomously. It requires non-interference, respect for wild boundaries, and nurturing the ecosystems that sustain them.

What Beekeeping Means:
Beekeeping is a human practice of managing domesticated honeybees, often for production of honey or pollination services. It involves interference, manipulation, and control of bee colonies.

Why the distinction matters:
Using the phrase “conservation beekeeping” conflates two fundamentally different relationships — one of wild autonomy, and one of human management. This risks justifying interference with wild bees under the guise of care, and perpetuates misunderstanding of wild bee needs.

Right Relation Reminder:

Conservation is protection without control.
Beekeeping is management with purpose.
They are not the same.

🐝 Wild vs. Feral

What Wild Bees Truly Are:
Wild bees are indigenous species, living naturally in their ancestral habitats. Their presence is part of a balanced ecosystem where they have co-evolved with native plants and other wildlife. Their wildness is rooted in belonging and deep ecological integration.

What Feral Bees Are:
Feral bees are non-native species that have escaped human captivity and now survive independently in new environments. While they may live outside of managed hives, they are not native to the land and often have complex impacts on local ecosystems.

Why This Distinction Matters:
Calling feral bees “wild” blurs the lines between native ecological balance and introduced survival. It can lead to misunderstanding conservation priorities and risks masking the true needs of indigenous wild bees.

Right Relation Reminder:

Wild bees are ancestral to the land.
Feral bees are refugees of human management.
Honouring wildness means knowing the difference.

🐝 Propolis Maintenance (Not Washer-Boarding)

What it truly is:
This behaviour is a form of propolis maintenance — where bees use their mandibles and front metatarsi to knead the existing layer of propolis. They add new resins and other ingredients to the mixture, or they smooth and prepare surfaces within their nest, often around entrances or areas of importance, such as landing areas on the comb itself.

They may be assessing surface integrity or laying down minute layers of antimicrobial resin. It is a refined, functional, and intentional behaviour — vital to the health of the bees, and performed daily as part of their ongoing care of the nest.

What “washer-boarding” implies — and why it doesn’t belong here:
The term washer-boarding arose from observations of managed honeybees, who often perform the same physical motion without resins or propolis. Removed from their natural behaviours and deprived of access to plant medicines, these bees repeat the gesture — but without its wild function.

Rather than ask what was missing, the behaviour was misnamed as meaningless. But in wild bees, this repetitive action is not random — it is skilled, medicinal, and routine.

Right Relation Reminder:

Repetition is not mindlessness.
In the wild, it is ritual — maintenance — memory.
Propolis is not decoration.
It is the immune system of the nest.

🚗 Speed and Honeybees: A Limit of Perception

What it is:
Honeybees fly at various heights depending on their activity. When moving over a distance, they often fly higher than flower level. They can see cars approaching and often adjust their flight to avoid collision. Observations show that when a car moves at under 60 km/h, honeybees have enough time and sensory information to detect and avoid the vehicle. But above 60 km/h, the speed is too fast for them to react in time — resulting in collisions and fatalities.

Why this matters:
This speed threshold highlights the boundary between being perceivable and invisible to honeybees. It reminds us that how fast we move through their environment affects their safety, even if unintentionally.

Right Relation Reminder:

When moving slower than 60 km/h, honeybees can see and avoid us.
When moving faster, we become invisible and dangerous.

Honeybees’ survival depends on our awareness of their sensing world.

They have chosen to live with us, as kin.

When wild bees make their nests in the walls of our homes, under a roof, or in a tree in our garden — this is not a pest problem. It is a kinship offering. They’ve chosen us. To live with. To raise their young beside. 

Right Relation Reminder:

To be in relation with. How we name that matters.

We need to shift the language from property to presence.
From pest to kin.
From control to coexistence.

Wild Space, Not Bee Space
Wild bees do not have a fixed “bee space” like beekeepers claim. Their combs are wild and free, uniquely shaped for each nest. The architecture of wild nests is fluid and alive, responding to the shape of the cavity, the local climate, the colony’s needs and biome— not a human measurement. Wild bees create in relation to their environment, not by a set rule.

In contrast, beekeeping tries to impose a strict “bee space” between combs for human convenience and hive management. This approach confines bees into artificial structures, ignoring their natural freedom and the uniqueness of each wild home.

Right Relation Reminder:

To respect wild bees is to respect their right to build freely.
To respect wild bees is to honour their architectural genius.
To respect wild bees is to stop calling their freedom “messy.”

Sacred Cells: Why Size Matters

In wild nests, there is a wide range of cell sizes — including large drone cells, which are vital to the life of the colony. This natural variation reflects a deep, place-based intelligence. It supports health, biodiversity, and genetic resilience.

Beekeepers often use foundation wax sheets with pre-set cell sizes to determine comb construction. This imposes a fixed pattern on the bees, denying them their natural freedom to build what they need. By forcing bees into uniformity, we interfere with their rhythms and weaken their lineage.

Controlling the size of cells is not a practical necessity — it’s an ethical violation.

Right Relation Reminder:

To respect wild bees is to honour their choices.
To respect wild bees is to honour their sacred work.
To respect wild bees is to let them shape their world.

The Abuse of Propolis: An Unethical Deception

Propolis is a vital substance for wild bees. It is essential for their immunity, insulation, and the architecture of their nests. It even acts as a natural fire retardant—especially crucial in fire-prone environments like the fynbos, where fire plays a key role in the health of the ecosystem. When wild bees find propolis in a nest, they understand it as a sign that this home can withstand fire and protect the colony.

Beekeepers exploit this deep natural wisdom by smearing propolis on the walls of hives or log hives to lure wild colonies inside. They deceive the bees into believing the hive is safe and approved simply because it has propolis. This practice is not only deceptive but shockingly unethical.

Collecting propolis requires special resin-collecting bees who spend long, tireless hours gathering and producing this precious material. Using propolis to trick wild bees into thinking that a hive is a safe place to live is a form of abuse — disrespecting both the bees and the intricate wisdom of their wild nests.

Right Relation Reminder:

To respect wild bees is to honour their choices.
To respect wild bees is to honour their sacred work.
To respect wild bees is to not lie to them and deceive them —
let them be wild.

Wild Nesting and Fire: The Myth of Safety in a Hive

In fire-prone ecosystems like the Fynbos, wild honeybees have evolved ways to survive fire. Research shows that over 85% of wild nests survive fires — and the true number may be even higher. Their nest sites are carefully chosen: inside rock crevices, beneath earth, in naturally insulated cavities. These choices are not random. Bees do not abandon their young during fire — the mother bee, gravid and flightless, remains. So the colony selects places with the best chance of survival.

Man-made hives, by contrast, are highly flammable. They offer no real protection. When fires come, hives burn — killing entire colonies. The belief that placing bees in hives “protects” them is not only misguided, it’s dangerous. Living in hives puts bees at risk.

Right Relation Reminder:

To respect wild bees is to honour their ancient survival strategies.
To respect wild bees is to let them choose their homes.
To respect wild bees is to stop placing them in harm’s way.