Lily Bee

The Lily Bee is one of the most common insects on the island, a major pollinator and producer of honey.

Description

The Lily Bee is so named thanks to their favoritism of the wild lilies on the island, and not to any particular appearance. Your standard 'bumble bee', the Lily Bee is an inch long bug, it's form covered with fine hairs. Black limbs and heads, the bees abdomen is striped, two yellow stripes with a black stripe between.

Habitat

Found all over the island, the Lily Bee shows a slight preference for more open forest and grassland, but can still be found in deeper forest and even along the shoreline, as long as there are flowering plants for them to feed from. Preferring wild lilies first before going to other plants, native gardeners growing fruits and vegetables have taken to planting at least a small plot of lilies of some sort somewhere within their garden and orchards to help attract the bees to pollinate their plants and help their gardens grow. Bee nests are most often found within large Beech trees, though they will settle within hollows within most every other tree type or even some natural crevasses within rock-faces. With the building of the village, a few instances of bees building a nest within the walls or attic of a building have been recorded, in each case the bees have been safely moved.

Behavior and Social Structure

The Lily Bee hive and social structure is similar to other bees as recorded in books from off the island. Generally docile, the bees will not attack any who draw near or disturb them from a flower, simply buzzing to another flower if they're disrupted from one. The only time the bees will show aggression is when they feel the hive is in danger, but proper handling by a bee keeper can take away even this aggression.

Queen

A queen leads the colony while her daughters fulfill different duties that benefit the entire hive. Her seeming sole duty is to lay eggs and be taken care of, but close observation of hives has shown that the queen seems to act as something of a director and is able to 'reassign' the duties a drone has; drones that seem like they were programmed from birth to tend to the queen's eggs, will somewhat abruptly begin doing a new job after having contact with the queen.

Suitor

The roaming Suitor bees are those that provide the queen bees with the memetic material to fill the hive. They only live for one year, only one born from each hive in the fall, it hibernating through the winter before seeking a queen to mate with in the spring, after which it dies. This bee is easily identifiable from the normal drones by it's size, it's easily double the size of a regular bee, and shows no interest in feeding from nectar, simply finding a queen to breed with. They are extremely well taken care of within the hive while developing, nearly as well as the queen, viewed as extremely important.

Drone

The drone bees make up the majority of the hive. The queen's daughters, the drones are incapable of reproducing on their own, their entire lives dedicated to assisting their mother and sisters. The drones fulfill multiple duties within the hive, from tending to the queen's larva to feeding and gathering nectar. These are the bees that most people see.

Soldier

While Lily Bees are not typically aggressive, they still require protectors for the nest. The soldier bees are unique from their siblings in that they have a pair of powerful mandible as well as their stinger, appearing a bit more hornet like rather than bee like. Stationed at the entries to the hives, the bees inspect each of the drones that return, chasing off those who seem sick, and will swarm around and viciously bite and sting any threats, often aiming for the eyes, mouth, nose and ears of any attackers.

Black Bee

Initially considered a separate species, the Black Bees have proven to be specific, special drones of the Lily Bee hive which specialize in harvesting and using the nectar from the more poisonous plants on the island such as the Angstflower and Spearweed, on average six to seven members of a hundred bee hive will be these bees. Completely black, these bees focus on these more negative native flowers, though they will harvest from other non-poisonous flowers as well. Not unlike the Seraph Salmon, the Black Bees seem to have something of an ability to cleanse away the poison, the honey they produce for the hive safe to eat and use. Hives with a dozen or more black bees tend to produce a honey that has a sharper 'edge' to the flavor, this honey used more often in medicinal and medical use rather than food.

Relationship with Harvest Bear

General mindset, myth and observation of behavior has that bear and bee do not get along. This is only partly true for the Lily Bee and the Harvest Bear; the Lily Bee only grows aggressive toward overly destructive Harvest Bears that are ripping apart a tree or hollow log to get to the hive and damaging the hive in the process. Elder and smarter bears have learned to be much more gentle in their approach of the hive; holding back their hunger and only eating a small amount, the bears are able to pry open a section of the hive and consume the honey and comb within, getting a small, satisfying meal, able to identify when the soldier bees begin to grow more aggressive and move on before the bees begin to sting and bite. Some of these more selective Harvest Bear will learn the location of three or four hives, and cycle through them, allowing time for the hives to be repaired and recover before they come to them again, and will defend 'their' hives from other bears.

Native Uses

Like bees in other worlds, the Lily Bees are well valued for their honey, hive, and pollinating assistance for native crop and orchards. Expert beekeepers have learned how to harvest from hives in the wild and how to conserve the hives as well as the Harvest Bears do. Artificial hives have seen some use in the past, but traditionally the native population has preferred to harvest from the wild. With the advent of the Founding Era, more artificial hives have found their way into the village and near homes, especially near businesses which make use of the honey, from The Dragon’s Brew to the Riverside Bakery and the various restaurants and home brewers. Used mostly in food, every part of the bees hives has some use in some way, from food to medicine to ritual.

Associations

None of the goddesses in particular shows an affinity for the bees, though they are considered a servant of The Lady for how vital they are in assisting the growth of plant life about the island.