* The
wild bee will not sleep in the shade if there be moonlight.
The belts of woodland that traverse the lower prairies and border the rivers are peopled by innumerable swarms of
wild bees, which make their hives in hollow trees and fill them with honey tolled from the rich flowers of the prairies.
Roll me into the hives of the wild bees that I may be stung to death, and bury me with the Hyaena, for I am most miserable of bears!
So Baloo, the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and Water Laws: how to tell a rotten branch from a sound one; how to speak politely to the wild bees when he came upon a hive of them fifty feet above ground; what to say to Mang the Bat when he disturbed him in the branches at midday; and how to warn the water-snakes in the pools before he splashed down among them.
But I was by this time so weary that I could have slept twelve hours at a stretch; I had the taste of sleep in my throat; my joints slept even when my mind was waking; the hot smell of the heather, and the drone of the
wild bees, were like possets to me; and every now and again I would give a jump and find I had been dozing.
In August, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many
wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke the tender limbs.
There was no sound but the high, singsong buzz of
wild bees and the sunny gurgle of the water underneath.
The split and weatherworn rocks of the gorge of the Waingunga had been used since the beginning of the Jungle by the Little People of the Rocks--the busy, furious, black wild bees of India; and, as Mowgli knew well, all trails turned off half a mile before they reached the gorge.
The face of the water was blanketed with wild bees, buzzing sullenly and stinging all they found.
So beautiful she was that the flowers about her feet folded their petals in despair and bent their heads in token of submission; so sweet her look that the humming birds thronged her eyes, thrusting their thirsty bills almost into them, and the
wild bees were about her lips.
However, for the last decade or so, there has been a massive decline in the number of bee colonies and
wild bee populations in Europe, the US, China and Japan, and the crisis appears to have reached Africa and Asia.
A group of farmers from the Arla Foods dairy co-operative launched a trial initiative in June to see whether their e orts for environmentally friendly dairy farming could be broadened to help increase
wild bee populations, given the crucial role they play in supporting our ecosystems.