Enneahive Five

It’s Bee Fact Friday and we are talking about how the hive looks like an Enneagram 5, the Investigator. The type 5 is “alert, insightful and curious” according to the Enneagram Institute. The Investigator enjoys learning and often becomes an expert on the things that interest them.

It has been discovered that bees can learn! In fact, when a bee is getting ready to start the job of foraging they first spend time doing “orientation flights” in front of the hive. They will fly in circle 8 patterns facing the hive to learn the surroundings which will help them find their home again after a long day of foraging. Some beekeepers will paint hives different colors, or put decals or other markings on the hives to help the bees distinguish between hives that are close to each other. Isn’t that amazing!

Alert and curious are descriptions that definitely remind me of honey bees. They always seem to be at attention-especially the guard bees who protect the hive from intruders, whether that is a wasp, mouse, skunk, bear or beekeeper! And, if you’ve ever stayed calm enough when a bee comes around you, you may have sensed that many times they are just curious about you. You may have found a scout bee who are experts at finding the best food supply and then returning to the hive to teach their foraging sisters where to go to collect resources. They do this in a really fun way, but we’ll talk about that when we get to the very fun Enneagram 7’s!