Enneahive Four

Today for our Enneahive summer we look at how the beehive resembles an Enneagram 4. The type 4 is knows as the Individualist and they value being unique, special and authentic.

Well, the honeybee is the only insect to make food that humans can eat. It doesn’t get much more special and unique than that! For bugs anyway!

I was visiting with a favorite family of mine recently and the kids wanted to see my beehives. The almost 4 year old very thoughtfully asked me, “how do the bees make the honey?” I thought he was so smart to think that through! It really is a special talent that only the honeybee has.

Bees collect nectar from flowering plants with a long tongue and this sugary liquid is then put in their “honey stomach”. Yes, bees have 2 stomachs! This special stomach has enzymes that transform the nectar’s chemical composition and pH. Once the honeybee is back in the hive she passes the nectar to other bees who then put the honey into prepared honeycomb cells. At this point it still has a pretty high water content and so the bees fan the liquid with their wings until the water content evaporates to about 18%. Then it is capped with wax to keep it stored until needed. The wax caping really does a great job of containing the honey and I’m always impressed that even when I stand a frame of honey on its end no honey runs out until the wax cap is broken.

Enneagram 4’s are also highly in touch with their emotions and they feel deeply. I’ve read that scientists have studied bees and believe that they may have feelings and express moods! I need to do some research on this, so I’ll just leave it as a little teaser for now and we’ll come back to it on another Bee Fact Friday. 😉