“Give the honey to the people and the candle to the Lord - can there be anything better?”  - this beautiful song is one of the most popular in Georgia.

The bee... a symbol of diligence and virtue for centuries. Could anyone imagine that in the course of time, the bee and its beautifully constructed honeycombs would remind millions of people of things absolutely different from sacred candles and honey, such as mobile telephones and the means of constant connection.

The twentieth century has transformed the bee into the “superstar” of the new technologies and has made it the logotype of mobile communications.

However, the relation of bees to information and communications is not  limited to the graphic similarity of their honeycombs to mobile systems.

It is hard to believe, but during the last century bees, like homing pigeons, were used to deliver the mail. It is well known that the bee locates the beehive with utmost precision, even if it has flown dozens of kilometres away in search of nectar. This amazing ability of bees was first described in 1880 by the French entomologist Dr. Fabre who named it an “instinct of orientation”.

Around the same time, another Frenchman (this time a beekeeper), Mgr. Tainac, started to correspond with a friend who lived not very far from him by means of bees. Unlike his countryman, Mgr. Tainac did not have any scientific motivation. He was a very busy person and just wanted to test a “new means of communication”.

Tainac and his friend exchanged bees. They kept the “visiting” bees in closed beehives and did not indulge them much with food. Each time they needed to send a telegram they would let the bees into a room with honey on the table. The hungry bees would pounce on the food and would not even feel the gentle movements of the fingers sticking a thin piece of paper on their backs.

After their “breakfast” the satisfied bees flew to the beehives, which were also designed in a special way. At the entrance to the beehive a tin box with extremely small holes was fixed. The bees tried to get through the hole, and at that moment the beekeeper could quietly remove the small telegrams from their backs.
It is clear that there was no chance to write a long letter on such a tiny piece of paper. Therefore Tainac and his friend devised a special code of numbers. For example, if Tainac wrote the number 596 on a piece of paper and sent it to his friend, the addressee read: “You and your wife are invited to supper this evening, please come.”

M. Tainac was a cheerful person. For him the “bee-mail” was just fun. He was very pleased to read in the newspapers reports about his discovery, but he could not imagine that someone would take it seriously.

However, the German intelligence service became seriously interested in this issue. A bee? A perfect idea! Homing pigeons had already been tried, but had failed as “agents”. To smuggle a cage with pigeons over the border was not an easy task.

From then on, a sweet scent (sensed by the bees alone though) appeared in the air along the Franco-German border. It was because, German “beekeepers” in the areas bordering France, spilled honey, burnt sugar, and did everything to lure the bees. Of course, the frontier guards paid no attention to the bees, and the French “trespassers” became regular visitors and customers of free German food.

Over the course of the years the German “beekeepers” remained very hospitable to the small French gourmets, that traveled to Germany as if to their home. But, nothing is given absolutely for free and the “debt” of the French bees was soon claimed.

World War I was approaching. The French started to gather troops along the German border. The local population received the National Army in a hospitable way, but some beekeepers behaved strangely. They acted in a similar way to Tainac, but instead of sticking the paper on the bee’s back (someone might have seen a fluttering scrap of paper) they tied a thin silk thread on the bee’s body. A red thread indicated infantry, a green one artillery, and a dark blue thread- cavalry. The bees were set free, and the “beekeepers” themselves went to greet the heroes of the French Army.

The bees  headed to Germany. They knew the route well and a wonderful banquet awaited them. Later the German “beekeepers” counted the coloured threads...
Time passed and new technologies were developed. But the services of the small hardy bees remained necessary. The only difference was that instead of papers and coloured thread, a hardly visible dot, containing a microfilm with valuable information, was applied on the bees’ wings. All the other procedures were similar to the old method. Only this time the messages had to be read under a microscope.

Such  are the adventures which feature the bee ... a noble insect, which  only wants one thing - to give honey to the people and a candle to the Lord.
Bees keep flying... peacefully and naively and not only over the French-German border...

Depends, however, on the beekeeper...

M. V.