As they say, “busy as a bee.”

We grew up learning the seemingly rigid caste system for colony-based insects like ants, and more commonly, bees.

There’s a queen, there are soldiers, and of course, there are the rat-race runners – the nectar-hunting worker bees.

With this classification, we are quick to assume that bees can be a bit of a workaholic. But science would like to point out otherwise.

A team of UK scientists observed how bees interact with inanimate objects.

They hypothesized that bees are capable of enjoyment much like monkeys, elephants, dolphins, dogs, or any other animal that engages in play.

According to Lars Chittka, a professor of sensory and behavioral ecology at the Queen Mary University of London, bees are not mindless drones.

So how do we know that these species are capable of a fun time?

First, scientists need to set the rules of what play is. In the study, they define it as an activity done without a clear goal. It shouldn’t be something along the lines of defending the colony or hunting for food.

Next, they also defined it as something that is done more than once. It can’t be something that was instinctive at that moment or a reflex.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers gave the bumblebees some balls to play with.

They observed that the bees roll the balls even if they don’t have any incentive to do so. To further test the bees, they made another setup with two chambers. The first chamber is full of balls while the next one has a treat.

They wanted to test if the bees would go out of their way just to play, so, they connected the chamber with an unobstructed path.

The experiment showed that bees work hard but play harder.

The bees rolled the ball at least once whenever they pass through. One bee even played with the balls 44 times. It must’ve felt like a theme park for that fellow!

More than that, they also observed the juvenile tendencies of bees. Younger bees roll the balls more than the older bees and male bees played more than female bees.

In the next phase of the experiment, the researchers prepared three chambers.

The main chamber is connected to two chambers, one blue and one yellow. The bees are free to choose where they’ll enter.

They observed that bees chose the yellow chamber way more times than the blue one. The yellow chamber held the balls in the previous experiments. It meant that the bees were actively seeking for the opportunity to take a break.

So what does this tell us?

According to the researchers, more than being extra adorable, the experiment breaks the idea that bees are smarter than they look. They might look serious on the surface but deep inside, they all just want to take a well-earned break.

“It goes to show, once more, that despite their little size and tiny brains, they are more than small robotic beings.” Samadi Galpayage, the first author of the study, said.

Watch how smart bees truly are in the video below.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: YouTube – SciShow, The Guardian