Originally published 2018-09-13.
A beekeeper was extracting honey when a weakened bee tumbled into the extractor and came out coated in sticky honey, barely able to move. He picked it up and set it down at the entrance of the hive. Within moments, other bees crowded around and began licking and cleaning it. By most accounts it took around half an hour, but at the end the bee's wings were clean and it could move normally again.
The clip went viral as a story of insect "compassion". It is a genuinely striking thing to watch. But what were the bees actually doing, and what does it tell us about the inner lives of animals? The honest answer is more interesting than the viral one.
What the beekeeper filmed
The original video was posted to YouTube and widely shared in 2018. It has since been taken down.
(The video originally embedded here is no longer available on YouTube.)
In the footage, several worker bees gather on the honey-soaked bee and work over its body with their mouthparts, paying particular attention to the wings. The coated bee stays fairly still while the others clean. Gradually the honey disappears, the wings separate, and the bee begins to groom itself and walk around.
Without the beekeeper's help, the bee would almost certainly have died in the extractor. Without its hive mates, it would probably not have been able to clean its wings well enough to fly.
Why bees groom each other
Cleaning a nestmate is not unusual bee behaviour. Biologists call it allogrooming: one animal grooming another. In honey bees it is a routine part of colony life. A bee cannot reach every part of its own body, so it may signal for help, and a nestmate cleans its wings, mouthparts and antennae of dust and pollen. Keeping antennae clean is especially important because bees rely on smell to find flowers and recognise colony members.
There is also a very practical side to this particular rescue: honey is food. Bees readily lick up spilled honey, so part of what happened is that the colony was recovering a valuable resource while freeing a worker. That does not make the scene less remarkable. It shows how colony behaviour can serve several purposes at once.
Compassion, or something else?
It is tempting to describe the scene in human terms: friends rushing to save a friend. That framing is understandable, but it goes further than the evidence. A short video cannot tell us what the bees were feeling, or whether they "realised" a hive mate was in danger in the way a person would.
Honey bee colonies are often described as superorganisms. Individual workers are close relatives, and behaviours that keep the colony healthy, including cleaning, feeding and defending one another, are deeply built into how they live. Helping a sticky worker back to health fits that pattern without needing to assume human-style empathy.
At the same time, scientists have grown much more open to the idea that insects have richer inner lives than once thought. Bees can learn, remember locations and colours, and solve simple problems. Whether any of that involves feelings is still debated, and that open question is exactly why it is worth being careful with the language.
What scientists say about animal consciousness
On 7 July 2012 a group of neuroscientists meeting at the University of Cambridge signed the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. It stated that mammals, birds and many other creatures, including octopuses, have the brain structures associated with conscious experience. Its best-known line says that humans are not unique in possessing "the neurological substrates that generate consciousness."
The declaration was mostly about mammals and birds, though its fuller text also discussed brain circuits for attention, sleep and decision-making in insects. In 2024 a broader statement, the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, went further. Signed by hundreds of scientists and philosophers, it said there is at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates and in many invertebrates, including insects. It also argued that ignoring that possibility when making decisions that affect animals would be irresponsible.
Researchers have also documented consistent individual differences, sometimes called personalities, in many animals. A 2015 study published by the Royal Society reported such differences in cockroaches, which shaped how groups made collective decisions. None of this proves that a honey-covered bee was being comforted, but it does show that "mindless insect" is not a scientific default any more.
And what about plants?
Posts sharing this video often add that plants are conscious too, pointing to research on plant sounds. The research is real, but the conclusion does not follow from it.
In 2012 scientist Monica Gagliano and colleagues published a paper in Trends in Plant Science, "Towards understanding plant bioacoustics". Young corn (maize) roots exposed to a continuous 220 Hz sound grew towards its source, and growing root tips were found to give off clicking sounds. That shows plants can detect and respond to vibration.
Responding to a stimulus, however, is not the same as being aware. Plants also bend towards light and away from gravity without anyone suggesting they experience it. How plants make and sense these sounds is still not fully understood, and most scientists treat plant "communication" as chemical and physical signalling rather than evidence of a mind.
What this means for how we treat bees
Whether or not bees feel anything like kindness, the video carries a useful message. Bees are complex, social animals, and they are under pressure from habitat loss, pesticides and disease. A few simple steps help them:
- Plant a mix of flowers that bloom from spring to autumn, and leave some lawn uncut.
- Avoid spraying insecticides on flowering plants, especially in daylight when bees are active.
- Put out a shallow dish of water with stones for bees to land on.
- If a bee seems exhausted on the ground, a small drop of sugar water nearby can help it recover.
The beekeeper's small act of picking up one sticky bee, and the colony's response, is a good reminder that care can run across species, even when we are not sure what the other side is feeling.
Sources: Wikipedia: Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (including the 2024 New York Declaration); Wikipedia: Allogrooming; Wikipedia: Plant bioacoustics; Wikipedia: Animal personality.
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