Epigraph:
وَأَوْحَىٰ رَبُّكَ إِلَى النَّحْلِ أَنِ اتَّخِذِي مِنَ الْجِبَالِ بُيُوتًا وَمِنَ الشَّجَرِ وَمِمَّا يَعْرِشُونَ
ثُمَّ كُلِي مِن كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ فَاسْلُكِي سُبُلَ رَبِّكِ ذُلُلًا ۚ يَخْرُجُ مِن بُطُونِهَا شَرَابٌ مُّخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَانُهُ فِيهِ شِفَاءٌ لِّلنَّاسِ ۗ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
And your Lord inspired the bee, saying, ‘Build yourselves houses in the mountains and trees and what people construct. Then feed on all kinds of fruit and follow the ways made easy for you by your Lord.’ From their bellies comes a drink of different colors in which there is healing for people. There truly is a sign in this for those who think. (Al Quran 16:68-69)
Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times
Female honey bees, specifically the worker bees, are responsible for finding new places to build hives, as male bees (drones) primarily exist for mating and do not participate in hive building or location scouting activities.
When a honeybee colony outgrows its current hive, it initiates a process called swarming, wherein approximately half of the colony, including the old queen, departs to establish a new nest. A critical aspect of this process is the selection of an optimal nesting site, a task primarily undertaken by scout bees.
Scouting for Potential Sites
Scout bees, typically the colony’s most experienced foragers, embark on exploratory flights to identify suitable cavities for the new nest. They assess various factors, including cavity volume, entrance size, height above ground, and exposure to sunlight. Ideal sites generally have a volume of at least 15 liters, a small entrance facing south, and are elevated to protect against predators.
Communication Through the Waggle Dance
Upon discovering a potential site, a scout bee returns to the swarm and performs a waggle dance on the surface of the cluster. This dance encodes information about the direction, distance, and quality of the site. The enthusiasm and duration of the dance correlate with the site’s suitability; higher-quality sites elicit more vigorous and prolonged dances.
Building Consensus
Other scouts observe these dances and may choose to investigate the advertised sites. If they concur with the assessment, they too perform waggle dances upon returning, reinforcing the site’s popularity. This iterative process allows the swarm to compare multiple sites simultaneously. Over time, a consensus emerges as more scouts advocate for the superior site. Typically, a quorum of 20–30 scouts at a particular site indicates a collective decision, prompting the swarm to prepare for relocation.
Relocation to the New Nest
Once a consensus is reached, the swarm warms up its flight muscles and takes off en masse, guided by the scout bees, to the selected site. This coordinated movement ensures that the colony remains unified during the transition.
This decentralized decision-making process exemplifies the honeybee colony’s ability to effectively evaluate and select optimal nesting sites without central control, relying instead on individual assessments and collective consensus.
This elaborate process to find location for a new hive and the Quran’s choice of describing honey bees as someone God revealed to rather than any other insect and using female verbs in describing the revelation to the bees, are strong suggestion not only for the divine origin of the Quran but a subtle hint towards evolution not being blind, rather guided towards the purposes of the Creator.
These verses have broader implications on nature of human and animal consciousness and how can a transcendent God, reveal to their consciousness and does it suggest presence of extra dimensions?
Additional reading:
The Female Bees and the Male Bees, How Did the Quran Know?
Arguing for Extra Dimensions in Physics from God’s Omniscience
The Glorious Quran and Science 
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