“So what have you got?” The big bee was asking the smaller bee with a slight hint of disinterest; she seemed more interested in pulsating her abdomen, which she did to great personal satisfaction.

“Oh, I found lots of good prospects – very exciting.” The little bee said and then she paused, perhaps waiting for the big bee to affirm her attention.

It was a mild, sunny day – perfect for lounging about and thrumming one’s abdomen harmonically. Somewhere, in a shady hollow, a cricket chirped. The distant sound of bees buzzing could also be heard, making the small bee impatient.

“Yes, you were saying,” the large bee finally prompted, for all outward appearances still absorbed in her rhythmic attentions.

“Ah, well,” the small bee began, somewhat disoriented by the sensation that she was talking to herself, “I found a nice patch of alyssum. It seems to be untouched, a few flies maybe but, otherwise, clean stuff. Ah, I also found a bottle brush plant – it’s a ways off but it’s solid stuff.”

“And what is that?”

“Ah, what? The bottle brush?”

“What the fu- No no, the other stuff.”

“Alyssum?”

“Yes, tell me about that – I need details here. You need to work with me. I try and I try but sometimes I feel like you’re just not getting it. We’re a team here, you need to give me all of the details or I can’t get my job done.”

The large bee was still throbbing her abdomen most gratifyingly.

“I ah, alyssum is a little white flower. Very fragrant and it grows in heaps – quite densely.”

“Little and white? That’s not very sexy. What else do you have?”

“The bottle brush.”

“Yes, yes, yes, you said that was far away, and if you think it’s far away, I know it’s probably a mile or more and I need a big win with the queen right now, not some stinkin’ bottle brush a mile away, probably crawling with ants or something equally appalling.”

“Well, actually, I did a good amount of investigation and it’s” –

“Enough already, what else did you find? Tell me you found something else.”

“I found a couple of irises.”

“See, now that’s good. Irises are big, colorful – they’re bearded irises right, not those little crap-excuse ones, are they?”

“Oh no, big and bearded.”

“Good, now see that’s something you can sell – big and colorful and sweet to smell – exotic and delicately hybridized. You know what hybridization is, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s when different sub-varieties of a flower are cross pollinated to make new varieties. It creates a fantastic range of subtleties in pollen flavor.”

“Ok, but I thought that irises had a very low yield. Doesn’t the queen want big producers?”

“Don’t worry about that – that’s my job. If you put a little more attention into your job and less into other bees’ we might be the leading team in the hive. I don’t think I need to remind you that we’re near last place and that reflects very poorly on my reputation.”

“I think we are last place.”

“Not if I have anything to do with it. Enough of this – let’s go see the queen.”

The big bee stopped thrumming, reluctantly, and hefted her bulk into the air with an irritable buzz. The little bee darted after and they flew to the hive.

They pushed and shoved their way in through the entrance and fumbled along through the twisting tunnels of honeycomb. The big bee stopped to grab a snack and another bee showed her a silly dance which she found delightful. Finally, after calling for an encore of the silly dance and snacking to sufficiency, the two bees moved along to the queen bee’s office.

They were forty-five minutes late but the queen bee wasn’t ready so they waited outside.

“So you think we’ll be working the irises for the rest of the day?” The little bee asked.

“That’s up to the queen,” the big bee responded sullenly.

“Of course, the irises won’t hold much pollen and there’re only two of them. It’s probable that they’re only good for half a day of harvesting – we’ll have to do something else tomorrow.”

“Maybe,” said the big bee with grumpy finality.

Contemplative silence then persisted until they were admitted to see the queen.

“Hello, hello,” she said warmly to the two workers. “What have you got for me?”

“We’ve located some prime irises, not far away,” the big bee said brightly. “They are fantastic – one of them is a brilliant, bright blue color with flashy orange beards just heaped with pollen, and the other, well the other is a filigreed lavender and porcelain white – just breathtaking, really, and wonderfully fragrant with the sweetest pollen you’ve ever tasted.” She darted a quick look to judge the queen’s reaction.

“Just two?” the queen asked, mildly concerned.

“Ah, well yes, two confirmed, but you know how flowers are, where there are two, there are likely more. We haven’t completely scouted the area – we’ve been awfully busy – searching all over the place. I even had my assistant here out beyond the fringes of our usual search zone, scouting out a promising bottle brush – it’s nothing definite yet, possibly risky, but it’s been time consuming none the less. Competition has been tough recently – have to follow everything up, even if it doesn’t pan out. You know how it is.”

“Yes, yes. I’m interested in the bottle brush – is it a big plant? We might pull some other teams in, if it is a promising prospect.”

“Oh, no, no, not that big, really. A good job for two, but much more than that and we might just have bees running and bumping into each other. If it turns out to be more than we thought, we can call in some more bees. Like I said, it still hasn’t been fully examined – we’ll need a little more time – it’s so far away.”

“Hmm, how about the Irises – what kind of yield can you take away?”

“We can’t say for certain right now but I suspect we can get a good amount, especially if those other flowers turn up, which I have good reason to believe that they will – we’re looking at a good haul, and close-by too; we could harvest a heavy load of top-notch, premium-grade pollen. We’re very excited about this project,” the large bee spread one of her gesticulating legs back to indicate the small bee who was in the silent act of desperately restraining murderous impulses.

“I think I would like you to investigate the bottle brush further and report back to me as soon as you can with more details. How soon do you think you could do that?”

“Well, like I said, it’s a good distance away, but as soon as we’re done here, the two of us will get right on it. I think some time tomorrow, at least by the end of the day, we can give you the full report.”

“Very well,” said the queen bee, “I eagerly await that report.” She dismissed them and the two workers hurried out of her office into the crowded comb halls where the big bee lead them through the rest of the day gossiping and swapping sting stories.