Funeral Bee

"Too cold up in the Northrealm. If it weren't for the funeral bees, we'd be walking around on human corpses instead of just the corpses of the Old Fathers."
~Jarl Gelmin Hrontar, Elector of the Northrealm

Basic Information

Anatomy

Funeral bees are noted for their fluffy 'hairs' which cover most of their bodies. These hairs are naturally white, but different hives will 'dye' the hairs with colors from around the hive. The carapace from which these hairs grow is chitinous, durable and glossy black. They are roughly four inches long from mandible to the base of the stinger, which is another inch. They have six legs and a pair of bifurcated wings like other bee species. Their front two legs are notably longer, ridged in sawlike protrusions, and their mouths are six-mandibled complex chewing apparatuses. They have two stomachs, one for transport and one for digestion, with the second one only able to process their unique honey. They have a wicked barbed stinger that delivers a nasty payload of acid. The sting is always fatal for the funeral bee.

Genetics and Reproduction

Like most bees, very few individual funeral bees can procreate. They have a queen who is fertilized by males while she is searching for a place to establish a hive, after which the males die and provide her with her first meals as her first clutch develops and hatches. She lays eggs from this initial mating for her whole life. Most of these children will be asexual drones, which care for eggs, produce honey, and defend the hive. Special jellies are fed to some offspring at semi-regular intervals to produce queens and males, which will not reproduce with individuals from the same hive and will move on to establish new hives.

Growth Rate & Stages

The eggs of the funeral bee are soft and permeable, and the drones of the hive coat them in honey to feed them nutrients and produce healthier larva. The larva chew their way out of the eggs after roughly a week from laying, and they can only move a little. The larvae are put into individual hexes of the honeycomb, which is filled with enough honey to produce and adult bee. After two weeks of this larval stage, the funeral bee molts several times until it is an adult bee, which then chews its way out of the hive and joins its sisters in the work. An adult drone lives roughly one year before it dies, with its sisters converting its body into honey like any other corpse.
When the hive is ready to produce another hive, they pack some larva with special jellies. These jellies produce males in three days, or other queens over the course of a season.

Ecology and Habitats

Funeral bees prefer the cold climes of the Northrealm, and rare hives can be found to the south. They are attracted to Tainted Places.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Funeral bees get their name from their habit of scavenging corpses. They travel up to four miles from their hives in search of carrion, which when found is rapidly chopped into small, easily transported bits and moved into the hive's lower reaches, where enzymes digest it into a red, soupy honey. Due to their preferred climate, these corpses are frozen more often than not, and their robust sawlike appendages assist in collecting frozen cubes of meat. The honey filters at the bottom of the hive and is constantly collected by drones and dumped into storage caches scattered around the hive, to be collected and used in the honeycomb as larvae are hatched and need it. These caches will carry the hive through lean times when no corpses can be found, and ensure steady nutrition. Due to this, funeral bees never rest and always completely process every corpse they find.
In addition to larger carrion, funeral bees will also hunt vermin and other insects, as well as undead.

Additional Information

Domestication

Apiaries for funeral bees exist, though these bee farms can only facilitate a single hive at a time due to the territorial nature of the funeral bees.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Apiarists rarely perform the act as a profession, and more often they keep the apiary to supplement the work of farm cats in keeping vermin out of their silos. The honey they produce is either sold as Dead Honey, or processed to produce Blood Mead, or almost as often simply left alone.

Facial characteristics

A complicated arrangement of Six-mandibled jaws rims a toothy mouth. This allows even frozen meat to be chewed into a pulp. It also allows the funeral bee to grind dirt and even soft stones in an effort to get at buried carrion. Their eyes are multifaceted, with the facets so small they appear to be opalescent. Queens' eyes are large enough to see the facets as glossy black, with the individual facets flickering white as they focus on their surroundings.

Average Intelligence

Funeral bees exhibit complex behavior, including seemingly understanding art and territory. They have been known to solve complex problems to get at corpses, and have a reputation for outsmarting a careless Manerray.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Funeral bees can detect a corpse within 8 miles, and will travel as far as 4 miles from its hive. They can detect corpses buried less than 5 feet beneath the ground. They can sense Taint.

Scientific Name

Lahyam

Lifespan

1 year (drone), 1 season (male), 200 years (queen)

Average Weight

1 oz (drone), ,002 oz (male), 4 oz (queens)

Average Length

4 inches (drone), 1/2 inches (male), 8 inches (queen)

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Funeral bees are covered in black chitin out of which grows thick, fluffy white fur. They dye these furs using flowers and plant matter from around their hive, altering both their colors and scents for identification.