Last week I went to my grandchildren’s elementary school to take part in the 5th grade’s Career Day. I’d already spoken to each of the 5th grade classes about my life as a writer during the “Writer’s Boot Camp” they took part in last month.
This time I spoke to them about beekeeping. I had a set of 12 education cards I’d bought from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. The bright pictures, each measuring 13” x 18”, helped me show
Ø the differences between the three types of honey bees (worker, queen, and drone),
Ø the progression of a developing bee from egg to larva to pupa,
Ø the hexagonal structure of cells in the comb, and
Ø the transfer of bee barf from forager bee to house bee.
Everyone got a big kick out of my description of honey as “bee barf,” but they agreed it made a lot of sense when I explained that nectar is ingested into a special honey stomach by the forager and then transferred to a house bee who then places the nectar (by barfing it up once again) into the cell. All this barfing has a purpose. It mixes the nectar with special enzymes in the bee stomach. Those enzymes help to make honey to super-pure food it is, capable of lasting for thousands of years without rotting.
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| "Bees Rock" by Jessica |
Yesterday my granddaughter delivered thank-you notes from the children. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them and looking at the pictures they’d drawn as illustrations. Most of the children didn’t identify which class they were in, so I’m not sure which particular Jessica drew this picture, but I wanted to share it with you anyway – with thanks to the anonymous Jessica.
This fuzzy stuff is ridiculous, though.
I'm just about ready to give up and get a real camera. I wish you could see that the bee on the lower right is saying "Bees Rock!"
I'm just about ready to give up and get a real camera. I wish you could see that the bee on the lower right is saying "Bees Rock!"
BEEattitude for Day # 225:
Blessed are the children, for they shall inherit the hive and shall, hopefully, help it to flourish.
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The teeny details:
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