Bee-Magic Chronicles for Kids

It's No Zoo - Queens in Cages

2011-05-11T22:55:00.000-04:00

Yes, these queen bees are in cages but it's not at the zoo.

I bet you're wondering why someone would put queen bees in cages. There's a really good reason.

In early spring in Canada (April and May) the bees are slowly getting busy as the weather gets warm.

Many beekeepers have hives with so many bees that they want to divide the hive. Beekeepers call it splitting or making splits. When they take the bees from one hive and separate them into two there's a small problem. There's only one queen.

Bees can make a new queen (I'll tell you how they do that another time) but it takes over a month for a queen to grow up, hatch and mate.

During that time the hive can't do very much. So many beekeepers purchase queens from Australia. In Australia the weather has been warmer and their queens are already grown up.

Australian beekeepers put a queen in each cage to send to Canada.

The queen can't travel alone, she's too important. The Australian beekeeper puts some ladies in waiting into the cage as well.

The ladies will feed the queen, give her a drink of water, and will groom her fur. She can't arrive in Canada looking anything less than beautiful and nicely groomed.

The cage has a small hole in one end. The beekeeper puts them into the cage and then plugs the hole with a cork plug. There's a hole in the other end too and it's plugged up with candy.

The ladies in waiting will feed the candy to the queen while they wait to arrive at their new home.

The bees will fly... but on a plane! Hundreds of queen cages are carefully packed in cardboard boxes for their trip.

When they arrive they are tired and thirsty. At the airport the beekeeper puts droplets of warm water on a small square of cloth so the bees can sip it and quench their thirst.

At the bee yard the queen can't just be put into the new hive in Canada. The bees don't know her or her special scent. If she was just placed in the hive, they might think she's an intruder and sting her.

The cage is put into the new hive and the queen is safe in her cage. The bees will chew and chew on the candy to open the hole and let the queen out. By the time they finish eating the candy they will know the new queen and her special smell (call pheromones) and they will happily accept her in their hive as their queen.

Do you think Australian queens buzz with an accent? Listen to the video of the bees in their cages (below).

(Thanks to John at Oxford Honey & Supplies in Burgessville, Ontario for allowing me to photograph the queens).

Wash Day

2011-03-12T07:42:00.005-05:00

Do you ever have to help out at home? Would your parents ask you to help them clean?

Bees like to keep their house (hive) clean.

There are bees inside that are assigned the job to clean.

These photos and video show bees cleaning outside the hive.

They use their tongues like brooms and they sweep back and forth.

If you watch the video you'll see it's almost like a dance as they move their heads back and forth in a steady rhythm.

There's a saying: Many hands make light work. It's true that when more people help out the job gets done much faster.

I guess the bees' saying would be that many tongues make light work.

They understand the power of working together to get big jobs done.

That's probably why your parents ask if you can help out to. It makes everyone's job easier.

It's more fun to work when others are with you too.

See the bees sweeping with their tongues in the video below.

Karate Bee

2011-03-04T05:02:00.002-05:00

Have you seen the Karate Kid movie? Karate has some really cool moves and so does this bee.

She's a guard bee and she's striking her karate pose.

What do you think she's saying? "Don't mess with me I'm protecting my hive." That's what she's saying.

Compare the first photo to the second one of a standing bee pictured below.

See the difference? The second bee is relaxed and just hanging around. She's not a guard bee.

Guard bees have the job of protecting the the hive. They're like security guards.

They have to check the ID of every bee that wants to come in the hive. They check ID by scent.

Bees from the same hive all have the same smell. If you smell right then you can come in.

When field bees fly back to the hive they'll go close to the guard bee. She'll turn her head, her antennae can sniff them.

But if there's a problem and the hive has strangers coming by, maybe bees from other hives, a hornet or a wasp, the guards will stand back on their legs in an attack mode.

If there's an emergency or danger from a bear, skunk, raccoon or some other creature the guard bees will release a chemical scent that tells the hive to attack. That's when more bees will come out and sting the intruder.

The bees know that they make precious golden honey that many creatures want to eat.

They guard their gold very well.

Undertaker Bees

2011-02-28T06:45:00.000-05:00

Bees and people aren't too much different.

When a person dies there are people who have the special job of taking care of the dead body.

When a bee dies there are workers who have the special job of taking care of the dead body.

See? Bees are like people... or maybe people are like bees.

Nature is marvelously designed so that each little bit and piece is not wasted. When we see a dead animal on the side of the road it can be sad. But nature will take care of these corpses by helping to remove them. Little beetles and flies that specialize with dead animals will come and do their job.

If a bee dies outside in the field, she'll fall to the ground. Her body will most likely become a meal for a foraging mouse, a bird, wasps or ants.

Where my bee hives are I've watched as a bird flew down to pick up dead bees to eat.

Inside the hive, if the bodies of dead bees can't be left to pile up otherwise there would be a crowded mess. And it wouldn't be clean.

Have you ever picked up a dead fly and found it to be very lightweight? That's because it's body has dried out over a few days.

Undertaker bees will sometimes wait a few days so a dead bee body will dry out. Then it won't be so heavy to carry.

They grab the body and half fly and half drag it out of the hive. Sometimes the bee will be heavy and big like the drone in these photos and video. Then another undertaker bee will come and help.

They'll pull and yank the dead bee across the platform outside the hive. At the edge they'll actually fly off, carrying the body and then they'll drop it.

It's all in a day's work for the undertaker bees.

Lazarus, Come Forth!

2011-02-24T07:56:00.008-05:00

The story of Lazarus is about a man who died and then came back to life. This is a story like that.

Last time we looked at how bees form a cluster inside their hive so they can keep warm all through the long cold Canadian winter.

We also looked at how bees are awake in the hive, eating their honey. Then on winter days that aren't too cold the bees will fly out to poop.

Before the bees fly out they warm up their flight muscles.

The bees in these pictures flew out but they must not have warmed themselves up enough before they left the hive. They fell to the snow where their bodies grew cold and they froze.

Have you ever gone outside on a winter day and you didn't dress warm enough? Sometimes I've thought it wasn't that cold and then after I'm outside I wish I had my hat or scarf so I could keep warm.

Once on the snow these bees would try to get warm enough to fly but usually they get too cold and they can't. It's sad that they die....

except for the day when I was there.

I scooped up a handful of bees and I held them in my cupped hands for about ten or fiften minutes.

Slowly I started to feel a little movement inside my hands, a little foot would wiggle here, a little head would turn there.

I'd keep my hands cupped so that the heat from my skin would warm the bees.

Like the story of Lazarus the bees came back to life. They woke up from their cold dead stupor. I warmed them up enough that they could fly.

Sometimes I wish I could be at my bee yard every day so I could warm the bees. But that wouldn't really be right. Nature has a plan and the bees live short but productive lives.

The queen, safe and warmed inside the hive will soon lay more eggs and there will be more bees.

This is a video of me warming up the frozen bees.

Snow Day.... for Bees

2011-02-20T07:54:00.002-05:00

Winter in the bee yard can look very lonely and quiet.

The hives sit unmoving and there's very little activity outside.

We have cold winters in Ontario, Canada, so beekeepers put covers called 'wraps' around their hives.

The wraps are like putting a blanket on the hive. It helps to keep the bees warmer by stopping the cold wind blowing into the hive.

The beekeeper will also put a piece of wood across the large entrance of the hive, leaving only a small hole for the bees to come and go.

Are you wondering about bees coming and going in winter? They do, just not very much. You see bees don't actually hibernate. Hibernating would mean sleeping a lot and not eating. The bees stay awake all winter and they snuggle together on their honeycombs in a tight cluster.

They shiver their wing muscles, which is like exercising and it makes their bodies warm. By snuggling they share their body heat. Just like how penguins form a cluster and cycle from the outside edge where it's colder to the inside where it's warmer, bees will take turns being warmer in the middle.

Can you guess what food they'll eat? Honey of course. All their hard work all summer long is for this moment, the cold days of winter. They can eat their honey and use it's energy to keep themselves warm.

But there's something else that happens when you eat..... you have to go to the bathroom! On days when it's not so cold the bees will actually fly out of the hive to poop. If they don't get too cold they'll make it back into the hive.

[See this photo - you can learn more about how this became Yellow Snow here].

Unfortunately, some bees will get too cold when they fly out and they'll fall to the snow. Then they can't warm up their muscles enough to fly. That's sad because they'll die.... unless I'm there to warm them up.

I'll tell you about that next time.

Something Really Big

2011-02-16T09:57:00.000-05:00

Here's something really simple but really BIG that you can do to help the bees.

It's really easy too.

Ask your parents, grandparents, teachers, friends and neighbours to let the dandelions bloom.

Many people don't like dandelions and that's okay. Ask them if they could just wait until the flowers die, before they go to seed to cut them down with the lawn mover or to pull them out.

That way the bees would get some time to visit them.

[Do you think this bee is using the cell phone to tell people about Dandelions? She might be....]

Dandelions are one of the best spring flowers to bloom that offer lots of pollen for hungry bees. After winter the bees need lots of protein for their babies and dandelions offer the perfect food for bees.

And if you were hungry you could eat the leaves in your salad. And you can roast the roots. Some people even make wine from them.

The more you think about dandelions the more they seem like the perfect flower food for everybody.

Before we looked at the importance of pollen as a protein source for growing baby bees. So doing this one small thing--letting the dandelions bloom--will end up being a really big thing for bees.

I just know the bees want to say thank you for helping.

Predators in the Garden

2011-02-12T00:29:00.001-05:00

Have you heard the saying, "Busy as a Bee"?

Honey bees are well known for keeping themselves busy gathering nectar and pollen and caring for their young.

They forage in the garden with a focus on gathering as much food as they can for their family back in the hive.

It's a busy and difficult life for a bee. And sometimes it's downright dangerous.

To you and me a bee is an insect but to many others they're a nice juicy protein snack. That's right, they're a good meal for a hungry predator.

There are many predators in the garden that feed on insects like bees. Most of them are also insects. That doesn't seem fair does it?

Can you think of an insect predator? Yes, a spider.

Spiders are very good hunters that help to control insects in the garden. Their sticky webs can often catch a bee.

Or they'll hide lie in wait for a bee. This white crab spider hid under the petals of the purple cone flower. The bee can smell the nectar and pollen offered by the flower and so she lands on the flower. Before she knows what's happening the spider leaps out and grabs her and gives her a poisonous bite.

Sadly it's all over for the bee. She's become a spider's meal.

In the photo above can you see the white spider hiding on the purple flower?

Another larger predator of bees is the large dragonfly (pictured at left). They can catch a bee in mid air. Hornets too are much larger and stronger than bees and will catch them and eat them.

Then with their strong mandibles (mouthparts) they'll bite the bee's head off, killing it.

Other garden predators are the preying mantis. This stick-like insect (pictured at left) can sit very still, looking like an innocent leaf. Then it'll spring forward when a bee lands close by and catch it with it's claw-like arms.

Birds will catch bees in flight and eat them too. Frogs and toads have long tongues that can lash out and catch them.

Mammals like raccoons, skunks and bears love to eat bees and bee larvae too.

Everywhere the bee goes she's in danger of becoming a meal.

And finally, other predators will feed off the dead bee corpses, insects like ants or rodents like mice.

The death of a bee is sad but the good thing is that in nature nothing ever goes to waste and her body will nourish other creatures who are in need of a meal.

The Birds and The Bees

2011-02-09T20:16:00.001-05:00

Let's talk about the birds and the bees.

They have a lot more in common than you might realize.

Think about something that both birds and bees can do.

They both have wings and they can fly.

Bees have something else that birds have but you'd need to look close, very close and use a magnifying glass to see.

Bees have feathers.

What? It's true. They do.

When we look at bees we see their lovely golden fur. We say things like 'fuzzy bee'. They do look fuzzy.

If you magnified the hairs on a bee you would see they are actually plumes just like the feathers on a bird, only much more delicate.

The fur or feathers keeps the bee warm on cold days and during the winter.

These feathers are perfectly designed. They are light and airy so the bee can fly.

They are thick and warm so the bee can retain her body heat and survive through the cold winter.

Last time we looked at how a bee uses her fur to collect pollen through static electricity.

Now you can see why bees of a feather stick together!

Electric Bees

2011-02-06T01:23:00.004-05:00

Have you seen the commercial on TV advertising the Swiffer sweeper?

The swiffer has a cloth that glides across the floor and the bits of dust and debris can't help themselves. They attach themselves to the Swiffer like a magnet.

But what does this have to do with bees? Bees and the Swiffer have a lot in common. If you've ever been to a birthday party and played with balloons then you're like bees and a Swiffer too.

Have you ever rubbed a balloon on your hair and then stuck it to your body? When you rub it you create static electricity.

When the Swiffer rubs across the floor or an object, it creates static electricity too.

Static electricity is like a magnet to little particles like dust..... or something similar to dust.... Pollen.

When a bee flies through the air static electricity builds up in her fur. Then she lands on a pollen covered flower.

The tiny particles of pollen can't help themselves, like magnets they are drawn to the bee and attach themselves to the bee's fur.

This makes it easier for the bee. She'll sweep her legs over her body to collect the pollen.

Then she'll take some of her spit to moisten it to make a lump.

She'll stick the lump to stiff hairs (called pollen baskets) on her back legs.

After that she'll fly home with her load.

So next time you see a Swiffer sweeper, pretend like a bee and give it a try.

Imitation is the Best Form of Flattery

2011-02-03T00:26:00.001-05:00

Who do you admire the most in the whole world?

Is it a movie star or a famous singer? A teacher? Your older brother or sister? Or your hero?

Have you ever been tempted to act or dress like them?

If so then your thinking isn't very different than a whole lot of insects.

You see many insects admire bees and wasps. It's because they have stripes which are very fashionable in the insect world... and they have stingers.

Stripes are a warning to others: I have a stinger so don't mess with me!

Have you ever worn striped clothes? If so, you are copying bees and letting everyone around you know that they should be careful.

You might have a stinger too.

Copying is popular in the insect world. It's called insect mimicry.
Insects use mimicry as a disguise to hide like pretending to be a leaf or a tree branch or to scare other insects away with painted big eyes or by releasing a terrible smell.

There are lots of flying and crawling insects that don't have stingers or venom but they want to have stripes so they look like a bee or a wasp. Can you guess why they'd want to look like that?

So that other insects will be afraid of them and think they have a stinger.

[This picture from the Wikipedia web site shows several stingless insects pretending to be wasps].

Next time you're in the garden and you see a striped insect, take a closer look.

Is it a bee or a wasp or another insect pretending to be one? It may well be a little harmless fly, pretending to be a bee.

HONEY

2011-01-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

We know that bees collect flower pollen. We know that flowers deliberately attract bees by offering nectar.

The bees put their tongues into the flowers and suck up the nectar.

And we know that the bees fly back to the hive with that precious nectar.

But what happens after that? They make honey!

Let's go inside the hive and find out how the bees do it.

When a bee first arrives back at the hive, she's flying heavy. Her stomach is full of nectar. She'll often be greeted by a house worker bee at the entrance.

She'll unload her nectar to the house bee. They touch tongues and the field bee will release the droplets of nectar to a house bee. Once her stomach is empty the field bee will go back out again to collect another load.

The house bee will climb the frames of comb to the honey area. Once there she'll regurgitate droplets of the nectar to the tip of her tongue. She'll hold them there.

Why does she do that?

She's letting the warm air inside the hive dry up the liquid in the nectar. She'll hold droplets a few times and then she'll dunk down inside the cell and regurgitate all the nectar.

After that she'll go back down the hive to wait for another field bee to come in with another load of nectar.

Next will come more house bees. These will be fanning bees. Their job is to beat their wings to create wind that will blow on the nectar and dry it up. As the liquid evaporates the bee magic begins.

The nectar becomes thicker and thicker. It becomes sweeter and sweeter. The bee might even taste it just to be sure. Mmmmm. It's good. She knows exactly when the honey is thick enough--ripe enough--to be done.

Then more house bees will come. They will be capping bees that can make wax. They'll put lids on the honeycombs to store the honey just like how we store food in jars.

[Picture at left - The yellow stuff in the cells is pollen. The shiny liquid is honey].

When the flowers have faded and winter comes bringing cold winds and snow, the bees will snuggle together in their hive to keep warm.

And while they warm themselves all through the cold months of winter they'll have lots of food--honey.

Honey made from a flower's nectar.

A Flower's Secret: Candy for Bees

2011-01-27T01:22:00.008-05:00

Doesn't everybody love sweets? Bees certainly do.

I suppose you could call flowers pros when it comes to making sweets. They make a nectar that bees love just like we love candy.

Last time we looked at flower pollen and how the bees use it as a food for the hive. We examined the special relationship that flowers have with bees. They need help spreading their pollen and the bees are happy to do that for them.

But why do many flowers also make nectar? It's their secret trick: Advertising.

What? Yes, it helps for flowers to advertise to bees.
There are many, many flowers in bloom in summer and the flowers compete to get the bees to come to them and not to the other flowers. They try to make their nectar smell and taste the best. And it works.

The bees have an amazing sense of smell (they sniff with their antennae) and that's how they find which flowers are offering the sweetest smelling nectar.

The bees come and suck up the nectar with their long tongues. And while they're at it the flower's pollen collects on their fur. That's how flower's guarantee their pollen seed gets spread around.

Almost all plants that rely on insect pollination produce both pollen and nectar.

Nectar looks like water except it's sweet. It tastes and smells like flowers which is what gives honey its special flavour and colour.

The bees are happy to have their nectar but they still have to make it into honey. Next time we'll look at how bees turn nectar into honey.

Pollen Face, I Love You

2010-10-08T08:46:00.000-04:00

Bees collect nectar from flowers and they also collect a fine powdery substance called pollen.

[This is one of my honey bees, covered in pollen from golden rod flowers. They bloom in the fall. You'll often see them alongside highways, fields and the woods].

Pollen comes in many colours such as: White, yellow, red, orange, blue, purple, green and even black .

[Can you see the coloured pollen in these honeycomb cells? What colours do you see?]

How does pollen get its colour? From the flower. The next time you see flowers, look at the centers. What colour is the powdery pollen? Every flower has its own unique colour.

Some flowers such as poppies and tulips can have black pollen. I'm sure the black pollen tastes just as nice as the red or yellow.

Even tiny flowers can have pollen.

Have you ever stuck your nose into a flower to sniff its perfume? I've done that and I got the yellow powder on my nose. That made me a little bit like a bee.

Pollen is part of the life force of a plant and its needed for a plant to produce its babies...seeds. Those seeds will make new flowers.

Flowers have a special relationship with bees and they are reliant on the bees to help them to create their seeds.

Bees have a special relationship with flowers and they are reliant on the flower's pollen to use as food for their babies.

They need each other for their survival: The flower and the bee.

Here's how it works:

Each flower creates its own unique pollen. The pollen on one flower needs to be put into another flower.

But how can it get there? Flowers don't have legs to walk over and mix their pollin into another flower.

But the flowers know someone who can carry their pollen from one flower to the next. Can use guess who that someone is? Yes, it's the bees.

The bee will fly into a flower. As she digs down into it her fur will become coated with pollen. Her fur is specially designed to hold pollen.

Actually, when a bee flies, her body creates static electricity and that also helps the pollen to stick to her fur. (I'll tell you more about static electricity another time).

The bee will use her legs to scrape some of that pollen up. Then she'll add some of her spit and honey to it to moisten it. Then she'll stick it to her back leg where there's really stiff hairs that will hold it in place.

After that she's ready to fly home to drop off her packages. Then she'll go out and look for more flowers and more pollen.

Pollen is very important to bees because it's full of protein. Baby bee larvae need to eat pollen so they'll grow healthy and strong. Just like how you and I need protein too so we'll grow.

Some people like to eat pollen as a health food or to help their allergies to flowers to be not so bad. Pollen is nutritious and it's full of vitamins. It tastes like flour with sugar added to it. No wonder the bees like it.

This is a tray of pollen that a beekeeper has collected. You can see that it's mostly a green colour. The beekeeper will put this pollen in a jar to sell to people. (In another story I'll tell you how the beekeeper collects pollen from the bees).

Some flowers don't need bees to mix their pollen for them. Plants like wheat that grows in the field (used to make your bread) are pollinated by the wind blowing.

Most flowering plants also offer Nectar to bees. I'll tell you about that next time.

Do you have a question about bees? If you do, you can leave a question in the comments section or you can contact me through my website: http://www.bee-magic.com/.

Bees Have Teeth!

2010-10-04T10:26:00.006-04:00

They do have teeth. They really do.

But these teeth aren't for chewing.

We covered mouth parts of the bee previously where we looked at bee mandibles that open and close like a gate and their long soft pointy tongue called a probocsis.

But there are no teeth in a bee's mouth.

So, where are the teeth? On their wings of course!

Are you wondering why a bee would have teeth on their wings? To make it easier to fly of course.

[Note: All these photos are of bumble bees and not honey bees. It's just the photos were really nice wing shots so I wanted to use them].

Here's Why: Bees have four wings. They have a larger wing and a smaller wing on each side.

Most of the time if we see a bee just standing there we see two wings. What we're seeing is the large wings closed up and sitting on top of the smaller wings.

Why do they have four wings? To make flying easier.

When a bee wants to fly she locks the larger and smaller wings together with tiny zipper-like teeth that are located on the edge of the wing.

Once the wings are locked they form two nice large flying wings.

Here's some honey bee flying facts:

* A honeybee can fly 24 km in an hour at a speed of 15 mph.

* Its wings beat 200 times per second or 12,000 beats per minute.

* Most bees fly in a range of about 5 miles from their hive looking for pollen and nectar.

When inside the hive, or when working inside a flower, bees unlock the teeth so they can move their wings over their back.

They do that so their wings won't get damaged while they're working.

A honey bee will also tuck her wings on her back so she can dunk down inside a honeycomb cell.

Bees don't just use their wings for flying. They'll also use them as fans to send out their scents for the other bees to smell. Some of their scents can be "home smell" so a bee outside foraging will be able to sniff her way home.

Another smell could be "Red Alert we're under attack". I bet you can guess what that message means. Yes, sting!

On hot summer days the bees will use their wings as fans to cool the hive by moving hot air out of the hive and bringing cool air in. This is called ventilating the hive.

Bees can do air conditioning to cool the hive on hot days too, but that's another story I'll tell you about another time.

The Nurse Bee

2010-10-01T07:53:00.008-04:00

I especially love nurse bees. They are most often newly hatched bees. A newly hatched baby bee will have lots of soft golden fur.

They spend most of their time working inside the hive as a house bee.

Nurses take care of their baby sister and brother larvae. Bees have four stages in their life cycle: Egg, Larva (worm); Pupa, and Bee.

Have you ever had to babysit or take care of your brothers and sisters? If so, then you know what it's like to be a nurse bee.

Nurses take care of the eggs and larva. They feed young larva a pudding-like food called royal jelly and they feed older larvae a mixture of pollen and honey, called bee bread.

[Click on the picture above to enlarge. Then look closely at the cells that aren't capped. Can you see the tiny white larvae curled up inside? Those are the babies that the nurses are taking care of].

They also keep the babies warm. The workers will shiver their wing muscles which generates heat and they will cluster in a mass on top of the honeycombs where the babies are, sharing their body heat.

[Click to enlarge this photo - look carefully at the cells in the middle of the photo. Can you see the tiny rice-like eggs? They will hatch in three days.]

Bees really love their babies and they do everything they can to protect and take care of them.

Nurse bees really are devoted caregivers.

Let's Talk About: The Stinger

2010-09-28T22:25:00.007-04:00

It's the first thing that most people think of when you say the word "bee". They think Stinger.

I hope that will change and instead people will learn more about bees. Think of their soft buzzing, how much they care for their babies and family and how they work together to make the sweetest thing on earth: Honey.

[This is a honey bee stinging a person. Photo from Wikipedia.com].

Attached to the stinger is a tiny sac filled with venom (the white part is the sac). The sac also has a muscle attached that pumps the venom and helps to drive the stinger deeper into the skin--even after it's been torn away from the bee this muscle keeps pumping for about 20 minutes.

When the stinger pierces the skin of a human or an animal, like a skunk, bear or raccoon, it sticks because it has little barbs on it that catch and hold on flesh. When the bee flies away, her stinger is torn away, along with the end of her abdomen, and often some of their insides too.

It's not very pleasant for the person being stung, or for the bee, who will die.

[This is a much magnified drawing of the bee's stinger. Can you see the venom sac attached?]

Wasps and hornets don't have barbs on their stingers so they can sting multiple times without dying.

Honey bees can sting other insects many times without dying because the stinger's barbs won't stick in insect flesh because it's so pulpy.

Okay, that's the scientific part. But the human part is, "OUCH! That hurt!"

What to do if you've been stung:

If you've been stung, look at the spot where your skin was pierced. Is there a tiny black stinger in your skin? There might even be the venom sac attached. If it's there, immediately scrape it away. The longer the stinger sticks in your skin the more venom that little muscle will pump. The more venom you get, the more pain and swelling you will have.

The sting may be painful at first and there is often redness and swelling and then it'll become itchy. The swelling and itchiness will last a few days. Try your best not to scratch or it will become more itchy. I have learned this and I do my best not to scratch stings. I find they don't swell so much and the itchiness goes away faster that way. Cold compresses put on right away are helpful to reduce swelling too.

Bee Attitude

Honey bees knows they will die if they sting someone. Because of that they don't want to sting unless they feel threatened or that it's necessary to protect their hive. When bees are away from their hive foraging they don't feel so protective. In fact, they're too busy collecting food to be bothered with people. Even when beekeepers open the hive, most of the time the bees will be gentle.

When my Dad and I work on our hives, we very rarely get stung. Most of the time if we do, it'll be our fault because we accidentally squished a bee with our finger, and she stings to say, "Hey, get off me!"

Honey bees only eat nectar and pollen. If you're having a picnic or are eating a candy apple and a "bee" is bothering you, take a closer look. It won't be a bee. It'll be a wasp, most likely a yellow jacket. Wasps and hornets are omnivorous - that means they eat everything: Sugar, Meat, Nectar, etc., and yellow jackets really love tuna fish sandwiches and orange pop.

We all say "stung by a bee" but 99% of the time when people are stung it's by that yellow jacket when we're enjoying food outside.

Bees don't bite, so the term "bitten by a bee" or "bitten by a wasp" isn't true. Their mouth parts aren't big or strong enough to do much biting. When these stinging insects are going about their business flying around, their stingers are retracted inside their bodies.

Stung on Purpose? Are you Crazy?

Some people use a technique where they make honey bees sting them on certain spots on their body--on purpose. It's considered as a treatment for an illness or for pain. It's called Apitherapy. I have noticed that after I got stung on my arm, that the stiffness that I usually have in my hands every day went away for over a week. Dad noticed the arthritis in his hands was gone after he got stung. Opinions vary about this so if you're interested to know more you can do some research on the Internet.

Bees - Frequently Asked Questions

2010-09-25T23:42:00.004-04:00

What does it mean when a bee head butts someone?

Bees are not completely predictable but they can and do often warn a person or creature if they are feeling threatened. Head butting is a sure sign that you are too close and a sting is likely to follow. If you feel a bee, wasp or hornet give you a head butt you should immediately back away.

How do bees communicate?

Bees communicate with each other in various ways. They use different chemical signals to send messages to their hive mates. The Queen releases Queen pheromones (her own special perfume) which help to keep the bees working and organized. Her scent also lets them know she is in residence. Bees have a defensive posture that they can use when guarding the hive and they can also release attack pheromones. Bees also do several kinds of dances to communicate the exact location of a good source of nectar and pollen so that other bees can find it. Scientists are now discovering that bees communicate through vibrations in their honey comb too.

Where does beeswax come from?

Beeswax comes from the bees themselves. As a bee matures while working inside the hive they will begin to secrete wax. There are 8 glands or pockets on the bees' stomach. The wax leaks out into these pockets, at first as a liquid and then when it cools it turns into white wax. The wax sits in the stomach pockets until the bee uses its leg to pull a piece out. The worker will chew the wax and mold it with her mandibles to build the honeycombs.

Can all bees sting?

No, not all bees can sting. The male bee, called a drone, has no stinger at all. The worker bees are female and they can sting, but young bees who are working inside a hive may not have developed their venom glands yet so would be unable to sting. A worker bee can only sting a human or animal once and then will die. Their stinger has tiny barbs that catch in flesh and so when they sting their bottom gets torn off. The Queen can sting but it is rare for a Queen to sting a person. She can sting multiple times. [Pictured here is a honey bee drone. They enjoy visiting and having their pictures taken].

Note that hornets and wasps who have no barbs on their stinger and can sting multiple times.

What is a Killer Bee?

Killer Bee is a term that has been given to African Honey Bees. You may be wondering how African honey bees ended up in North America. Many years ago a scientist in South America was doing experimental breeding with African honey bees. African honey bees are well known for being fantastic honey producers. The only problem is that they are also very enthusiastic about protecting their honey--they're aggressive and don't hesitate to sting. The scientist was trying to breed African honey bees with South American bees to try to take advantage of the honey producing genetics, but create calmer and more placid bees by crossing them with South American bees.

But the scientist took a day off and a person who was taking care of the bee yard saw these little entrances on the front of the scientist's hives. These entrances were designed to prevent the African queen bees from leaving the hive to breed in the wild. But the person didn't know and removed the special entrances. The African queens did leave the hive and breed with wild bees. Very quickly this bee species spread through South America, into Mexico and from there the southern parts of the USA. So far this bee has not been seen in the northern and more colder parts of North America. The term now used to describe these hybrid bees (bees who have bred with domestic and wild North American bees) is "Africanized Bees".

Why does the honey in the store say "100% Canadian Honey" but in the small print it says it may be blended with honey from Brazil and Argentina?

Beekeepers have been working very hard for years to try to get the labelling changed to better reflect the reality. Often Canadian honey which is prized for its flavour around the world, is mixed with cheaper honeys from other countries. Beekeepers have had to lobby government for many years to win a labelling change and it hoped that soon this will be changed. That would mean that 100% Canadian Honey will be just that.

Do you have a question about honey bees? If you do, leave me a comment and I'll post a reply.

Vampire Mite Says: I Want to Suck Your Hymolyph

2010-09-22T08:00:00.004-04:00

If you were a vampire and you wanted to drink a bees' blood, that's what you'd say.

There really are tiny vampires that want to suck the bees' blood. Maybe you have heard of them? They're little insects called Varroa Mites.

We say bees' blood, but in truth bees don't have red blood like we do.

Insect blood is called hymolpth and it's a white and yellow colour. If you've been in the car when a bug hits the windshield, that's their hymolpth splattered on the glass.

[Pictured above is a round brown Varroa Mite. It's like a bee flea. It's actual size is about the same as a pin head].

No matter the colour, bees' blood is just as important to the function of their healthy body as our blood is to us.

[This is a bee I photographed at my home. When I made the picture large (click to make it large) I can see a mite on the top of the bees abdomen. Can you see it too? It's riding on the bee.

The bee is busy working hard, trying to collect pollen and nectar to feed her family. Meanwhile, the mite rides along and sucks her blood.

The mites are shaped round and flat. They have little sucker feet that cling to the bees' fur.

Beekeepers are working very hard to raise bees that like to clean their bodies a lot. When a bee cleans frequently, they brush off the mites and they fall to the bottom of the hive.

The beekeeper puts a special board at the bottom of the hive, called a sticky board. I grease my board with Crisco Shortening to make it sticky.

When the mite falls off the bee, she wants to climb back up the hive to get on another bee. The sticky board holds the mite at the bottom of the hive so she can't.

[See the photo of my sticky board from the bottom of the hive. There's dropped bits of pollen, bits of wax, and the occasional wing or bee leg from bees that have died. I've circled 3 mites in red for you to see].

This magnified photo is of a bee larva that's been removed from its cell. Can you see several brown mites? There are 5 of them sucking the larva's blood.

The larva can't fight back because it has finished growing yet. It's not a fair fight is it?

When the bee hatches the mites will come out of the cell with the bee and ride on the bee, clinging to it's fur.

Mites were accidentally brought to the USA just over ten years ago. They have spread very quickly all over North America and also the world. They were able to spread quickly because they ride on bees that fly. (They don't need their own wings when they can hitch a ride on a bee).

The bees are also shipped by planes and trucks to help pollinate fruits and vegetables and the mites travelled with them. That help them spread across our country faster.

Beekeepers and bees are fighting together to find a way to stop the spread of Varroa mites from killing bee hives.

Bees have Mummies Part II

2010-09-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

Yuck! What are these?

(Click the photo to make it bigger so you can see).

This a mixture of stuff taken from the bottom of a bee hive in spring.

There's bits of pollen, dropped by the bees, bits of chewed up beeswax, the occasional wing or parts of dead bees and a pile of dried up mummified bee larvae.

The white and gray coloured bits are mummies made from dead bee larvae.

It's a sad but true fact that there is a fungus that can sometimes get in a bee hive. It's called Chalkbrood and it can infect a hive in spring if there's too much moisture inside the hive.

Beekeepers call baby bees that are at the larvae (worm) stage brood.

The Chalkbrood fungus eats away at these larvae brood while they're in their honeycomb cells.

Slowly it eats them up and turns them into hard white mummified corpses that look like pieces of chalk.

That's how Chalkbrood got its name.

A hive with the Chalkbrood fungus doesn't have to die. A beekeeper can ensure it gets more ventilation and that help to dry things up.

Did you know that bees can also have another kind of Mummy that is in a real tomb just like an Egyptian Pharaoh?

Honey Comb and Soap Bubbles

2010-09-18T10:00:00.001-04:00

Did you know that honeycomb and soap bubbles have a lot in common?

Well, they do.

Can you see the photo of a single soap bubble on my hand? Do you see that the bubble is round?

When soap bubbles are on their own, they're round.

You can try this experiment yourself to see if it's correct.

All you need is some soap (and Mom will be very glad to know you've washed your hands).

Now watch what happens to the single bubble once it touches other bubbles.

Can you see what happened? It changed its shape.

The sides of the soap bubble become slanted and it changes to a honeycomb shape as soon as it touches other bubbles.

Did you know that honey bees make their honeycombs like a soap bubble?

But if I asked you to draw honeycomb you would draw it with six sides - in a shape called a hexagon.

Beeswax combs end up with six sides after the bees build them but they all start off round.

Yes, round. Like a single soap bubble.

Each honeycomb cell touches another cell.

Then the bees do something really neat. They warm up the wax combs, until they melt a bit.

They'll warm them up to between 37 and 40 degrees Celsius.

Once the combs are warmed, they'll shift into a six sided hexagon shape because of the tension created by the walls touching each other.

Here's some newly made round combs that you can see.

When you count the sides, you'll find there are six--a lovely hexagon.

Below are some more photos of frames I'm holding up.

Are you wondering why the combs in the photo below are brown coloured and why the combs in the photos at the top are white?

There is an answer.

New combs are clean and fresh and look white.

But after thousands of bees walk over the combs month after month, all their sticky little feet leave traffic stains on the comb which turns them brown.

Now you can look around and see all the different ways that humans have copied the honeycomb pattern in their designs and architecture.

Bees have Mummies Part I

2010-06-09T12:14:00.001-04:00

Did you know that bees hives are a lot like Pharoah and his tomb?

We know that bees like to keep their home warm and dry. Pretty well all creatures that live outside must find some kind of home that is comfortable.

In winter the bees don't hibernate. Instead they're awake and active inside their hive all winter. That's why they need to store so much honey. It's their food to last them all winter long until the spring flowers bloom. I mentioned in the last post how the bees keep each other warm in a cluster.

Often other animals that are outside are looking for a warm place to live. They'll often see the nice bee hive. Then they'll go inside and find it nice and dry and they'll decide to stay and live there. Mice really like to live inside bee hives and can sometimes build nests inside them. But the mouse might have forgotten that bees can sting and the bees can sting the mouse until it dies.

Sometimes the mouse will die inside the hive. This is not acceptable at all to the bees who must keep their hive clean. The mouse isn't very clean to begin with and soon it will begin to smell and rot. Ewwww! The bees have a big problem. The mouse is much too big for the bees to carry out of the hive. Because they can't carry it out they will leave it there and instead they will cover the mouse completely.

[This is a sticky glob of propolis that I scraped from a hive].

They'll take their sticky waterproof propolis and they will coat if over and over the mouse until the body is completely covered. This creates a seal over the mouse kind of like a plastic ziplock lunch bag. Now the hive will stay clean from the dirty mouse.

[Because I haven't had a mouse inside my hives I don't have a photo of it to show you. Now that should be a good thing. See the propolis marks on the wood? The bees have used it to glue the frames of the hive into place.]

And the mouse? Its body is now inside a very dry propolis tomb just like a pharoah in Egypt. Over time the mouse's body will dry up just like an Egyptian mummy.

Now you can see that the bee hive isn't much different than a Pharoah's tomb. It's filled with a treasure of golden honey and sometimes even a mummy in a tomb.

Next I'll tell you about another kind of small mummy in a bee hive.

Propolis

2010-06-09T10:33:00.009-04:00

Soon winter will come or it might be spring with many cold and rainy wet days. If you're a bee living inside a hive with your brothers and sisters you snuggle with each other on cold days to keep warm.

[See the reddish brown coloured stuff on the edge of the frame at left - that's propolis]

Beekeepers call snuggling "clustering". The bees gather together in a clump and they shiver their wing muscles. This creates heat to keep each other warm. Their beeswax also absorbs the heat from the bees and this warms the hive too.

Have you ever put your hand on a rock at night after a sunny day or the bricks of your house? Often you'll find the rock or the bricks are still warm. They've absorbed the heat. Beeswax works like that too.

[This is a peanut butter coloured clump of propolis I collected from a hive]

Sometimes the wind or rain will come inside the hive through the cracks between the wooden boxes. Or if they are wild bees living in a hollow tree there might be a crack in the hollow that lets the rain and snow in. We know that bees are pretty smart and they do have a way to solve this problem of rain or cold drafts coming in.

How do they do it? They fill in the cracks in their home. People do that too to keep their heat inside. Often they'll use that pink insulation or a white stuff called caulking. They'll squeeze it from a tube into the area around windows and doors. It helps to keep the house waterproof and warm.

Bees use caulking too. Theirs is made by nature. It's called propolis. You say it like this: pro-pol-lis.

Propolis is a sticky sap that the bees collect from the buds of trees. The bee scrapes it off with her mandibles and then attaches it to her pollen baskets. Once she has a load she'll return to her hive and go to the construction area of the hive.

The construction bees will take the propolis and mix it with their spit and a bit of beeswax. Then they'll take it and stuff it into the cracks and holes in their hive. It works like a glue to hold things together and it's also waterproof so it'll keep the rain outside.

[See the propolis mixed with wax pictured on the left side of this frame of honeycomb]

Bees really love to use propolis to glue down the frames of honeycomb in their hive. I suppose they'd prefer if the beekeeper didn't remove the frames ever but the beekeeper will need to take the frames out on occasion to check on the health of the bees and to gather honey. The bees will re-glue things back down again once the frames are put back in.

If you know bees are smart then you'll really want to learn one other really cool thing they can do with propolis. They can make Mummies.

Parts of the Bee: The Tongue (Proboscis)

2010-06-08T22:26:00.001-04:00

This closeup photo shows a worker bee. She's quite happy to be sitting on my metal hive tool.

Do you know why? Because there's honey on it. She has her tongue out and she's licking it off.

The bee doesn't have lips like you and I. Instead she has mandibles. They're like to hinged gates that open and close at the middle. The bee uses her mandibles when she needs to chew something such as beeswax when making honeycombs. She'll also use her mandibles the same as we use our hands. She'll pick something a piece of garbage that she'll then carry out of the hive to throw away.

Her tongue, called a proboscis is long and pointy--so is yours if you stick it out as far as you can--her tongue is soft like yours too.

Bees need long tongues so that they can reach into flowers to where the nectar is.

The bees' tongue works like a straw. The bee unrolls her tongue and dips it into a flower. Then she sucks up the nectar like you would drink from a straw.

Bees will also use their tongues like a cat to lick their fur to keep themselves clean. They'll also lick and clean each other and their mother the queen.

Their tongues are also used like brooms to lick the inside of their hive to keep it clean. At least we don't have to lick our bodies to keep them clean.

Parts of the Bee: The body

2010-06-08T14:59:00.006-04:00

Here's a painting I did of a worker honey bee. Let's look at the different parts of her body.

Starting at the head you'll see she actually has five eyes and not just two.

Her compound eyes are for seeing in the day time. Her three small ocelli eyes are to see in the dark - like when the sun is setting and she's flying home loaded with nectar or pollen. Or she could be inside the hive where it's always dark and they help her see.

She has two antennae that are attached in the middle of her face. These are super sensitive and the bees use them for many things like smelling. They twitch and twirl their antennae a lot and it's interesting to watch them touching each other and their honeycombs with their antennae. When I watch them twitching their antennae it looks like they are talking with them.

A bee's mouth is really interesting. Bees have mandibles which are like two gates on hinges that come together in the middle. Her tongue is really long and soft. It's called a proboscis (say it like this: Pro-bow-sis). I'll cover the tongue in detail in another post but I want to clarify that bees can't really bite you. I mean they can bite, but their mouth is so small that they really wouldn't be able to get enough skin for you to feel it. Their stinger though is another matter.

Of course the female worker bee has a stinger, but she'll die if she uses it. Because of that honey bees don't like to sting unless they feel really threatened and think it's necessary.

Bees can be a golden or lighter yellow colour with brown to black stripes. They also have four wings, two on each side and she has two stomachs - one is a regular stomach for food and the other is a honey stomach where she stores either nectar or water that she brings back to the hive.

The honey bee is furry all over. She has hair on her back, her stomach, her legs and even in her eyes. These hairs are useful for two reasons. They keep her warm on colder days so she can fly out earlier in the morning and she can stay out later in the day. But more important, her fur is will collect and hold all the pollen when she goes into a flower.

That's she'll use her legs--she has six of them. Six legs means you're an insect. She'll sweep over her body, gathering up the tiny grains of pollen using her legs. Then she'll add some nectar to it to the powdery pollen make a slightly sticky damp mixture.

On her back legs are her pollen baskets - they're made up of a collection of stiff hairs. The worker bee will take the damp pollen mixture and stick it onto the stiff hairs kind of like how your hairs get caught in a brush when you brush your hair. Have you ever seen a honey bee or bumble bee with the yellow lumps on their back legs? That's their collected pollen stuck like suitcases on their back legs.

Once her baskets are loaded with pollen it's time for her to fly home to unload the food for her brothers and sisters to eat.

Throw Me Some Honey Please!

2010-02-03T12:17:00.002-05:00

In Italy a very very very long time ago, before any of us were born. People in Europe and North America didn't have white sugar to make things sweet.

Instead they had something better--honey. The people loved honey and the bees that made it. They understood how very special the little insect was. Most homes kept bee hives so they'd have honey at hand. People that didn't keep bees would buy it.

Back then, honey was eaten in the comb. The beekeeper would cut chunks of honeycomb out of the hive. People would then take their spoons and dig into it and eat it--both the honeycomb and the honey. They'd spread it on their toast and drop a chunk into their porridge.

They would also crush the honey combs and leave them sitting for hours so that the honey would all drip out so they'd have liquid honey to put in jars.

Back then, they didn't know a special trick could be used to remove the honey from the combs without destroying them. Back then the only way to get the liquid honey was to crush the combs.

It took a child to show the adults what to do.

Imagine yourself as a child in 1869 (well over a hundred years ago). Your father is a Major in the Italian army and he gives you a basket with a string on the handle. Inside the basket is some honeycomb with the caps cut off. He's asked you to carry the basket.

Would you hold the basket carefully so it didn't rock or move? What might you be tempted to do if you felt like playing? Do you think you might be temped to swing the basket around by the string?

That's exactly what Major Hruschka's son did. He swung that basket around by the string and something happened--something important--the honey was thrown out of the honeycombs by the centrifugal force of the swinging. The next great thing that happened was that Major Hruschka didn't get mad about the messy honey that leaked inside the basket.

Instead he saw that it was possible to throw honey out of combs without crushing them and that was something no one had realized before.

That moment when you learn something new that's really important is often called an Eureka moment. It was a special moment.

Major Hruschka then set to work to make a machine that would throw the honey from the combs by spinning them just like the basket on the string. That's where the first machine, called a honey extractor, came from.

We still use the extracting machines to this day. Some have hand cranks that turn the frames in a circle and others are electric.

The beekeeper takes a hot knife to cut just the caps off the honeycombs. Then the frames of comb are placed in the extractor and spun around. The honey drips out and runs to the bottom of the extractor. There's a tap there so the honey can be poured out into jars.

Once the combs are empty they are given back to the bees to refill. That meant a lot less work for the bees because they wouldn't have to make the honeycomb all over again.

I bet Major Hruschka let his son have all the honey he wanted to eat. And then guess what? After his invention Major Hruschka decided he'd like to become a beekeeper. And he did.

Honey on my Spoon

2010-01-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you're curious like me you've probably wondered how honey gets from the bees to your kitchen and then to your waiting spoon.

Beekeepers keep their bees inside hollow boxes. The boxes have wooden frames that look like window panes (see the photo at left where I'm holding a frame). Instead of glass the frame is filled with honey combs built by the bees.

The bees will store their food (pollen and honey) inside the combs. Once the summer flowers bloom there is lots of nectar available for the bees to collect. They'll quickly fill all their frames with the nectar and they'll need more room.

The beekeeper keeps a close eye on the bees and will add another hollow box with frames so they have more room to store their food.

This photo at left shows a typical beehive. The white box is the bees' home where the babies are. The pink and purple boxes are filled with just honey.

Honey bees are well known for being obsessive about collecting nectar. They never know when to stop. A honey bee will not look at all their honeycombs full of honey and say, "We don't need any more." As long as flowers are offering nectar, the field bees will bring it home, collecting much more than they can eat.

This is a great blessing to us. Can you guess why? Yes, it means there will be extra honey for you and me.

Because the bees collect so much, the beekeeper will need to keep giving them more hollow boxes of frames to keep up with how much they're collecting.

Once fall comes and the flowers are finished blooming, the beekeeper can collect his share of the honey. The beekeeper only takes the extra honey from the bees that they won't need, leaving the rest of the honey for the bees to eat all winter long while they're on vacation inside their hive.

Next time, we'll take a look at how the beekeeper gets the honey out of the honey combs.

In a summer with good weather, one hive can make as much as 100 pounds of extra honey. That's the honey you and I get to eat.

So, get your spoon out and get ready to taste that honey! Yum.

Bees are Born Twice

2010-01-24T13:31:00.009-05:00

I guess you could say they get born and then they get born again.

How on earth do they do that? It's simple really. First the queen lays an egg in the bottom of a honey comb cell. After three days the egg hatches and a teeny tiny larva is born. So that's the first birth.

The larva is really small for a few days but nurse bees will come along many times each day and add a white pudding-like food to the bottom of their cell. That food is called royal jelly and it makes the larva grow very big very quickly.

Soon the little white larvae will grow quite chubby and the nurse bees will feed it honey and pollen. At first the larvae will curl up in the bottom of their cells but soon they'll get so big that there's no more room to grow.

After about 9 days the worker larvae will know it's time for a big metamorphosis--a big change. The bees will come and put a cap on the larva's cell and then the larva will spin a cocoon. After it spins the cocoon it will pupate.

Then a few more days will go by. On the 21st day after being born the first time the pupae bee will be born the second time when it chews the cap off its cell and hatches as a baby bee.

(Click on the picture at left to see a closeup of the baby larva bees).

The baby bee will have a nice big meal of honey and then it'll be time to get to work, cleaning her cell and then helping out in the hive.

If she's lucky she might live for about a month. During her lifetime she'll care for her brothers and sisters, help take care of the queen and then one day work outside the hive gathering. In her whole life she'll produce about 1/12th a teaspoon of honey.

Can you picture how much honey is a 1/12th of a teaspoon?

The Queen

2010-01-14T19:12:00.013-05:00

Her Royal Highness, the Queen.

She's actually not the boss of the hive and she doesn't tell everyone what to do... at least not in words (as far as we know).

The male drone is the biggest bee in the hive but the queen has the longest abdomen. It's often a golden colour and she'll have a brown or black back.

To keep the hive healthy and working well the queen gives off her own personal perfume called pheromones. Her children smell this pheromone and it makes them happy and helps keep them organized and working.

The queen's young daughters do all the work of taking care of the baby larva bees when they're just hatched. They also do a job called being an attendant to the queen. Another term for it would be a lady-in-waiting.

The queen is very similar to a human queen. She has a court of attendants and their job is to take care of her. They keep the queen always looking nice and well groomed.

It's the attendant's job to make sure that their mother gets a bath. Yes that's right. The baby daughter bees make sure their Mom gets a bath!

They lick their mother's body, her face and her fur to keep her clean. They even have a little hairs on their legs that act like brushes that they groom her with.

They feed their mother too. The queen will never stop to feed herself because she's so busy laying eggs. Her daughters bring the food to her.

The queen is incredibly busy and hard working. She can lay between 1,500 to 2,000 eggs a day.

Can you see the queen in the photo? Her back is marked with yellow paint. Look for her golden abdomen.

The queen is so busy that she doesn't even leave her hive to go to the bathroom. Yes, it's true.

That's another job for her attendants. They have to collect and carry her poop out of the hive. (The hive must always be really clean so the bees won't just let the poop stay in the hive).

They feed their mother and she eats a lot. She eats about three times her own body weight every day. Do you know why? It's because she needs to be active and healthy so she can lay lots and lots of eggs. The queen eats only one kind food her whole life long and it's called royal jelly. This white pudding-like food is made by a special gland inside the worker bees' head.

All baby larva bees are fed royal jelly too but they only get it for a few days after they hatch from their tiny eggs. See the picture of the larva in the cells. Can you see the white pudding-like substance that the larva is laying in? It's a pool of food, royal jelly and the bees are feeding it to them.

Later on we'll find out how a queen is made.

Next time your mother tells you that you have to take a bath you can ask her if she knows who gives the queen a bath.

It's Such a Hard Life.... Being a Boy

2010-01-14T07:00:00.007-05:00

The male drone.

He's the biggest bee.

He's got the biggest wings, the biggest
eyes and the most fur. He's also the noisiest bee in the hive.

He needs to have larger wings to go with his bigger body so he can fly and that's why he's the noisiest. Listen carefully to the video below and watch for the bee with the long back legs--that's the drone flying in front of the hive.

He has the biggest eyes because vision is very important. He needs to be able to see the queen.

Take a look at the bee photo across the top of this blog page. There's lots of workers there who are smaller, there's even a queen with a yellow dot on her back.

Look carefully at the largest bees. Can you see the drone? Look for the biggest bee with the big goggle eyes.

Drones don't do any chores for the hive. They even need the workers to feed them. The workers don't mind feeding their brothers because it's part of their hive life.

The drones do have one very important task that they need to do and that's to mate with a queen. It's sad but true that after a drone mates with a queen he will die.

Every afternoon the drones leave the hive and go to a boys' hang-out called a drone congregation area. They wait there for queens to come so they can mate with them. That's where their big eyes help so they can see her.

Because drones don't do tasks such as guarding the hive, they have no need for a stinger. That's right. Drones don't have stingers.

They're big and loud and scary sounding but they're the gentlest bee in the hive. You won't see this bee in the flower garden since he doesn't collect pollen or feed himself.

Listen to the video. Can you tell the sound of the drone from the other bees?

Who Does the Work?

2010-01-13T08:22:00.004-05:00

Is it the boys or the girls who do all the work for the hive?

Here's a HUGE hint: The Bee Movie is totally wrong!!!

It's not the boys that do the work and run the hive, it's the girls.

Bees are social creatures with a Queen, who is their mother, and her sons and daughters. They're very similar to ants in that it's the females that do the hunting and gathering for the family.

The female bee, called a worker won't ever grow up into a queen. She'll always be a worker until the day she dies because that's the way she was born.

Workers have two main things that they do to support their family. The first is chores inside the hive as a house bee and the other is chores outside the hive as a field bee.

In this photo the house bees are feeding their brothers and sisters who are chubby white larva laying curled up in their honeycomb cells.

Do you have chores that you have to do at home? So do the bees. And guess what? Their chores aren't much different than yours.

Inside the hive workers will: Feed and babysit their baby brothers and sisters, keep them warm by clustering, clean the hive, remove any garbage, feed and care for the queen, store and pack honeycombs, fan the honey and protect the hive.

Can you guess what's the first chore of a newly hatched baby bee? It's to clean her room. She has to clean the cell she hatched from so that it's all ready for the queen to come and lay another egg in it.

When a worker is older she'll work outside the hive as a field bee. Outside the hive she'll gather nectar and pollen from plants. She'll also collect water to drink or cool the hive and she collect a sticky substance called propolis.

A worker bee can live up to a month but often she won't live quite that long and she'll wear herself out and die from all her hard work. In winter, the bees mostly have a vacation and a worker can live for several months inside the hive.

This family structure is also the same for wasps, hornets and bumble bees. With the big list of chores you can see why people say often say "as busy as a bee".

Bees Have Pockets

2010-01-12T19:58:00.003-05:00

What? Yes, it's true.

A worker bee has 8 pockets on her abdomen. You may be wondering why a honey bee has pockets.

There's a very good reason.

[Photo -can you see that bee's stomach and the little bits of white sticking out of her pockets? Those are wax scales.]

During part of a worker bee's life she will help her hive by building and repairing honeycombs. She'll use beeswax to build these combs.

Have you ever wondered where the wax comes from? It comes from the bees.

Her body will produce the wax and it will secrete from glands on her abdomen into these 8 little pockets.

It comes out as a clear liquid but once it cools the wax looks like tiny clear fish scales.

The worker will then use her foot to grab a wax scale and put it to her mouth. Then she chews it up to make it soft and then she shapes it into honeycombs.
She makes it all look so very easy. The combs are very delicate but strong as well and make the perfect container for nature's sweetest gift.

Honeycombs are used by the bees to store their pollen and nectar as well as to raise their babies.

Honeycombs filled with honey can be eaten right off the spoon. The wax can be eaten too. The beeswax is also used to make sweet smelling candles, furniture polish, lip balms, and foot balms.

What are Killer Bees?

2010-01-10T10:29:00.007-05:00

Killer Bee is a term that has been given to African honey bees that are now living in North America.

You are probably wondering how African honey bees ended up in North America.

(picture from Discovery Channel blog at Where will the killer bee go?)

Here's how it all happened:

Many years ago a scientist in South America wanted to do experimental breeding with African and South American honey bees. So he flew to Africa and brought some African honey bees back with him.

African honey bees are well known for being fantastic honey producers. The only problem is that they are also very enthusastic about protecting their honey--they're aggressive and don't hesitate to sting.

The scientist was trying to breed African honey bees with South American bees to try to take advantage of the honey producing genetics of the African bees, but create calmer and more placid bees by crossing them with the gentle South American bees.

But the scientist took a day off and a person who was taking care of the bee yard saw these little entrances on the front of the scientist's hives. These entrances were specially designed to prevent the African queen bees from leaving the hive to breed in the wild. But the person didn't know and removed the special entrances.

The African queens did leave the hive and breed with wild bees in South America.

Very quickly this bee species spread through South America and because the land is connected between South and North America, the bee was able to keep moving north. Next the bees were in Mexico and from there they travelled to North America into the southern parts of the USA.

So far this bee has not been seen in the northern and more colder parts of North America.

There probably aren't any more pure African bees because they've bred with our bees. The term now used to describe these hybrid bees (bees who have bred with domestic and wild North American bees) is "Africanized Bees". They look very much like regular honey bees, except that they are smaller.

We don't have Africanized bees in Canada because it's too cold.

One thing hasn't changed. They're good honey producers and they still REALLY like to protect their honey.

Honey is Bee Barf

2010-01-09T22:30:00.008-05:00

Yep. It's true.

Honey is actually made by the bees barfing.

And this barf tastes so gooood. Yum!!!

Let's back up a bit and find out why the bee barfs.

In summer, the worker bee forages out in the field, looking for flowers that are blooming and offering nectar.

Nectar is what the bees collect and turn into honey.

The worker has pollen baskets on her back legs--that's where she puts the yellow pollen powder to take back to her hive, but where do you think she stores the nectar? She must take it back to her hive to share with her family.

She stores the nectar inside her body in a special stomach called a honey stomach. That means that bees actually have two stomachs.

When the worker finds a flower she dips her long tongue, called a proboscis, into the flower and she sucks up the nectar into her stomach in the same way that you would drink a soft drink at your favourite restaurant.

(This photo is of honeycombs filled with honey which the bees have capped with beeswax).

Then she returns to her hive and she climbs up the honey combs. Then she leans down inside a cell and regurgitates (barfs) all the nectar from her honey stomach into the honey comb cell.

(This photo is honeycombs made by the bees. See how they look like pancakes hanging from a
branch).

Nectar is a sugary tasting water, so it's not really honey yet. In the next step fanning bees will come along and fan the honeycombs. The wind from fanning blows off the extra water in the nectar, leaving behind a thicker liquid.

I bet you can guess what that thicker liquid is.... Yes, it's honey!

So, pass me the bee barf please so I can put it on my toast. How do you like to eat your bee barf?

Bee Poop

2010-01-09T22:25:00.010-05:00

Do you have rules in your house? I'm willing to bet that you do.

You probably have a rule that says you have to eat all your vegetables and that you have to wash your hands before eating. Those are pretty good rules.

Bees have rules too. One of their very important rules is that their hive, which is their home, must be kept very clean.

The workers in the hive all have to do chores and several of the chores involve cleaning house.

Some workers will be given the job of an undertaker. Their job is to carry the dead bees out of the hive. The worker will drag the heavy dead bee down through the hive and out the front door. They she'll struggle to get it to the edge of the entrance and there she'll drop the body onto the ground.

In this photo and the video below, two female workers are working very hard to drag a dead drone bee away.

Another job is to wash the floors. Bees will use their tongues like brooms to lick everything clean. Often beekeepers will observe bees outside on the front porch of their hive, licking the floor to clean it. They call that 'washboarding'.

How often do you have to take a bath? Bees like to be clean and they keep their bodies clean similar to how a cat does. They lick the tiny hairs on their legs and then reach up with those legs to comb and cleanse their body fur.

Bees have fur just about everywhere, even in their eyes!

When it comes time to poop, they have a really big rule. No one is allowed to poop in the hive. It's a no-no. Bees take what's called a cleansing flight to poop. They fly outside the hive and once they are about 3 or 4 feet away they'll poop in mid-air.

Their pooh is liquid and it's gold in colour. Can you guess what gives it the golden colour? Of course, it's the food they eat--honey. In the photo there's a large male drone bee on my hand - can you see the golden poop on my finger? Yes, he pooped on me (click to make the photo bigger so you can see).

In winter, pooping can be difficult and a bit of a problem. Bees don't hibernate through winter. Instead, they stay awake and shiver their wing muscles to stay warm. They share their body heat with each other in a cluster, just like penguins.

Isn't it funny that bees do the same thing as penguins even though they've never met?

In winter it can be pretty super cold outside and too cold to fly. In that case, the bees must hold their poop until a warmer day. Once a warmer winter day comes along, the bees will all fly out and defecate (which is another fancy word that just means poop) outside the hive.

In winter in Canada you can see the golden bee poop streak marks in the snow. That saying remains true, "Don't eat yellow snow."

Cool Honey Bee Facts

2010-01-09T18:47:00.000-05:00

There are three kinds of bees in a hive: Queen, Worker and Drone.

Only the Queen in the hive lays eggs. She communicates with her hive with her own special scent called pheromones. The queen will lay around 1,500 eggs per day.

The worker bees are all female and they do all the work for the hive. Workers perform the following tasks inside the hive as a House Bee: Cleaning, feeding the baby bees, feeding and taking care of the queen, packing pollen and nectar into cells, capping cells, building and repairing honeycombs, fanning to cool the hive and guarding the hive.

Workers perform the following tasks outside the hive as Field Bees: Gathering nectar and pollen from flowers, collecting water and a collecting a sticky substance called propolis.

Bees have two stomachs - one stomach for eating and the other special stomach is for storing nectar collected from flowers or water so that they can carry it back to their hive.

The male bees in the hive are called drones. Their job in the hive is to find a queen to mate with. Male bees fly out and meet in special drone congregation areas where they hope to meet a queen. Male drone bees don't have a stinger.

If a worker bee uses her stinger, she will die.

Bees are classified as insects and they have six legs.

Bees have five eyes - two compound eyes and three tiny ocelli eyes.

Bees go through four stages of development: Egg, Larvae, Pupae and Adult Bee.

The bees use their honeycomb cells to raise their babies in, and to store nectar, honey, pollen and water.

Nectar is a sweet watery substance that the bees gather. After they process the nectar in their stomach they regurgitate it into the honeycomb cells. Then they fan with their wings to remove excess moisture. The final result is honey.

Bees are the only insect in the world that make food for humans.

Honey has natural preservatives and bacteria can't grow in it.

Honey was found in the tombs in Egypt and it was still edible! Bees have been here around 30 million years.

A honeybee can fly 24 km in an hour at a speed of 15 mph. Its wings beat 200 times per second or 12,000 beats per minute.

Bees have straw-like tongues called a proboscis so they can suck up liquids and also mandibles so they can chew.

Bees carry pollen on their hind legs called a pollen basket. Pollen is a source of protein for the hive and is needed to feed to the baby bees to help them grow.

A beehive in summer can have as many as 50,000 to 80,000 bees. A bee must collect nectar from about 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey. It requires 556 worker bees to gather a pound of honey. Bees fly more than once around the world to gather a pound of honey.

The average worker bee makes about 1/12 th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

Bees have 2 pairs of wings. The wings have tiny teeth so they can lock together when the bee is flying. Bees communicate through chemical scents called pheromones and through special bee dances.

Every 3rd mouthful of food is produced by bees pollinating crops. Flowering plants rely on bees for pollination so that they can produce fruit and seeds. Without bees pollinating these plants, there would not be very many fruits or vegetables to eat.

A single beehive can make more than 100 pounds (45 kg) of extra honey. The beekeeper only harvests the extra honey made by the bees.

The average life of a honey bee during the working season is about three to six weeks. There are five products that come from the hive: Honey, beeswax, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly.

Beeswax is produced by the bees. Bees have special glands on their stomach that secrete the wax into little wax pockets on their stomach. The bee takes the wax and chews it with her mandibles and shapes it to make honeycomb.

Propolis is a sticky substance that bees collect from the buds of trees. Bees use propolis to weatherproof their hive against drafts or in spots where rain might leak in.

People have discovered the anti-bacterial properties of propolis for use in the medical field.

Royal Jelly is a milky substance produced in a special gland in the worker bee's head. For her whole life the Queen is fed Royal Jelly by the workers.

Although bears do like honey, they prefer to eat the bee larvae.

Honey comes in different colours and flavours. The flower where the nectar was gathered from determines the flavour and colour of the honey.

Celebrating the Bee Magic Chronicles' Anniversary

2009-02-10T23:25:00.000-05:00

This is the day. This is the one year anniversary day of when I started writing the Chronicles.

I already knew the topic was going to be about honey bees. In fact, I was pretty excited about it. I was absolutely in love with bees. They were infinitely fascinating with a unique and interesting biology. As well, they were social creatures, reliant on each other and their queen to survive. Then there's the by product of their existance--five products actually--honey, wax, propolis, royal jelly and pollen.

I was stuck though because I didn't know where to start. I remember when the story line hit me. In fact, within about 20 minutes I had the entire book in mind and what would happen. It was like a thunderstorm of creativity--an exciting time. But still, where would I start?

I had not written in years and was out of practise. I was sitting in the living room thinking about various scenes when one in particular came to mind. It was intense, a little bit scary, and exciting. I rolled over to the lap top thinking, just start! Don't think about anything, just start. And I did.

For the next 10 months or so the book just flew out of my fingers. I kept the keyboard busy every spare moment. When I wasn't typing, I was handwriting in notebooks. When I wasn't doing that I was either daydreaming or drawing. I was quite happily completely obsessed. I still am :)

So today is the anniversary date of those first keystrokes marking the beginnings of the Bee Magic Chronicles. Happy Birthday BMC!!!!!

Where It All Began

2009-01-26T12:01:00.005-05:00

There was always honey at Grandma and Grandpa's houseNot just one kind of honey either. They had creamed honey, pasteurized honey and honey in the comb.

It was at Grandma's house that I tried honey in the comb for the first time. It was delicious and sweet. My Dad told me they ate the bees wax as a chewing gum when he was a kid.

I'll never forget the metal pails that the honey came in. They had metal lids and wire handles. We couldn't get these pails in the city. In the city, all our honey came in plastic containers. I guess it was old fashioned to have honey in pails, but later I found out there was a good reason for the pails.

Grandpa liked to spread his toast with a lot of butter and then he'd add a huge heap of honey. At one time I remember Grandma eating a lot of peanut butter and honey sandwiches. She got inspired and then mixed up the honey and peanut butter together in a container. She thought that was a marvelous idea.

One day Grandma asked me if I'd like to visit the bee man. I looked at her funny, "the what?" She explained that they needed to get some honey and she was going to go see the bee man. She said that wasn't really his name, that's just what she called him. Of course I wanted to see this man too.

We drove down country roads and after a while she pulled into the place where the bee man lived. We went inside a room that looked a lot like Grandpa's milk house - it had white walls and a big window. There were a few bees flying around inside and a couple of them were flying at the window, but the bees weren't interested in us at all.

It was kind of exciting to be inside with bees and I wasn't scared of them either. The bee man was old like grandma and had white hair. He was very nice and he smiled.

He asked me if I'd like to taste the honey. Of course I wanted to, so I nodded, "Yes." He gave me a plastic spoon and he directed me to a big tank.

The tank reminded me of the water tank in my basement at home, the one where the hot water is kept for our showers and baths. At the bottom of the tank was a little tap and Grandma first held her spoon under the tap and I watched as the bee man turned the spigot on the tap and honey ran out onto Grandma's spoon.

It was my turn next and I put my spoon under the spout and the bee man turned the tap. I held my spoon as carefully as I could so I wouldn't spill. The golden honey was thick and it filled my spoon. I tasted it and it was very very good.

After that, Grandma brought her empty honey pails and the bee man held them under the spout and turned the tap to fill them. Then I understood that the metal pails were used over and over to refill with honey when she visited the bee man. I thought that was very clever.

The fascination with beekeeping and honey and the bee man has stayed with me my whole life. I regret that I do not remember the name of the bee man but he has absolutely influenced my life.

In the spring I will be starting with my first two beehives and I'm very excited to become a beekeeper. Maybe one day I'll be called the bee lady.

My grandmother passed away many years ago but she left me her honey pails. I have them on display in my living room and when I look at them I remember Grandma and her love, the friendly bee man with his delicious honey and the honey bees that flew around inside a room and I didn't need to be afraid.