Busy Bees

As I drove along the interstate today I saw something I had never seen before, a semi truck full of bees.  I knew that bee hives are transported around the country, probably at this time of the year, to places where bees don't overwinter (Iowa) because of the cold... but I had never witnessed such an event.  It was one of those moments where I said out loud (and all alone) "Wow. I never knew. Interesting." And kept driving.  As I passed the semi and saw the bees buzzing around their mobile home I thought about the life of a bee and how important they are and how easily overlooked they can be.

Last summer when I would take the wee ones I nanny to the park our first stop was always the marigold because they were buzzing with bees and beetles.  It was the highlight of the trip every time.  Bees and other insects are such great learning tools for kids because they seem to be naturally curious about the small creatures.

Insects are a whole lesson on their own.  Legs, body parts, movement, food, there's so much to talk about.  In the garden, insects can be used to teach pollination, food chains, life cycles, all of which come with uncanny facts that kids just eat up.

Did you know that in its lifetime a worker bee will produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey? Or, to make one pound of honey, a hive of worker bees have to fly 55,000 miles to tap 2 million flowers?  And that one pound of honey is that average amount eaten by Americans in one year?

These facts can be concretely demonstrated to your children by showing them just how much honey 1/12 of a teaspoon is, or how much one pound is.  Get them outside investigating bee movement and communication; have them watch for the pollen that collects on bee legs as they move from flower to flower.  What does this do for the flowers? What would happen if there were no bees?

Teach the kids to be observers; teach them to appreciate insects and get rid of that innate fear of bees that so many people have.  After all, they're just doing their job!  And if I can hold a cockroach from the Iowa State Insect Zoo, you can give an afternoon to the bees :-)

BTW: the great bee facts came from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/