This last week we learned about Bees. We learned that bees communicate with each other by Dancing. So we had a dance party. Tanner and Violet love dancing- to any music. They just hear the music and let the movements flow. They love it. I love watching them dance and move around it's so fun.
Violet has just started getting into it.
Tanner loves spinning around and being lifted into the air. He has some great moves too.
We went to my cousin Nathan Gerber's beehive at his house. They are amazing. I thought it would be fun for Tanner to learn how honey is made and what Bees do. Nathan sure knows a lot about bees.
Tanner and Violet didn't want to get very close to them. Tanner said he doesn't like bees.
This is where the Queen bee lays her eggs. The cream colored thing that you can see with the Bees is to make a new queen bee. Nathan took it out so they only have the one queen right now.
Nathan's daughter Evelyn, Violet and Tanner watching Nathan put the bees back in there box.
Busy bees. Nathan said that each bee has a job. Some clean up the beehive- when a bee dies they push it out the door of the hive. The queen- lay eggs, the Drones- they mate with the queen. But they only mate once and then they don't do anything else in the hive. At the end of the season they are pushed out the hive because all they do is eat. There are security bees that guard the door- they smell each bee as it comes to the hive. At the end of the day there is a bottleneck at the door to the hive while the bees wait to be smelled to see if they belong to the hive. If they don't belong then they get in a fight with the guard bees. There are the bees who fan the nectar when it's brought into the hive combs and that causes the water to evaporate out and makes honey. There are also bees that fan the queen when she gets too hot, and of course the bees that go and find the pollen and suck up the nectar and bring it to the hive. Anyway so many jobs for the bees to do to besides just buzz around.
Tanner and Violet looking at the black drone on the ground moving around.
It was very interesting seeing the bees. They are a lot of work. Nathan said you need to spray them for mites and bacteria at the end of the season as well and if they don't have enough nectar stored up for the winter then they die. You'll have to give them some sugar water. And you need to have a water source in the area for the bees to drink. It was a fun morning. The kids are still in their jamas because we went over at 8 in the morning when the bees where just getting up for the day.
For our art project this week we had the kids too finger stamping on their beehives so it will look like honeycomb. Violet and Tanner love art.
Violet loves doing anything that her brother can do. They were gluing on foam bees to complete their hives.
Tanner is such a great brother always trying to help Violet
And of course we had to make Bees out of Twinkies. They didn't work out exactly the way I thought they would but it was great to make them.
It's been a good "Bee" Week. We also read lots of books we got from the Library and we watched an episode from the Magic School bus on bees and one from Wild Kratts. Those shows have really helped the kids learn about Bees better.
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