We have been finding out about bees. We are very curious and had lots of questions about bees that we wanted to find the answers to. We were lucky enough to have a beekeeper, Iri, come and share his knowledge with us and show us his bees.
Some things we learnt:
Bees have different jobs in the hive. Some are guards, who protect the hive. Some are heaters, who keep the eggs in the hive warm. Some are the foragers who find the food and bring it back to the hive. The queen bee is the only bee to lay eggs. We saw the queen. She was longer than the other bees. We also saw some bees hatching.
The worker bees don't live as long as the Queen because they work so hard. The Queen can live for about 3 years.
We found out why bees are important. They collect nectar from the flowers and they take pollen from one flower to another.
Without bees we wouldn't have flowers or even food.
We knew that bees sting and that hurts. We told lots of stories about the times we have got stung. Iri told us that we need to be kind to bees.
He showed us the bee suit he wears when he checks the hives and how he puffs smoke to keep the bees calm.
We got to see some bees wax too. We are looking forward to using bees wax to make our beeswax wraps on Tuesday.
