Busy Bees

TOCK is having so much fun learning about the many wonderful animals big and small that help to keep the Earth healthy. One of the small creatures who does a very, very important job is the honey bee. Bees really are bundles of tiny awesomeness. They help to keep the Earth nice and green and healthy by pollinating flowers, fruits and vegetables.. They are in fact the world’s busiest pollinator. Bees carry pollen on their back legs in (little pollen baskets) and on their bodies as they buzz from flower to flower looking for nectar to eat. Pollen needs to be taken from one flower to another for many types of plants to produce new plants. They help pollinate more than 100 different types of food crops including apples, beans, blueberries, cherries, almond trees ……

Here are some surprising and incredible facts about Bees which you can share with your family and friends:

  • Bees have 2 stomachs – 1 ordinary one and a honey one for carrying nectar.
  • Bees have 5 eyes, 6 legs and 4 wings.
  • Bees have 2 antennae that they use to smell with.
  • Honey bees will visit 50 – 100 flowers on 1 trip from the beehive.
  • Honey bees must visit about 4 million flowers to make 1 kg of yummy honey.
  • Honey bees can fly very fast and beat their wings 200 times per second.
  • Honey bees live in large groups/colonies called hives.
  • Each hive has a queen bee who lays all the eggs – she may lay over 2500 eggs in 1 day!!!!!
  • The other bees in the hive are called drones and worker bees who all have special jobs to do.
  • Each hive can have about 50,000 bees.
  • Honey bees are great dancers. When the worker bees return to the hive they do a dance called a ‘waggle dance’. They move in a figure of 8 and waggle their bodies to show the direction of the food they have found.

Why do we need to look after bees?

Over the last 15 years lots of colonies of bees have been disappearing and so there are a lot less bees to pollinate the flowers. Some of the reasons are:

  • Loss of habitat (areas where bees normally find food and live) – in many areas in the world the meadows, fields and gardens have been built on or replaced with paving so the bees have less flowers and plants to pollinate.
  • Use of pesticides and insecticides (chemicals which are used to kill garden pests) – Sadly many pesticides kill bees and butterflies as well as insect pests.
  • Parasites

What YOU can do:

  • Ask your parents to check they don’t use plant sprays on their plants and vegetables that can hurt the good insects like bees, butterflies and ladybirds.
  • Plant flowers like lavender, rosemary, chives and native wild flowers that bees like in your garden or in pots.
  • Create a bee ‘pond’ – leave a shallow container of water with some small pebbles in it so bees have somewhere to land and sip the water if they get thirsty – but be sure to not make it too deep as bees cannot swim.
  • Try and grow flowers in spring and winter too – when it can be hard for bees to find food.
  • Buy local, organic produce. By choosing organic food, you know pesticides that can harm pollinators like bees were not used. And don’t forget to buy local honey
  • Plant trees and shrubs bees like too in your garden or school grounds. Here are just a few ideas:
    Lemonwood
    Five Finger Pseudopanax arboreus
    Kanuka
    Manuka
    Cabbage trees
    Hebes
    Weeping Kowhai
    NZ Flax