Bees Keep Buzzing in the Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden
We are BUZZING with exciting news in the Dallas Arboretum Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden! Our newest exhibit has flown in and it is all about bees!
Why Celebrate Bees?
Pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and birds allow our garden to thrive and grow. Without bees, we might not have the flowers, fruits and vegetables we love to enjoy so often. Not to mention jars of delicious honey! Yum!
Some bee basics!
You may already know that bees make honey, but how does such a small insect take on such a big task? Lots of hard work!
Let us to take a look at how a common species of bee makes honey, the honey bee. Honey bees leave their hive to get nectar from flowers. The collect it ingesting it into their stomach by the drop, one flower at a time, and transport this precious nectar back to the hive. While the bee carries this nectar back to the hive in its stomach, the nectar reacts to certain chemicals the bees have in their stomach. The bee delivers the nectar safely back into the hive and places the nectar in a storage spot within a honey comb. This storage point is called a “cell.”
Cells within the honeycomb are hexagonal, or six sided shapes. Over time, the nectar sitting within the honey comb cools and hardens. Water within the nectar mixture evaporates, allowing the honey to thicken and become ooey and gooey. Often, bees will fan their wings on the honeycomb to allow it to cool and become thicker even faster. Who would’ve guessed bees were such cool chemists?
A honey bee family is made up of 3 different types of bees:
- A queen bee: Her job is to lay eggs and produce healthy larvae which grow into adult bees.
- Drone bees: Drones are the only male bees in the hive. Drones will rarely leave the hive and never have a stinger.
- Worker bees: These are female bees who take on multiple tasks in order to keep the hive running, including the task of transporting nectar from flowers back to the colony.
BEE Questions for You!
If you think our friendly pollinators are the bee knees and you want some help answering the questions below, visit us at the Dallas Arboretum Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden and see for yourself!
We talked about how important pollinators are to our garden, but what exactly is pollination?
Bees get so much work done, but how? How do they tell each other what needs to get done? Do they talk with their mouths like you and I? What are other ways insects can communicate in order to spread a message?
We learned what types of bees are in a honey bee family, but what is a family of honey bees called?
Can you help me find the answers?
If you want some help, fly over and pay us a visit. We will BEE delighted to see you in our Exploration Center! And remember…
