Dear Horizon Families,
I want to talk today about honeybees. Honeybees benefit us. They have an important job going from plant to plant and flower to flower. Honeybees carry pollen. This pollination process enables food crops to grow. Food for us. Honeybees allow humans to enjoy many fruits and vegetables like broccoli, cranberries, blueberries, and apples. Honeybees are extremely important for an entire ecosystem to function. An ecosystem is a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. Plants produce through pollination because of bees. These plants feed birds, insects, and other animals. Bees also pollinate plants that produce cotton. Cotton is used to make clothing.
Honeybees play a part in every aspect of the ecosystem. Trees, flowers, and other plants serve as food and shelter for creatures large and small. Bees are as important as soil, water, and sunshine. Bees transport pollen from plant to plant as they collect it to bring to their hives. Pollen attaches to the honeybees’ fuzzy bodies and rubs off on flowers from which they collect nectar. The honeybee is the only insect that produces food eaten by humans. Bees keep plants and crops alive. Human nutrition would suffer without honeybees.
Honeybee populations are lessening. We can help to save our bees:
Let your yard go wild with clover and dandelions
Do not use pesticides and herbicides
Keep a bee garden with possibly mint, lavender, and poppy plants
Shop responsibly buying organic or locally-farmed produce
Bee informed
Bees make pollen, beeswax, and propolis that humans can use. I enjoy a spoonful of honey each morning. Racquel and Nicole add bee pollen to their smoothies. My name, Melissa, comes from the Greek word “honeybee.” I have a stuffed bee I keep on my dresser. Bees are my favorite insects.
Now for some bee jokes you can share with others, too:
What do you call a bee born in May? A Maybe
Why did the bee cross the road? Just beecause
Why do bees buzz? Because they can’t whistle
Why are A’s like flowers? Because bees come after them
What goes zub zub? A bee flying backwards
Lastly, I have a few facts about honeybees:
Bees cannot see the color red
The average bee will only make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime
Bees communicate with one another by dancing
Buzz is the sound of their wings, which beat 11,400 times per minute
Hope you enjoy learning more about bees. Bee kind to bees and we will continue to bee well.
Melissa