S.T.E.A.M. Room April 2018

“We hummed, we buzzed

We waggled, because…

As honeybees we shared

Where the best pollen was!!!”

In April the Steam room was transformed into a buzzing honeybee hive where each colony:  yellow, red, purple, orange, blue and green groups were busy as bees performing the many vital jobs honeybees do each day,  We collected pollen from the stamens of lilies, alstroemeria and other actual wildflowers with cotton balls before putting our proboscis to the test as nectar collectors!

We used pipettes to collect water (our version of nectar) from paper flowers blooming throughout the room to fill our egg carton honeycomb.  Fanning our bee wings, we demonstrated the miracle of how honeybees turn nectar into honey.  We waggled to our sister bees to communicate where to find the best flowers to visit.  We were nurse bees feeding the growing larvae while our brother drone bees assisted our queen in laying 2,000 eggs as queens must lay every day!  We investigated a honey super section of a box hive borrowed from a beekeeper and marveled at the perfectly formed hexagons of last seasons’ honeycomb.  We concluded our “un-beelievable” adventure by wearing a beekeeper’s helmet and netting and calmed our colony with a smoker as beekeepers do to extract honey from their hives.  “Hive Five” to the honeybees, the pollination sensations who help put the fruit, vegetables and much of the food we love on our table!

Want to learn more about honeybees?  There are many terrific books and resources, a few favorites are: