We need a bee-utiful bountiful beehive and butterfly pavilion and beekeeping supplies, including gloves and jacket. Springtime blossoms are coming-on while we study and watch the hive and cocoons come to life!
As Maddie talked about her cocoons turning to butterflies each spring and then talked about how her family's honeybees start buzzing about when the temperature reaches 50 degrees, she said the honeybees need our help to survive. So our class is learning to be hobby beekeepers to help them.
We started a science project learning about insects and butterflies. The idea of watching cocoons hatch would be wonderful. The idea that Maddie was right about the honeybees needing help made us want to know more about them. Our class learned about their hives and that most of the bees only live about 45 days and they are almost all hard working girl bees. We would like to go a step further and build a neighborhood hive. It would pollinate the neighbor's fruit trees and gardens for up to a mile away from our school. This would be a natural next project for us because we are raising little gardens and it would help our gardens. too.
It takes patience and courage to take care of a beehive. My students will need to learn how to take care of a beehive, wear a beekeeper's suit, harvest the honey and become advocates for honeybees in their communities as they are growing-up. We are losing our honeybees worldwide and according to the extension agents, backyard beekeepers are taking good care of the honeybees and raising healthier colonies which are combating the diseases that are killing the honeybees off. They are learning to be good stewards for their environment.
In Their Own Words
I'm excited to watch the cocoons open up and butterflies come out. We did it with a cocoon we found under a rake one time and kept it until it came out a moth, but a nice moth and we took it outside and it flew away. We were all happy to help it make it through the winter.
I'm most excited to learn how to be a beekeeper. I would never have thought of touching a bee before but now I really want to know about them. We watched a lot of bee videos and I'm starting to love them.
I want to be the person who looks in on the bees and tells everyone how they are doing. I know that we're not suppose to bother bees more than twice a month so I'll be careful. Also, I'll be a peer-tutor in this class again next fall and I want to press the honey out of the wax to harvest it. I also want to try chewing the wax. I'll bet it's sweet tasting.
It won't be good if we don't have bees anymore. Our food will only be potatoes and carrots and no berries or peaches. No one I know can raise bees but we are learning how to raise honeybees. I know that if we can help honeybees become stronger then they will be able to resist the diseases and problem they are having and there will be more bees to pollinate the fruit again. We want to learn to be beekeepers and help them as much as we can.
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