Friday, May 31, 2024

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Bees,  Kids and a Tub 


 
This old tub survived years of washdays on the farm and finally retired to the barn. Years later it  moved to the city where it ended up in my back yard. It lay there for years, upside down so it wouldn’t catch rainwater and become a haven for mosquitos.

Then one year the back yard  was chosen for the annual Easter egg hunt. When the youngsters  were turned loose to hunt the hidden eggs they rushed to all the most likely places before spying the old tub lying nearby, slightly tilted with one edge a few inches off the ground.

The little egg hunters rushed in a  herd to the tub. When someone lifted it there were no eggs– instead a hive of angry honey bees.  The kids learned their little legs couldn't outrun an angry bee and got a few stings. All were soon forgotten as the hunt for more eggs  continued. The bees quickly regrouped into a tight swarm  and left to form another hive in a safer place. 

Bees are important pollinators and today they are in trouble because of something called hive collapse.The cause is unknown, but a widely used insecticide is suspected. Can we help? Maybe. Buying organic fruits and  vegatables could help, but the price is often prohibitive. Another way is to contact your congressperson. We  can also encourage the growth of wild flowers such as blue bonnets, cone flowers, sunflowers and goldenrod.. Also lantana, butterfly weed and redbud,  to name a few.  The bee requires a balanced  diet just as we humans do.

Assuming that you’ve forgotten your nigh school biology just as I have,  the  hive consist of three classes of bees: the queen, whose only duty is to lay eggs, the male bees called drones and the worker bees, all female. Besides foraging for pollen which they carry home in little  baskets on their legs, and nectar  which is carried in special glans, sometimes making ten  trips daily, these little females also serve as guards at the hive’s entrance and have hive  cleaning duties. It’s no surprise the  they seldom live longer  than six months.

The more I learn about a hive’s society the more  I  admire  the little  bee–.even its grim custom of  forcing the drones out of the hive when cold weather arrives.

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