At first I didn’t want to do this, because I was afraid of getting stung!
Approximately 50,000 bees live in the hive we were observing! Now that’s a LOT of bees. But then, the workshop guide said that bees are vegetarian and only sting if they are scared unlike wasps who are much more aggressive (Also, you should know that bees don’t want to sting, because then they die).
That’s some pretty cool stuff!
50,000 bees live in this colony!
To protect us, we wore white suits with head veils so we don’t look like bears. And then, the guide said that we had to smoke the hive so that the bees would think their home was on fire and start eating the nectar that the bees had produced. (Bees communicate with smell, the smoke makes them not be able to smell and therefore can’t communicate that they are scared and want to sting us). Once the bees were full, they were not able to flex their abdomen which they needed to in order to push their stinger out.
If a bee lands on you they think you are a flower and it’s best to not flap your arms and scream because if you do they will think you are a bear and try to sting you. Instead, you can stay still and wait for it to buzz off.
Here is some interesting facts about honeybees:
Only the queen bee lays eggs, she lays 1500 eggs a day. The queen lays only one egg per honeycomb cell. The worker bees guide her to where she needs to lay the eggs, after they have prepped the honeycomb cell.
Girl bees are the worker bees and only live 45 days.
Boy bees are called drones bees and live 90 days.
The Honeybee Centre brings the bees out to farms in the middle of the night to pollinate the berry bushes to get sweeter berries in the end.
AND NOW, SOME PHOTOS OF, DRUMROLL PLEASE *drumroll*
THE QUEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The worker bees were making a practice home for the future Queen bee. 
The queen bee is circled in blue. 
If you look closely you can spot the eggs. They look like mini grains of rice ( yummy!)
The bee in the blue circle is the male bee called a drone bee and the bee in the red circle is the female bee called the worker bee.
4 Comments
Margaret Bose Johnson
July 20, 2020 @ 17:53
That is the coolest adventure! You included a lot of facts about bees I didn’t know before, like how smoking them out works and how they can’t flex to sting when their abdomens are full. Thanks so much. And I LOVE seeing the photos of you in your bee suit, plus the photos of the bees. I really like bees and it’s interesting to learn more about them. Well written.
Mel H
July 30, 2020 @ 14:35
thank you!
Irma Diesner
July 20, 2020 @ 18:06
Very interesting thank you for sharing.
Maddie Diesner
July 21, 2020 @ 16:02
Oh my goodness!! This looks like so much fun! One fact that I learned when reading this post is that the female bees only live for 45 days and the males for 90! That seems so short. I also learned that the males are called drones which is really cool! Thank you for sharing.