Turkey Jay, Mrs. Sullivan’s husband, is a bee-keeper ‘on the side’. He just loves bees and enjoys sharing his knowledge with others. There’s always so much to learn about bees. They truly are an incredible insect and are not to be feared.

He couldn’t visit with us today, so he sent me with some of his bee-keeping tools and gadgets to share with my students.

We watched some cool videos, learning a little bit about bees, including their waggle dance!

Students loved painting their designs on the bee boxes and Turkey Jay can’t wait to use these homes for the bees this summer! The bees will be happy and are thankful for beautifying their homes!

Here are 10 Fun Facts about Bees that

maybe you didn’t know:

1. There are 3 categories of honey bees: the males (drones), the females are the worker bees, and the queen

2. The only purpose of the male bees is to mate with the queen

3. In the Fall, the female bees kick out the drones from the hive because they are not needed over the winter time.

4. Drone bees do not have stinger

5. The queen bee has a bigger abdomen than the other bees

6. The queen lays 1500 eggs each day. It takes 21 days for the eggs to hatch.

7. When the queen lays an egg, she chooses to fertilize it or not. A non-fertilized egg turns into a drone (male bee). A fertilized egg turns into a worker bee (female).

8. The honey bee is the only insect in the world that makes food that we eat

9. Honey bees produce many things including propolys which is like a glue that bees use to seal cracks and secures things. If a mouse dies in the hive, the bees cannot drag it out, so they entomb the mouse in propolys so the dead body does not contaminate the hive. Smart!

10. Bees don’t sleep. Ever! They are not dormant in the winter. Their wings beat together and they produce heat this way.