Monday, December 28, 2009

Bees

I was looking out ate my kitchen window while I was washing dishes. It is something I do it often because I like to watch the woodpeckers fly in and out of their homes. I noticed something different on the tree. I couldn't figure out what it was so I went into my neighbors yard and saw a bunch of bees flying near the tree. When I got closer I could see that it was a huge beehive. My neighbors didn't know it was there. I have learned so much since that day. I wanted to share the information with you.

It took about 4 months to build the hive. There are about 20,000 bees living in the hive. There is one queen bee per hive. In this hive there are only about 100 male bees and the the rest are female. The males don't sting, they have a different job. So when you get stung by a bee it is a female. A hive will create a new queen bee about every 6 months. A worker bee lives for about a month. An active queen will live about 6 months. A lazy queen lives for about a year. When bees are moved their new home has to be 5 miles away. Bees fly about a 2 mile radius around their homes. Hives hold babies (magets) and honey. It is best to extract bees on a cool night. The keeper vacuumes them up into a box. Once the queen is in the box all the worker bees will happily follow their queen into the box. Once bees are removed any that were left will try and build a new hive in the same place for up to 6 months.

If you need to get bees extracted from your home it will cost you about $150.00.


Another thing I have learned is that girls and boys are different. How you ask? '

Girls will see the hive and and give a little shriek and not want to look at it for very long.

Boys will ask for a rock so they can throw it at the hive to see what they will do.

This has been the coolest 'backyard science' thing ever.
We all need bees in our lives. The end.