Squeaks and I love spring! The flowers are blooming, the birds are coming back, and it’s warm enough to eat lunch outside. We decided to have a picnic with peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Did you know that everything in these sandwiches comes from plants? The peanut butter comes from peanuts, and the bread comes from wheat. But what about the honey?
Honey also starts with plants, specifically flowers. But unlike bread and peanut butter, it’s not people who turn flowers into honey. Can you guess who does it? That’s right, bees! Bees visit flowers to collect a sugary liquid called nectar, which they turn into honey.
Here’s how it works: A bee visits a flower and uses its long tongue to slurp up nectar, storing it in a special “honey stomach.” Bees have two stomachs: one for their own food and one for nectar. As the bee flies from flower to flower, it helps with pollination, which is how plants make seeds to grow new plants.
When a bee lands on a flower, it collects nectar and gets some sticky pollen on its body. When it visits the next flower, it carries the pollen with it, helping the flower make seeds. This is how bees and flowers help each other survive.
Once a bee’s honey stomach is full of nectar, it returns to the hive. Here’s where it gets a bit gross: the bee barfs the nectar into another bee’s mouth! This process happens several times, with each bee making the nectar thicker and stickier. The bees’ honey stomachs help turn the nectar into honey.
After all the barfing, the bees store the honey in a honeycomb. To make the honey even thicker, bees fan it with their wings to dry out some of the water. Finally, they seal the honeycomb with wax to keep the honey safe for a long time.
Even though it might seem funny that we take honey from bees, humans really need them! Bees help pollinate plants that produce foods like apples and blueberries. Some people, called beekeepers, have the special job of taking care of bees to ensure there are plenty around to help us grow food.
You can help bees too by planting bee-friendly flowers in your garden. This gives bees more places to collect nectar and make honey.
Thanks for joining me and Squeaks today! Can you think of any other special relationships in nature, like between bees and flowers? If you want to keep having fun with us, make sure to subscribe, and we’ll see you next time!
