Requirements

Girls must complete 9 of the following activities including number 2, 3, 5, 7,9,12.

1) a. Find a diagram and identify the parts of the honeybee.

b. Define the following: Broodnest Beeglue Honeydew Beebread Pollination Propolis Slumgum

c. From the insect order Hymenoptera, what does the super-family name Apis Mellifera mean?

d. Draw a diagram of a Langstroth hive.

2) a. What 3 types (casts) of honeybees are in a hive?

b. How do they differ from each other?

c. What job does each perform?

d. What is the role of the young worker, the middle age worker, the older worker?

e. About what percentage of the hive is made up of females?

3)a. Explain the life cycle of a worker bee.

b. How does the life cycle of a queen bee and a drone differ from the worker?

c. Can worker bees lay eggs?

d. What do honey bees do in the winter?

e. What happens to drones in the winter and why?

f. How many queens can a hive have?

g. What happens if there is no queen or more than 1 queen?

h. How many eggs will the queen bee lay in a day?

i. How much does an adult bee weigh, on average?

4) a. Name 3 products that rely 90-100% on bee pollination.

b. Name 10 that rely to a lesser degree on bee pollination.

5) a. Visit an apiary or Whiting Forest to observe an actual bee hive, or, schedule a beekeeper to demonstrate hive activity. (If you get to witness a package of bees, be sure to look down the side of the package to see all the bees’ tongues sticking out!)

b. How and why to honeybees swarm?

c. Where on our planet can you find common honeybees?

d. What other countries do American beekeepers commonly purchase bees from?

e. Name 3 common types of European bees kept in America, and, the 4 species Apis honeybee and the continents they occupy.

f. How long has beekeeping been around? How has it changed?

g. Have honey bees always been America?

6) a. Investigate and name 3 diseases (bacterial, fungal or viral) and 3 enemies (pests, parasite or predator) of the honeybee and how they can be prevented or treated.

b. What is Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)?

c. What other difficulties are honeybee populations facing today?

7) a. What are 5 differences between honeybees and wasps?

b. What is an Africanized bee?

c. Describe ways that honeybees protect their hive from wasps and ants.

8) a. How to bees make honeycombs?

b. What other products, besides honey, do we take from the bees’ hives?

9) a. How do the bees make honey?

b. Describe the process by which a beekeeper obtains honey from his hive?

c. When sources of food for the bee (bee pasture) are not easily found, what does the beekeeper feed the colony?

d. What special clothing or equipment does the beekeeper need?

e. Purchase 3 types of honey (light, medium, dark, OR, store bought, fresh, comb, creamed, OR, clover, buckwheat, polyfloral) Can you taste the differences?

f. What makes honey light or dark?

g. What gives honey flavor differences?

h. What differences do you notice between fresh and store bought?

i. When cooking with honey, how can honey be substituted for sugar?

j. Consider researching and making simple recipes containing honey.

k. Why do we not feed honey to infants?

l. What is “mad honey”?

m. What health benefits do people claim honey has?

10) a. How do honeybees communicate? (Name 3 different ways).

b. How do honeybees recognize their hive?

c. Name 3 types of dances the honeybee performs and what each is for.

11) a. Listen to “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and draw the flight pattern you hear.

b. Name one famous coat of arms featuring the bee.

c. How has the honeybee influenced our language?

d. Describe some of the symbolism or myths of the bee (hive, honey) for different cultures or time periods.

e. Name 5 songs containing the word “Honey” in the title.

f. Read a story about a bee (suggestions at bottom of page) or discuss the 3 fables included in this packet and the moral of each story.

12) a. In what situations will a honeybee sting?

b. How can you avoid being stung?

c. What should you do if you do receive a sting?

d. Do you know anyone who is allergic to bee stings?

e. What is anaphylactic shock what first aid should be performed for anaphylactic shock?

13) a. When did Girl Scouts offer a beekeeping badge?

b. Read the requirements for earning this badge.

c. Why do you think it was discontinued?

14) . Helping the honeybee.

a. Research flowering plants that are a good source of bee pasture (plants that honeybees can easily obtain pollen or nectar from) and plant them in your garden. Bees love the dandelions early in the spring when there may be a slim source of pollen from other plants – possibly wait to mow them down.

b. Consider planting a “bee garden” in a corner of a municipal garden. Work with a local nursery to create a special section where they sell bee specific plants and products.

c. Remember the bee is an insect so familiarize yourself with insecticides, particularly neonicotinoids (such as Imidacloprid), and do not use them where bees are found.

d. Educate your family about how beneficial honeybees are.

e. Spread the word that when a swarm of honeybees is found, not to contact an exterminator but rather a local apiary, blueberry farmer or other person who would come and collect the swarm.

f. Talk to farmers and local soil conservation offices about planting filter strips/empty fields into grasses and plants honeybees are attracted to.

g. Work with your local mosquito control office to identify properties which have hived honeybees. h. Plant trees such as Maple, Black Locust, Elm, or Willow.

15).a. Write a want ad for a worker bee.

b. Create a Honeybee crossword or word search puzzle to pass out to a Brownie troop and share honey bee jokes with them. (Brownies, complete the crossword or word search).

c. Demonstrate the waggle dance: Choose three girls to perform this demonstration. Designate a particular area (about 8-10 ft. square) to be your "hive" and have two students remain in that area. Outside the “hives” vision, have 3-4 stations set up containing 3-4 various scents (Lorann oils are great for this). Have the third student go foraging (searching) for a nectar source (a flower). Have the forager bring back a scent strip from the type of flower they have found. When he/she finds this source, have him/her return to the "hive" to tell the other bees. Have this student perform a "Waggle Dance" to tell the other bees where to find the flower. Make sure the other two "bees" do their part in the dance as well. The forager should stand facing the direction of the flower. She should then shake his/her whole body and move in a straight line toward the flower. After moving a few feet he/she should stop, turn to the right and walk in a half circle back to where he/she started. As he/she passes one of the worker bees, this bee should sniff at the dancing bee to identify the scent of the nectar source. When the dancing bee reaches the place where he/she started, he/she should "waggle" in the direction of the flower again. This time the dancing bee should turn to the left, and the remaining worker bee should perform the sniffing. Now all three bees are ready to leave the hive and locate the nectar source. When all three workers have located the nectar source, have each bee choose two more bees to take back to the hive and perform the "Waggle Dance" for. Make sure all of the components of the dance are carried out, and then allow all of these bees to locate the nectar source. Then instruct each of these bees to select two more bees to "tell" about their finding. Continue this pattern until all girls are bees in the hive. Note: Your designated hive area will need to expand as the "hive population" increases.

d. Put together a “Jeopardy”-like game using the information and trivia in this packet.