Bees! Erich Estes, the Preserve Manager at Stroud Preserve, was the featured speaker at Day Camp today. Erich brought along all of his bee-keeping equipment, along with excellent visual aids. Then he did a wonderful job of explaining honey bee life cycles and bee keeping to the kids. One of the highlights of the program was the equipment. So, Erich had kids model the bee suit.
And boys love smoke, so the smoker was of great interest. After Erich's presentation, we hiked up to the meadows to look for bees. We found several honey bees. This was great, because right now bee keepers, and fruit and vegetable growers are concerned about mysterious die-offs of honey bees. No one really knows for sure what is causing the die-offs, but it should be of great concern to anyone that eats something pollinated by bees. Some plausible (and researchable) theories include cell phone signals, pesticides, genetically engineered plants and changing weather patterns.
We also found about a dozen or so bumble bees feeding on nectar and pollinating flowers. Bumble bees are native bees that live in colonies. While some bumble bee species produce honey, they only produce enough honey for the larvae to eat. There are actually about 4,000 species of native bees in North America. While most are solitary, and don't produce honey, they are very important to pollinating flowers which produce fruit and seeds beneficial to both humans and wildlife. (Photos by Carole Mebus.)