The boys got a lesson in the birds and the bees this past spring. Spring is the busy season for Jacob with his bees and he was working bees at home one day when he brought some bur comb (comb the bees made outside of the provided frames in the hive) to the back porch where the boys were playing. He made sure that he removed all the female bees that do the stinging before bringing it up, then the boys got to see drones (males) emerging from the comb. They do this by chewing their way out once they are mature. They even got to hold the bees as they giggled about how it tickled when they crawled on them. Of course we had to be sure to warn them not to try to catch just any bee as those girl bees can be feisty! :)
Bees chewing the wax cap to get out of their cells.
We also got to watch a mama bird build a nest on our porch, lay eggs, feed her babies, and them learn to fly off. She initially built her nest in Josiah’s bike helmet in their wagon, but Jacob successfully moved it to a coffee canister. Once the babies hatched, the boys, naturally, loved scaring mom away and seeing the babies gape their mouths open for food. We were sad to see them go once they flew off to start life. I intended to get a picture of the babies, but they just grew up so quickly that I missed it.
1 comment:
Wow! I've never seen anyone hold a bee like that. Fun lessons.
Post a Comment