In the Zuccoli Primary School Garden, we are so lucky to have bees in our garden. They have been of much interest for our Early Childhood students. A few weeks ago, the Transition students had a guest speaker during garden lessons. Our guest speaker was Harper who is a student at our school. Harper and her family have beehives which has made Harper a budding bee expert. We all enjoyed finding out more about bees from Harper. Some of the information she shared was:

-There are three types of bees in a hive. There is a queen bee who lays the eggs and is the boss of the hive. There are worker bees that collect pollen and nectar, and the drones stay in the hive.

-Worker bees collect pollen from flowers on their legs and this pollen feeds the young bees. They also collect nectar which is food for the bee colony and is what is used by bees in making honey.

-When bees are collecting pollen and nectar, they pollinate our plants and this is how we get fruit and vegetables growing in our garden.

- Bees can travel many kilometers from the hive to collect nectar and pollen.

-Bees are very intelligent because they know when different flowers are blooming, can find their way back to their hive seven kilometers or more away and can identify colors and landmarks.

-People are often scared of bees but bees rarely sting unless they are threatened or near their hive. When they are away from their hive they are focused on collecting pollen and nectar.

-In our Zuccoli Garden we have both native bees and Harper’s bees visiting our garden for pollen and nectar. We are very lucky to have two types of bees doing their magic to make our garden grow and flourish.

Thank-you bees and thank-you Harper for sharing your knowledge!

Please be respectful of bees and do your best to protect these amazing insects that are a very important part of our ecosystem. This means limiting our use of pesticides and calling for assistance for a trained beehive removalist to relocate a hive if we have an unwanted hive nearby.  Without bees, up to 60% of our fruits and vegetables could become unavailable.