Beekeeping

Purchase Area Master Gardener Association

(PAMGA)

Beekeeping

March 15, 2005, Annie Broyles, a Master Gardener and beekeeper, talked to the class about honeybees. She brought samples of hives from bees, hornets and yellow jackets for the class to compare. She described the jobs of each type of honeybee, their lifecycle, and the many products made from honey. Throughout the talk, she emphasized the importance of bees in agriculture and the production of food. Class ended with a taste test using "honey sticks."

March 15, 2005

Student Journal Entry:

Today we watered our plants. I realized that I had two bulbs above ground on my radishes. I buried them. We also fertilized them.

Today we had a Master Gardener/beekeeper named Annie Broyles come and speak to our class. She said that she had a business that makes items from bees. Some of the items are honey, lip balm, and candles. She said that a honeybee can fly up to 8 miles away from its hive to get food. They get the nectar and turn it into honey. When they get back to the hive they do a dance in a figure-eight pattern called the "waggle dance".

The males are called drones. The females are the worker bees. The drones can't sting. The worker bees and queen bee can sting. The queen bee lays an egg every 57 seconds. The queen bee can only fly out twice in her life. If the queen injures her leg or antenna, the worker bees begin developing another queen and the old queen will be killed. The life cycle of a bee is egg, larva, pupa, and adult. That is what I learned today.

Ed. Note: Foraging bees can fly up to 8 miles but most often it is about 2 miles from the hives where they find nectar.

Purchase Area Master Gardener Association, 2705 Olivet Church Road, Paducah, Ky 42001 270/554-9520 FAX 270/554-8283 www.pamga.org