Saturday, April 30, 2011

Before the Summer

Before the summer begins and we all find that free time we have been looking for all year, I would like to share with you some fun bee-related activities.

A few bee movies:



Watch bee youtube videos:




Make a 100% bee wax candle:


Google image a trip to Florence:


OR ROADTRIP




















Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Winnie the Pooh


We can't have a honey bee class and not talk about Pooh Bear! Who loves honey more than Pooh!?

Winnie was actually the name of a real black bear that British World War I troops brought back with them from the town of Winnipeg in Canada. Winnie was put in the London Zoo in 1919 and was the favorite animal of Christopher Robin, the son of A.A. Milne. Christopher Robin then named his stuffed toy bear Winnie the Pooh.

A.A. Milne, an author, was then inspired to write a series of stories about Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh. The names of the other characters, Pooh's friends, were also the names of Christopher Robin's other stuffed animal toys. Winnie-the-Pooh, the first in the series, was published in 1926. Over the decades, as we know, the books have remained very popular and become the favorite stories of many children, including Walt Disney's daughters.

In 1977, Disney released the first feature-length film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. By 1993, Pooh Bear was only second to Mickey Mouse as Disney's most recognized character, and by 1996, he had become the most popular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=---7zysc77Y

http://www.just-pooh.com/history.html

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Honeycomb (not the cereal)


Some facts about honeycomb:
  • made of beeswax
  • made of hexagonal cells that slope slightly upwards towards the open ends
  • theory on why it's hexagonal: uses the least material to create most amount of volume
  • ends of the cells are trihedral (they have 3 planes) sections of a rhombic dodecahedra with the angle between the planes measuring 120 degrees; this angle minimizes surface area for a given volume
  • Euclid, the ancient Greek geometrician, also found that the hexagonal shape increased efficiency
  • when different sized cells are made (drones have bigger cells than workers), the shape can bee distorted
  • bees use the comb to store honey, larvae, pollen...it's their home!
  • the first man-made honeycomb was mentioned by Homer and thought to bee made 3000 years ago out of GOLD by Daedalus, a Greek craftsman and artisan
  • 2000 years ago, the Chinese started making paper honeycomb decorations
  • Galileo studied structures of hollow solids, such as bird bones, honeycombs, and stems in plants, and found that they're very light yet resistant to bending and breaking

“The comb of the hive-bee, as far as we can see, is absolutely perfect in economizing labour and wax.”-Charles Darwin