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12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Honeybees communicate through dancing and pheromones. Worker bees will "dance" to tell other foragers about food sources. This is called a waggle dance. Pheromones are scents bees release to trigger specific actions of other honeybees in the hive. For example, if a bee feels that the hive is threatened, she will send out pheromones that tell guard bees to defend the hive.

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  2. How are beeshives made?
    What do their eggs weigh?

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    1. Honeybees live in human-made hives, typically crafted out of wood. They build their hexagonal (six-sided) cells on frames in the hive. These cells are made out of beeswax. Beeswax is made from a honeybee's wax glands. The wax glands are located on the underside of their thorax, the third and biggest segment of their body. A honeybee will then take the wax and chew it, to make it malleable, or easy to work with. They then build the comb. Cells in the hive are hexagonal to avoid any unused or open space.

      A honeybees eggs are very small, about half the size of a grain of rice. Because of this, they are incredibly light in weight.

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  3. How does pollen from another flower help a flower grow food or whatever it grows?

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    1. Pollination is the process in which pollen from one flower lands on the center of another flower. This sends a signal to the second flower to start producing. This is called fertilization. Pollination is needed to grow fruits, vegetables, and nuts. One out of three bites of food we eat is dependent on pollination. Eighty percent of those pollinators are honeybees.

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  4. Replies
    1. Honeybees have a long and straw-like tongue called a proboscis. They can use this tongue to suck up nectar, honey, and water. They can also switch to a lapping method, like how a dog drinks water. Honeybees' tongues have thousands of bristles on them. When they dip their tongue in the center of a flower, the nectar gets trapped in the bristles, allowing them to efficiently collect it.

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  5. What do bees do when their hive is hot or cold?.

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    1. Thank you for your question! Honeybees work together to regulate the temperature in the hive. In the hotter months, honeybees fan their wings to create air flow to cool off their hive. To keep the hive warm in the colder months, honeybees form a tight cluster, vibrate their bodies to form heat and use their body heat to keep the inside of the cluster warm enough to raise brood. The bees rotate themselves from the inside to outside of the cluster. Thank you for your great question!

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  6. I noticed you tour around to different classroom to educate students about bees. How do you choose the classrooms you visit or is an application process available?

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    1. Yes! The American Honey Queen and Princess visit classrooms to teach about honeybees, honey, beekeeping and pollination. To arrange for the American Honey Queen or Princess to visit your area or set up a virtual presentation, contact American Honey Queen Program Committee Chair Anna Kettlewell at honeyqueen99@hotmail.com. Thank you for your interest!

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