Honeybees: A Book Recommendation

Honeybees discovered a fairly large patch of clover in our backyard this summer. Early on I observed them buzzing around from flower to flower and wondered when (not if) one or more of my shoeless children would step on a bee. My children seemed oblivious to the bees in the clover, unless one buzzed near his head, so I knew it was just a matter of time until some one got stung.

A couple of weeks ago Ellie became the first, and hopefully only, bee sting victim of the summer. She came into the house crying and complaining that her foot hurt. I removed the stinger, wiped the area and gave hugs. Within a couple of minutes she returned outside to play.

Ellie's bee sting lead to lots of questions from Will about bees. So I did what any good mom does - I found a book from the library to answer his questions.

Our whole family enjoyed reading Honeybees written by Deborah Heiligman and illustrated by Carla Golembe. The book reads more like a narrative picture book than a dull non-fiction. It follows the lifespan of a single bee from an egg to a nurse bee to a worker bee gathering honey.

You will learn much about the honeybees buzzing around in your yard from reading this book. For example, a honeybee collects nectar for about 6 weeks over the course of 400 trips. After all that work she has enough nectar "to make about 7 grams of honey - the size of a packet of sugar." No wonder she's "as busy as a bee!"

After learning facts about the honeybee my boys are more understanding of them and not as afraid. They leave the bees alone and the bees leave them alone. Hopefully we can peacefully coexist in our backyard for the remainder of the summer.