Amy’s Garden

Honey Heaven

Back in May, we were at the Master Gardeners’ Demonstration Gardens at Nathanael Greene Park. We saw a Bumble Bee on one of the flowers. That initiated a discussion about bees and what they do. Next thing I knew, we had checked out a couple of books from the library about honey bees.

Both of these books were completely fascinating. Honey bees are amazing. After we spent a few days reading these books and talking about them, I scheduled a “bee tour” at a local tea room called Honey Heaven Bee-stro Cafe. Honey Heaven is a local honey producer. The tea room is completely cute, and everything in it is honey or bee themed. In the very back is a real beehive behind glass.

Our bee guide was very excited because we got to see one of the worker bees doing a “swag dance.” She was shaking her abdomen around to let the other bees know where to go to find nectar and pollen. We saw the bright yellow pollen she had collected in the little pockets on her hind legs.

I was slightly annoyed that our guide kept referring to the dancing bee as “he.” She had just told us how all the worker bees are girls. I happen to have a daughter who is very enthusiastic about anyone, person or animal, who is a girl. I managed not to correct her.

Luke tried on the beekeeper’s hat.

Lydia explored the smoker, which is used to calm the bees when harvesting honey.

Overall, I enjoyed the bee tour more than my offspring did. They were a bit distracted by all the pretty things in the tea room. I also think Keith and I got more out of the bee books than they did. Maybe we’ll try this topic again in a few years. Doing this type of activity makes me so excited for homeschooling. We saw a real bee, read books about bees, and went to see some more real bees. Seems like a good recipe for learning.

That evening, Lydia had some orange blossom honey on her corn-on-the-cob. Yum.