Last week I was reading an interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle: “A great time to be a bee in the city” and they mentioned a local (Orland) company Olivarez Honey Bee Inc. and how city dwellers are wanting beehive to pollinate there gardens so they can be more self-sufficient in growing their own fruit and veggies.
It’s interest how these small communities (in Glenn Co., Butte Co. and surrounding) are starting to be important to those City Folk.
Bees are a pretty interesting little creature.
There are 3 different types of bees in the beehive:
The Worker: a Infertile female that guards , clean and gathers nectar and pollen ( those are those bees you see with the big yellow thighs).
The Drone : A male bee that’s only function is to mate with the Queen bee and then he dies. If he doesn’t mate with the Queen life is bad, he is not allowed in the hive (Workers beat and throw him out ) and he freeze in the cold.
The Queen: lays about 3,000 eggs in one day.
Here at the library we have a number of books on Bees and on how to make your own backyard Beehive in section 638.1 Beekeeping .
So for a great summer project- Don’t forget your protective gear and smoker(?) – Read the book
Posted by Margarita