Monday, April 09, 2007

Bees, Herbs & Light!!

Today was our last God's World meeting. The daughter of a good friend came and gave us a very detailed lesson on bees. She brought a teaching hive with her to show them the different stages of bees. I should have taken a picture of her talk, but I was having too much fun with her 2 little girls. They were adorable. The one year old finally made up with me. They both had cheeks just made for kisses. She gave everyone a sample of honeycomb and some stickers as well. She brought some items made from beeswax. She had a candle and a really neat candle holder shell. She also had some lip balms. There is an epidemic with our honey bees here in America. They call it CCD and I can't for the life of me tell you what those letters stand for. However, many many hives of bees are just disappearing. The bees are just gone. This past winter people lost anywhere from 50% to 95% of their hives. Without bees our food chain would only see us through about 4 years. There was an article in the Columbus paper that someone brought to us about this. We were down to one hive of bees and they are gone. I am not sure if we will get more or not.

The first demonstration was about common backyard herbs and their uses. If you click on the picture you can see her chart a lot better. She did a great job and brought a sample of each of the herbs she listed. Their family was also responsible for the snack, so we had herbal (peppermint) tea with honey and cookies.




Her brother also did a demonstration today. He showed the children how to make an electrical circuit. In the first picture he is reading about batteries and how they work. In the second picture, you can see his light bulb that he made light up. Both of them did a great job.


4 comments:

LadySnow said...

I can't believe how much those two are changing (growing up)! As for the bees...I have heard of that problem. A gentleman gave a talk at the CCRC (where my MIL works) and he was speaking of beekeeping as well. He has lost 3/4 of his bees. He says it's something that the bees get (almost like an illness)...they "forget" where their hive is and don't make it back. It's crazy. Hopefully someone can figure out how to take care of this "epidemic".

Anonymous said...

Marci these kids did a great job.. How are the bees in your area? Last year not many bees here. One apple orchard couldn't open.. Brenda

Tina Leigh said...

Danny & I have been talking about the lack of Bees around here & it shows in the pollination of things for sure. I dont think they have disappeared...I think they are dead. The things we have to spray on the trees alone is a killer to so many insects so it has to be damaging to the bees. What about other farmers & the sprays they are using? It is a no win situation. Smart kids you got there. Good JOB!!

Kelli said...

They did a wonderful job, Marci!! It sounds like everyone had fun together.
Kelli