I want to tell you something about bees today. I´ve learned a lot about bees in the past two weeks and I love watching them in our little garden!
There are about 700 different types of bees in Austria! And the honeybee is only one of them! Quite many bees, like the earth bee (andrena), are not part of a hive (social bees) but are living on their own. Each female bee builds her own nest. We´ve also observed bees in the last years who wanted to build a nest in a little hole on the side of our window, but we did not let them. We were afraid of having a big nest next to our window, so we put a pencil into the hole! But now, that we know that it is only one single mother searching for a tiny place for her eggs, we just let her! She put her eggs into the hole and covered it with spit and sand! I´m curious about seeing the babies coming out of their nest – but I most certainly won´t see it happening. Earth bees live in earth holes but some like to put their eggs into an empty snail shell (and cover it with a dough of spit and earth like our window bee did). Bees like that have big eyes and a long trunk. They only drink one sort of nectar from one special flower with very little purple blooms. And because the blooms are so tiny, they don´t collect pollen with their legs like other bees do.
I watched other wild bees only eating dandelion-nectar (and also collecting pollens with their legs). Because we want the bees to be happy and well fed, we decided to stop mowing our lawn but 3 times a year. And we sowed new flower seeds. Our lawn has never been a cultivated one anyway! We had always wanted a nice lawn but now we are happy as it is because of the bees. So many different sorts of weed in our garden – yeah! And if the dandelions get too long, I just cut them with my scissors!
My favorite bees are big bumble bees. One really big and beautiful bumble bee has visited me every day over the last weeks. Especially in the mornings and evenings, when the little bees have already gone to bed. And she drank from the same tiny purple flowers. I wondered if they don´t get empty with all those busy bees. But I´ve read that flowers can produce new nectar regularly, for example twice a day. My bumble bee friend is a really loud buzzer. You can also hear her through closed windows! I was able to watch her very closely and she was not afraid of me. But she did not come back yesterday and today. I´ve just been reading something about bumble bees on the internet. My bumble bee was a bumble bee queen! They go outside to collect nectar and pollen on their own in spring. She starts building a nest all by herself, produces eggs and fills her pantry. After about three weeks she stops leaving her nest and stays in it for the rest of her life to breed the eggs. When her daughters get born (the first brood are only girls) they fly out to get food for her mother. In the end of the summer it are only boys and future queens that come out of the eggs. (But the boys are able to eat as well, not like the honeybee-boys who can´t collect nectar.) The new queens are the only ones that survive winter. And they start building a new nest in spring just as their mother did.
My bumble bee friend has visited our garden every day but she may not ever come back because she has to take care of her nest now. Maybe her daughters start visiting our flowers soon. But they will only live for about three weeks. I´ve secretly hoped my friend will keep visiting for the rest of the summer. But that´s not gonna happen. It was very cool getting to know and watch her anyway! To marvel and learn.
It is so good and important that there are many different sorts of bees. And insects in general. I want to protect them and give them a place to live. There´s yet so much to learn! Bees are also able to dream! Every bee has its own character: some are busy, some not that much, some are anxious, others bold… and sometimes they even like to take a nap inside of a blossom! Together! That´s so cute! Who would have thought that Maya the Bee is so close to the real thing! It´s so interesting to read what scientists explore nowadays!
But it seems that Waldemar Bonsel, the author of Bee Maja, has already known a lot because he was a good observer. The book has been first published in 1912 for kids and adults. He used to play a lot outside and liked to observe insects as a kid. I´ve just recently started to do so!
Take a good look at God´s wonders - they´ll take your breath away. Psalm 66:5
See the marvels of God! He plants flowers and trees all over the earth.
Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything.
Psalm 46:8-10