[♪ INTRO]
Squeaks and I love spring!
The flowers are blooming… the birds are coming back…
and it’s warm enough to eat lunch outside!
And I made some peanut butter and honey sandwiches so we can have a picnic!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Thanks, Squeaks!
I think I did a pretty good job, too.
But I can’t take all the credit.
Everything in these sandwiches…
came from plants!
The peanut butter came from peanuts, and the bread came from wheat.
People take parts of those plants and turn them into new, yummy foods.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Oh!
Great question, Squeaks!
What about the honey?
[Squeaks squeaks]
Honey came from plants, too!
It actually started out inside of a flower!
But unlike the bread and the peanut butter, it wasn’t people
who turned those flowers into sweet, gooey honey.
Can you guess who it was?
[Squeaks squeaks]
You’re right! Bees!
Bees visit flowers all the time.
And they're the ones who make honey!
That honey used to be a sugary liquid called nectar.
And then some bees turned that nectar into honey, to use as food!
The bees also collect a sticky dust called pollen from the flowers.
But the nectar is what they use to make honey.
[Squeaks squeaks]
How do they do it?
Well, lots of bees work together to turn that nectar into honey!
Here’s how it works.
A bee visits a flower, and uses its long tongue to reach inside and slurp up nectar.
But it needs somewhere to hold the nectar: in its honey stomach.
[Squeaks squeaks]
That’s right!
Bees have two stomachs: one for the bee, and one for nectar
to take it back to the rest of the hive.
While the nectar is in there, the honey stomach starts to turn the nectar into honey.
Our little fuzzy friend the bee keeps busy, flying from flower to flower
and filling up its honey stomach with nectar.
While it’s flying from flower to flower, the bee is also
helping those flowers with pollination.
Plants need to make more of themselves to survive.
And both bees and flowers help many kinds of plants to do that.
You see, the job of the flowers is to make seeds that will grow into new plants.
But the flowers get a little help from helpers like bees.
Remember the pollen we mentioned?
Flowers need that pollen to move from to another flower
from the same kind of plant, so that that flower can make a seed.
That’s where bees come in!
When a bee lands on a flower, it’s slurping up delicious nectar,
but at the same time, some of that dusty pollen gets stuck to the bee!
And then when it visits the next flower, the bee brings the pollen with it.
That pollen helps the next flower make a seed,
to help that plant create more of itself!
It’s lucky for bees that they can get yummy nectar from flowers.
And it’s lucky for flowers that the bees who visit them to collect nectar
are also spreading their pollen to other flowers.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Exactly, Squeaks.
Bees, and flowering plants, all need each other to survive.
They work together!
But even though the bees have pollinated some flowers
and collected lots of nectar, they’re not done making honey yet.
Once the bee’s honey stomach is full of nectar, it goes back to the hive.
Hang on to your lunch, Squeaks, because this is where it gets gross!.
[Squeaks squeaks]
The nectar the bee has collected is very watery.
To turn it into honey, a bee will barf the nectar out of its honey stomach,
into the mouth of another bee!
[Squeaks squeaks]
I know!
But they’re not done.
Then that bee will barf it into the mouth of another bee…
and each bee’s stomach will make the nectar a little less watery,
and a little more thick and sticky.
The bees’ honey stomachs also help change the nectar into honey.
Then, after all that barfing, the bees put the honey away
in a container called a honeycomb.
[Squeaks squeaks]
I know, Squeaks.
But it’s not just being in a bee’s stomach and being barfed up
that turns the nectar into honey.
To make the honey even thicker and less watery,
the bees will use their wings to fan the honey.
[Squeaks squeaks]
Yes!
Just like a fan you might have at home.
The bees are fanning the honey to dry out some of the water.
That’s what makes it more like sticky honey than watery nectar.
Finally, the bees seal the honeycomb cell shut with special wax.
Keeping the honey sealed means the honey stays safe for the bees
to eat for a super long time.
And for people, too!
[Squeaks squeaks]
You’re right, Squeaks.
It is a little funny that we take honey away from the bees,
after they’ve worked so hard to make it.
Even just a teaspoonful of honey took the work of about ten bees to create.
The truth is, humans really need bees!
We need them on our farms to pollinate the plants that make foods,
like apples and blueberries.
There are even humans who have a special job to take care of bees,
so that there will be lots of them around to help us grow food.
People who take care of bees are called beekeepers!
[Squeaks squeaks]
I agree, it would be really fun to be a beekeeper!
I bet they have lots of delicious honey all the time!
And you out there can provide flowers so bees can make honey, too.
That helps bees out where you live!
That gives me an idea!
Squeaks, let’s look up bee-friendly flowers to plant in the Fort’s garden!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Thanks for joining me and Squeaks today.
Can you think of any other special relationships in nature,
like between bees and flowers?
If you want to keep having fun with us, and all of our friends,
make sure to hit the subscribe button, and we’ll see you next time here at the Fort.
[Squeaks squeaks]
[♪ OUTRO]