Bee Workshop

Last Friday, Patrick Hunt returned to our school to give us a wonderful talk on bees. He told us all about bees and showed us a slideshow on bees. Then we went on a trip to our school garden and we found a queen bee feeding on the crocuses. We could not believe it! It is very rare to see a bee at this time of the year. Patrick took some photographs of the queen bee. We also have a lovely slideshow below for you to enjoy.

He told us some very interesting facts about bees:

• Bees are worth 700 million euro to the Irish economy
• It takes a bee 64 million flower visits to make 1kg of honey
• There are many kinds of bees: honey bee, garden bumblebee, carpenter bees, mining bees, solitary bees and of course, the queen bee
• Climate change is affecting bees because flowers are blooming earlier than usual...before the bee wakes up!
• Building and construction on meadows are driving bees away
• Using land for extensive farming and agriculture is also endangering bees. 

So what can we do to help the bees?

1. We can plant more flowers, especially seasonal flowers to attract the bees back to gather pollen and make honey.
2. We can ask mum or dad to mow the garden just once a month so that the wild flowers will have time to grow.
3. We can continue our 'Stop Climate Change' campaign and 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle'.                                                                                         

Ms Sharkey and the Green Team