The Remarkable Bee

Jessica S.

We owe many thanks to the amazing bee! There are around 25,000 different types of bee species in the world (around 4,000 in the U.S.) All of them serve as pollinators for our agricultural world, but only 4 of them produce honey. 

To make just one pound of honey the bees in a colony must visit 2 million flowers, and fly more than 55,000 miles. Making that pound of honey will be the life’s work of about 768 bees! Bees are the only insect in the world that make food that people can eat, and honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life (including enzymes, water, minerals, and vitamins). Honey has a very high sugar content- 80%- so it never goes bad. Edible honey was found in King Tut’s tomb!

Bees lives in colonies. Each colony has a queen bee whose job is to lay all the eggs. Drones (who are all male) also have only one job- to mate with the queen! The third type of bee in a colony is the worker bee. These bees, who are all female, are well named; they clean the hive, collect the pollen and nectar to feed the colony, and take care of the offspring. Worker bees make honey from the nectar that they gather.

Ella M.

Rene M.

The students at Blue Church Art celebrate the remarkable bee in their September artworks. The youngest students’ bees are gathering nectar from flowers and returning to the hives they’ve built in the trees:

click on any image to enlarge it

Lindsay T.

Jacob T.

Davis C.

Hayes C.

Emilia W.

Arabelle K.

Denver B.

Alicia H.

Grant H.

Brady M.

Rylan M.

Holden C.

Orianna G.

Anshul M.

Delaney G.

Hadley G.

Abby D.

Kiki C.

Noah S.

Grade 2-3 students drew old-fashioned bee skeps for their bees to live in. For centuries, beekeepers have used these handmade domed baskets to house their hives. Skeps are woven from straw. Some of the Blue Church Art skeps have turrets like a castle, a nice touch for a home where the queen bee lives:)

Blaise C.

Soveida M.

Jack C.

Vivian S.

Sophia K.

Evan J.

Riley B.

Laney L.

Ava K.

Older students created a variety of unique bees…

Sarah B.

Jill M.

Jenna W.

Kacey P.

McKenzie H.

Leah H.

Ellie S.

Patricia S.

Carolyn R.

Linda H.

Madison W.

Jill G.

Lynn S.

Sophia D.

William N.

Sierra G.

Vanessa T.

Madison C.

Reese K.

Emerson T.

Kinley K.

Ava R.

Corinne H.

Rissa S.

Gianna S.

Reese B.

Hope B.

Julia B.

Erin C.

Savannah G.

Morgan D.

Grace Y.

Ashlee K.

Toby N.

Kaitlyn S.

Here's something you don't see every day! Ethan drew a
​steam punk bee:

Ethan S.