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presentation
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:06 am
by ski
I am lined up to do a bee talk for 45 6th graders on Tuesday January 15.
They are putting three 6th grade classes together.
I am planning on taking:
Bee suit
Smoker
Hive tool (teacher said it was ok, so I will not get suspended)
Bee Hive
Bee posters(like the ones Kurt let us use for Farmers appreciation day)
Propolized screen
piece of comb
block of bees wax
piece of foundation
container with a few dead bees
Not planning on any live bees or food, the room will only have a white board. No projectors or Tv's.
I will have 45 minutes.
Still working on the outline, I will post it for comments tonight.
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:51 am
by Locust&Honey
I want to go!!! I can sit in the back and question everything you say...
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:23 pm
by Wally
If you wanted live bees, I have a demo box that holds one frame and has glass or plexi sides. You could carry one frame of brood and a queen.
Let me know if you are interested.
I wish you luck with the presentation.
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:11 pm
by ski
LOL L&H I would not give you the chance, I would pull you up front to answer questions I might need help answering or put you out in the hall in a time out chair. lol
Wally,
Thanks for the offer but I will pass this time. I am not sure I would want to pull a frame out with nights around freezing.
I have known the teacher for many years and she knows this will be my first talk and that there will not be live bees. I am thinking 45 minutes is not a lot of time to get through what I am taking and planning on talking about.
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:16 pm
by Locust&Honey
Honestly you are better than I would be. You are going to do wonderful. I think it is a great opportunity for you and maybe you will encourage a new beek.
Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:44 am
by ski
L&H We will see how it goes, encouraging a new beek would be nice.
Here is a rough outline of what I am going to cover, I have been adding and deleting stuff in the beginning. Going to add some economic stuff, types of honey bees and when Bees came to the USA.
ANY comments would be appreciated. Time allotment is 45 minutes.
Items that I will bring:
Bee suit
Extra veil to pass around
Smoker
Hive tool (IF ALLOWED)
Bucket & strainer
Bee hive
Pictures or posters of bees
Propolis screen
A piece of comb
A partial frame of capped honey
Ask if any one is a beekeeper or knows anyone that is a beekeeper?
Ask what the number one thing is that bees provide for us?
Pollination - fruits and vegetables plants and trees produce about 1/3 more when pollinated by honeybees. Name some plants that need pollination
Honey – mention that there are different colors of honey
What are some other products that bees provide?
Pollen – Many people take it for allergies Show poster (2)
Talk about the pollen baskets
Different plants produce different shapes of pollen
Wax – used in burts bees chap stick and lip sticks
Propolis – may also be taken for medical reasons.
What is propolis? Bee glue
What do the bees do with it? Show the proploized screen.
Beekeepers can have one or two hives or several thousand hives but they would all have the same colony structure. Queen, Workers and Drones.
The queen female bee(show poster 5,6) is larger and layes the eggs.
Workers -female bees - As the name implies does all the work fetching gathering cleaning feeding
First job will be cleaning cells
Drones - Male bees – live a happy life get fed by the workers and visit other hives and mate with queens from other hives .
Show poster of bee development
Note the Egg, larva, pupa and when it becomes an adult bee this is known as
Full metamorphosis.
Also note the bee bread that is made from pollen and honey and is fed to the young bees.
Time frames for bee development:
3 days as an egg
5-6 days as a larva it is then capped
6-7 days pupation takes place and an adult bee emerges Show poster 9 of emerging bee.
Worker – first job cleaning cells
- tending to the queen
- taking pollen and nectar from foraging bees
- guard bees
- forager
When a bee finds a nectar source how does it communicate to the other bees where to find it. – cover the waggle dance.
When a bee has nectar what happens when it comes back to the hive.(Show poster 3)
How long does a bee live - average of 6 weeks
Bee biology
Head – antennae
- eyes
- mandibles
- Nose ? how do they breathe
Lets look at the hive –
Pass around extra Vail
Put on the bees suit and gloves – talk about why bees might be defensive
Queen less, skunks or some other animal bothering the hive, Africanized bees,
Talk about the bee suit then take most of it off and move to the hive.
Smoker – why do I need a smoker - cover pheromones.
Hive tool – Ask why I need the hive tool?
Telescoping cover
Inner cover
Frames – empty hold the comb in the frame to show how they will build., starter strip, full foundation
Where does the wax come from - flakes of wax from the gland on the abdomen of the bee, but only from young house bees the bees work the wax to form the comb.
Bottom board
Pheromones – alarm from guard bees, queen, fanning from nazanoff gland.
How do we get the honey – show partial frame of capped honey
Talk about crush and strain with the strainer and bucket
Talk about extractors – tang and radial
Talk about how the cells are built at an angle
How do new bee colonies begin
Swarming – Show poster 11
Queen cells - Poster 8
Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:11 am
by Wally
Ski, I know you said no food, but I have the honey straws left from farmer's day. You are welcome to 50 of them if you change your mind.
Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:37 pm
by ski
Wally,
The honey straws sound like a great idea. Can I pick them up on Monday? If so , What would be a good time for you.
Ski
Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:58 pm
by ski
This is what I have for now. The order may change some as I practice the talk.
Items that I will bring:
Bee suit
Extra veil to pass around
Smoker
Hive tool (IF ALLOWED)
Bucket & strainer
Bee hive
Pictures or posters of bees
Block of wax
A piece of comb
A partial frame of capped honey
I plan on drawing a rough sketch of the world on the white board and indicate that the
There were no honey bees in the what is now the usa when Columbus arrived but
bees came from Europe in the 1620’s and up to several years ago were known as European honey bees.
Russian bees - talk about coloring – are now coming in .
I will draw arrows from Europe, Africa, russia to the USA.
There were 5.9 million hives in usa in 1947
There were 2.4 million hives in USA in 2005
Ask if any one is a beekeeper or knows anyone that is a beekeeper?
The honey bee added 14 billion to the us economy last year. How did they do that?
Ask what the number one thing is that bees provide for us?
Pollination - fruits and vegetables plants and trees produce about 1/3 more when pollinated by honeybees. Name some plants that need pollination
Honey – mention that there are diffeent colors of honey
What are some other products that bees provide?
Pollen – Many people take it for allergies Show poster (2)
Talk about the pollen baskets
Different plants produce different shapes of pollen
Wax – used in burts bees chap stick and lip sticks
Royal Jelly -
Propolis – may also be taken for medical reasons.
What is propolis? Bee glue
What do the bees do with it? Show the proploized screen.
Beekeepers can have one or two hives or several thousand hives but they would all have the same colony structure. Queen, Workers and Drones.
The queen female bee(show poster 5,6) is larger and layes the eggs.
Workers -female bees - As the name inplies does all the work fetching gathering cleaning feeding
First job will be cleaning cells
Drones - Male bees – live a happy life get fed by the workers and visit other hives and mate with queens from other hives .
Show poster of bee development
Note the Egg, larva, pupa and when it becomes an adult bee this is known as
Full metamorphosis.
Also note the bee bread that is made from pollen and honey and is fed to the young bees.
Time frames for bee development:
3 days as an egg
5-6 days as a larva it is then capped
6-7 days pupation takes place and an adult bee emerges Show poster 9 of emerging bee.
Worker – first job cleaning cells
- tending to the queen
- taking pollen and nectar from forriging bees
- guard bees
- forager – On average a forager makes about one twelth of a teaspoon of honey in is life span.
-
When a bee finds a nectar source how does it communicate to the other bees where to find it. – cover the waggle dance.
When a bee has nectar what happens when it comes back to the hive.(Show poster 3)
How long does a bee live - average of 6 weeks
Bee biology
Head – antennae
- eyes
- mandibles
- Nose ? how do they breathe – spiracles are the outside openings that lead to the trachea. We have nostrils.
Lets look at the hive –
Pass around extra vail
Put on the bees suit and gloves – talk about why bees might be defensive
Queen less, skunks or some other animal bothering the hive, Africanized bees,
Talk about the bee suit then take most of it off and move to the hive.
Smoker – why do I need a smoker - cover alarm pheromones.
Hive tool – Ask why I need the hive tool?
Telescoping cover
Inner cover
Frames – empty hold the comb in the frame to show how they will build., starter strip, full foundation. Ask: Where does the wax come from?
Where does the wax come from - flakes of wax from the gland on the abdomen of the bee, but only from young house bees the bees work the wax to form the comb.
Bottom board
Pheromones – alarm from guars bees, queen, fanning from nazanoff gland.
How do we get the honey – show partial frame of capped honey
Talk about crush and strain with the strainer and bucket
Talk about extractors – tang and radial
Talk about how the cells are built at an angle
How do new bee colonies begin
Swarming – Show poster 11
Queen cells - Poster 8
Cover Alamance and Guilford county class schedules.
If time allows - mites, CCD
Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:43 pm
by Locust&Honey
Forget the Guilford County Beginner Beekeeping class!!!! You need to give the state exam after that class. I think that is a WONDERFUL itinerary!! I think the honey straws would be excellent also. Kurt is probably getting nervous
Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:48 pm
by ski
lol L&H that's funny.
I have a list of things to cover. I plan on covering what we can hopefully in a discussion format. We will see how it goes. Should be fun.
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:52 pm
by Locust&Honey
Let us know how it went!!
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:04 pm
by ski
I went to Burlington Christan Academy and had 42 kids from 3 classes.
Did I cover everything - NO- but covered most of it. I let their questions guide me to topics and I made a point of answering all the questions. A few things did not get covered because we just ran out of time.
The teachers were glad we (my wife and I) came and the kids seemed very interested. I think we could have gone on for an additional 45 minutes. They let me go for an hour the way it was. My wife went along and took a few pictures and suggested that I do it in sections and then take questions on the section we just covered. As it was I took questions as we went along. The time flew by and I thought it went quite well for the first time. I will post the pictures after I get them downloaded. I had planned on audio taping it but forget the recorder at home. I think that would have helped a lot for debugging before the next outing. The kids knew what honey straws were and they were a big hit. THANKS WALLY. I let the teacher hold the box and the kids got a straw on the way out the door while my wife helped me pack up. If you haven't tried it you should...its an adventure.
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:59 pm
by ski
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:04 am
by Locust&Honey
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:42 am
by ski
Do we get any honey straws for being your support group????
Wally purchased the honey straws to promote beekeeping. I think you have already been promoted. But thats between you and Wally . lol
But...THANK YOU for your support.
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 5:38 pm
by Wally
Go ahead, Ski. I don't mind if you give him
A honey straw.
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:07 pm
by Locust&Honey
