Sweet education
Children learn about honeybees at libraryBy MARVIN BAKER, Staff Writer mbaker@minotdailynews.com
Article Photos
Fact Box
Honeybee facts:
The honey bee is the only insect that produces food eaten by humans.
Honey bees are environmentally friendly and are vital as pollinators.
They have six legs, two eyes, two wings, a nectar pouch and a stomach.
The honeybee's wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.
It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee's flight around the world.
A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
It is estimated that 1,100 honey bee stings are required to be fatal.
During winter, honey bees feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months. They form a tight cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.
Honey typically weighs about 12 pounds a gallon, while water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon.
North Dakota is the top honey producing state in the nation, topping California the past two consecutive years.
Will and Peggy Nissen were peppered with questions Thursday as they talked about the world of honeybees Thursday afternoon in the Minot Public Library.
Some of the questions had no relevance to honey bees, but the 24 children attending were between the ages of 6 to 12 and appeared excited just to learn something new.
Each Thursday the library has a summer reading theme program for children called "Catch the Reading Bug." For several weeks, it has been a bug-related theme. The program will conclude next week with a crafts show.
The Nissens, who are Minot area beekeepers, answered all the questions with a bee or honey related answer and asked plenty of questions of the children to test their knowledge of bees and honey.
One child asked Will Nissen if he's ever been to Alaska? He said he hasn't been there, but told the boy that bees essentially work around the clock in Alaska during the summer because of the constant daylight in the high latitudes.
It didn't take long for the obvious question to pop up and that was, "have you ever been stung by a bee?"
Nissen responded with an assumption that he has been bit. "There's worse things than a bee sting," he said. "If they didn't sting, everyone would have bees."
The Nissens opened the program with two tables of display items related to keeping bees and harvesting honey.
Will Nissen passed a vail around and some of the children put it on their heads. He said the vail will keep them from being stung, at least on their head or neck.
He then passed a pair of leather gloves out with gauntlets that protect the hands and lower arms from aggressive bees.
But the children seemed amazed when Nissen held up a pair of small coveralls that his boys wore tending to the bees when they were about the age of the children participating.
The Nissens opened a hive and showed the children the inside of the hive, that included a frame full of honey and wax.
To produce a frame of honey, Will Nissen said the bees will work around the clock and die in about six weeks because all their energy is spent gathering nectar and producing honey.
"They haul nectar, which is 98 percent water," Nissen said. "They pass it on to another bee and so on. They reduce the water to 15 percent by fanning with their wings. Then it's honey."
He said a colony will use up to five gallons of water a day and some of the water is actually used more for heating and cooling than it is for thirst.
"The hive is kept temperature and humidity controlled," he said. "If it's 100 degrees outside, it's 78 degrees inside the hive. If it's 20 below zero, it's 78 in the hive."
Peggy Nissen added, "It's amazing what they can do."
The Nissens talked about a number of other topics related to honey bees including pollination, overwintering bees in North Dakota and other flying insects that may resemble bees.
Will Nissen asked the children if they knew what the No. 1 use is for bees wax. Many said a candle, presumably because he was holding up a candle when he asked the question.
But, he said it is cosmetics. Candles are No. 2.
He was also candid about the dangers of bees. He said they become aggressive around the color black and really like yellow, since most of the interior of flowers are yellow.
Nissen wears neutral colors while tending to the bees since they don't often recognize white or cream like they would black or red. He suggested to the children if they are around bees they wear white or khaki.
As he explained the bee sting and how to prevent it, the children looked at each other, cringed and shrugged their shoulders.
He said a bee stinger has barbs, much like a fishing hook, and the longer a stinger remains in place, the more the muscles are relaxed and the deeper the stinger enters the skin.
A bee dies shortly after it issues its sting because part of the abdomen is ripped away after it stings. A yellow jacket or hornet may look like a bee, according to Nissen, but it can sting repeatedly because it doesn't have barbs like the bee.
The finale came when the Nissens asked the children if they wanted to taste some honey. All 24 raised their hands and eagerly jumped into a single-file line to try out some raw honey still in a frame.
It was orange citrus honey from California and the children tasted the orange in the honey that included bees wax.
As Nissen dug spoons of honey out of the frame, the kids eagerly tasted it. Apparently, it was the texture of the wax they weren't used to as they had to chew on it like honey-flavored gum.
The honey was delicious.
