Hello Acorn Club Members!
Summer is here! I am sure a lot of you will be coming to visit the park soon for your summer holiday. There will be the usual Acorn Club activities such as pond dipping, minibeasting and games, as well as a new evening session inside. Also in the events programme are some new craft activities and we will also be leading walks down to the bee hives that have moved onto Kelling Heath this year.
Busy Bees
Whilst you are rushing round this summer having lots of fun the honey bees that now live at Kelling Heath will be busy. Several hives are now tucked away in the corner of the park, including and extra special observation hive inside a shed so we can see what they’re up to.
Bees are very important for plants that live here. Bees collect nectar and pollen from the flowers of plants to make honey. As they collect the nectar and pollen some pollen gets rubbed onto their furry backs, then when they move to other plants some pollen may get rubbed off, pollinating the flowers. Flowers have to be pollinated for them to be able to make seeds for more plants to grow in future years.
Bees make honey to store in their hives for them to eat in winter. Unlike many insects in this country they remain as active adults throughout the winter (many insects hibernate or over-winter as pupae). To survive the winter as active adults they remain in the hive huddled together to keep warm. They eat the honey to give them energy, during the summer they eat nectar from flowers but in the winter there are very few flowers around.
Naturally bees make their hives in hollow trees but bee keepers make special hives for them to live in. These hives and the way they are managed encourage bees to produce lots of honey. A good bee colony can produce a lot more honey than it needs to survive the winter. The beekeeper can then collect the extra honey to eat and sell. The honey the bees make here will be ‘heather honey’ as most of the nectar and pollen will be collected from the heather plants on the heath. This is quite a dark honey and you will be able to buy it in our shop later in the year!
So look out for bees this summer, but remember they may sting you if you hassle them! |
