Bee Tagging

Yesterday the girls had their first experience working on a real science experiment.  We worked with an individual from the U of M who is doing research on bees in the local area (by Lake Como).  The girls were a bit apprehensive about the bee project at first.  However once they learned more about the bees, they were running around with samples and asking lots of questions.

We learned that the male bees don't have stingers and you can hold and touch them.  Mommy was impressed with how fast their wings beat as she gently touched their backs.  Emma and Ani were impressed by how fuzzy the bees felt.  We also learned how to tell the difference between males and females.  Males typically have longer abdomens and they also have longer antenna.  The researcher told us that typically more male bees were out in these later months of summer.  We also learned that the bee can travel anywhere from 1/2 mile to a full mile away from its hive.  The queen bees are the ones out in early spring (April/May) and it is best to leave them alone because they will be the one to start up the colony. 

We mainly found two types of bees while collecting.  We differentiated types based on patterns they had on their backs.  The researcher said that she discovered a few bees last summer that should have been farther north due to climate change.  However the extreme changes in temperature in northern Minnesota might have kept them down in the Twin Cities area. 

When tracking the bees, we would wait for the bee to land on a flower and then use a plastic container and capture the bee by placing the container over the flower and then sliding the lid closed under.  We also had to identify the plant the bee was found on.  Then the researcher would use a net to take the bee out of the container and examine it.  After examining it we placed a little orange paint dot on its back to know which bees had already been counted.  The females, or worker bees, were taken out very carefully and held in the net the entire time they were marked.  We were able to mark the bees through the net as well.  The male bees were released into the net and then could be picked up with one's fingers.

Not only did we get to participate in some really neat data collection, we also got over our fear of bees.