Bees in Winter

Science Exploration About Bees in Winter

In late November, we found part of a bee hive near the school.  The children became very interested in the bee hive.  It was noted by the children that there were no bees in the hive and that in fact they had not seen any bees outside since it had gotten cold out.  This made the children wonder :Where do the bees go or what do the bees do in the winter?

We had some ideas and made a chart of our hypotheses.

We discussed how scientists have hypotheses and then they test their hypotheses to see if they are correct.  One of the children had a plan to test our hypotheses.  He said that we should make bee traps and put honey in them.  Then we should hang them outside on the trees and bushes in the front yard of the school.  If the bees smell the honey they will come.  Then we will know if bees come out in the winter or if they go far away.

The children decided to make plans to build bee traps.

 

 

Then we built our traps using recyclable materials and a little help from our “Grade 6 Big Buddies”.  (Our buddies had such a great time!)

 

Then we added the honey and took the traps out to the garden.  Our buddies helped us hang them.

 

 

We have gone out once to check on our bee traps.  We observed that some of our traps are missing.  We wonder if the raccoons like honey too.  One of our traps that was hanging on a tree is now in a knot in the trunk of the same tree.  We wonder how it got there!  We also observed that the honey in the bee traps is frozen!  We wonder what else will freeze out in the garden in winter!

 

The possibilities are endless!!!