It is my responsibility to homeschool my little brother, and I have to admit I’ve been terribly negligent in his education in recent months.  Luckily for me though, our pet Honeybees are a perfect learning opportunity!

Lesson One: Nutrition!  After enjoying a big bowl of kibble, Asa asked what do our Bees eat.  Prepared for just such a question, I gave him a very lengthy explanation on pollen and the role of flowers.  But I have to remind myself that Asa is an inquisitive little fellow, and sometimes takes his learning a bit too far.  Following my lesson, Asa spent the afternoon eating the tops off the dandelions because he wanted to know what pollen tastes like!  Apparently I should have added to my lesson that if he eats the flowers he is robbing our Bees of precious food.  But before I could, Asa was complaining of an upset tummy and vomited the dandelions on the kitchen floor.  Such a pity too, because Mom just washed it.  But at least Asa now knows dogs don’t eat flowers, only Bees do.

Lesson Two: Science!  Still skeptical about pollen, Asa wanted to know what it looked like.  So I explained if you look closely at the Bees you can see the tiny particles on their back legs.  In fact it reminds me of the pom-poms I see on the fancy shaved Poodles that frequent the outdoor cafes in Portsmouth.  But Asa didn’t believe that these small particles existed.  Not wanting him to disturb our Bees, I devised an experiment.  During our neighborhood patrol I encouraged Asa to stick his nose into anything and everything on our walk, so that he could “collect” pollen like a Bee.  When we returned home, I directed him to stick his nose in our water bowl.  Sure enough my experiment worked, and a thin film of pollen appeared on the water.  Apparently Mom needed this lesson too, because she couldn’t figure out what that haze was in our water bowl.  But I left it up to Dad to explain it to her.  I can’t be responsible for everyone’s education!

Lesson Three: Community Studies!  Our individual hives are a great way to learn about nuances within communities.  Although our Honeybees came from the same place, the communities they have developed in each hive are different.  Take my Chuck Beely Hive for example.  The Bees were very methodical in their actions and took a slow but steady approach to establishing their Queen and building their brood comb.  Asa’s bees, on the other hand, took a much more exuberant approach to their work and could be seen buzzing wildly around Azzza Hive, accomplishing their work at a much faster pace.  Yet according to Dad, despite their different approaches both are making good progress.  Again though, Asa missed the point of my lesson and now sees it as a competition.  In fact, Asa is so proud of his Bees that he wanted to make sure everyone knows which ones are his.  Would you believe he tried to mark one!  After spying a Bee on a dandelion, Asa walked right up and peed on it!  That poor insulted Bee barely escaped unscathed and quickly flew away.  Thankfully Asa also escaped unharmed!  That could have really hurt if he got stung!

At least Asa didn’t try to eat the Honeybee like the dandelions, so I must be making progress with his homeschooling.  I wanted to teach Asa about the role of Monarchies in the hives, but considering that peeing incident this may be a good stopping point for now.  I’m glad to see though that Asa is curious about our Honeybees, and interested in learning more about our new pets.  So when teachable moments arise, I will Bee Prepared!  Har! Har!  Sorry I couldn’t resist that pun…