All About Bee Keeping - Pragmatic Mom

My family has a Father’s Day tradition of strawberry picking. It doesn’t always work out. Some years, there are no strawberries left by Father’s Day. On other Father’s Days, the weather is poor. Still, extreme heat or rain doesn’t stop us.

We tried a new farm this year. Cider Hill Farm is on Boston’s North Shore. It’s very lovely with a fully decked-out store and chicken coops. It rained lightly so we gathered five pints of strawberries as fast as we could. I think we finished in fifteen minutes and ended up spending more time in the store than in the fields.

The bee hive inside the store caught my attention. Rigged so that bees can come and go outside through a tube, the clear glass hive allows you to see exactly what the bees are doing. I thought it was fascinating! There is also a beehive at the Museum of Science in Boston!

I hope you enjoy this visit with the bees! How about you? Do you have beehives near you? Do you keep bees?! I want to try but my city’s ordinance requires 150 yards from other houses and I don’t think I have that kind of distance between neighbors.

Children’s Books About Bees

I recently received this nonfiction advanced picture book that covered many aspects of beekeeping in an easy-to-understand way.

The Broken Bees’ Nest by Lydia Lukidis, illustrated by Andre Ceolin

Arun and Keya search for the perfect tree for a treehouse but find one with a battered bees’ nest! The bees need a new home―right away, so they find Dr. Chen down the road! She’s a beekeeper who sells honey locally and she’s the perfect person to move the hive to a new location. Filled with sidebar facts, kids will learn about all the different facets of beekeeping. This maker series encourages hands-on learning. Maybe they will even be inspired to become beekeepers too! [picture book, ages 5 and up]

The Bee Mother by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw Brett D. Huson, illustrated by Natasha Donovan

The bee mother, Nox Ap, emerges after winter ends. Like the yellow jacket wasp, she leaves her nest in search of a new home. While their nests are different — the yellow jacket wasp, a paper hive, and the honeybee, a hollow tree — both get to work to lay eggs for a new hive. Learn about their life cycle from the perspective of Native Americans, specifically the Gitxsan Nation in British Columbia, Canada. [nonfiction middle grade picture book, ages 9 and up]