ACB members Jennifer Welsh, Linda Leister and Geoff Leister participated in Heritage Day activities at Gibsonville Elementary School on Thursday, November 10, 2016. A presentation designed for grades Pre-K&ndash2nd grades covered basic information on honey bees and pollination. A different presentation, for 3rd, 4th & 5th graders, also included images of a natural hive, as well as ancient, traditional and modern artificial hives. Paul Jollay loaned us his Plank Bee Gum, which was compared with an 8-frame Langstroth hive. A mock hive inspection was demonstrated. The ever-favorite observation hive ended each of the twenty-two 10-minute sessions.
One of the most challenging questions, asked by several students, was: “Why do honey bees build hexagonal shaped cells to create their wax honeycomb?” Great question! Unfortunately, lack of time prevented us from answering in detail, but some followup research found What Is It About Bees And Hexagons?, which may be of interest to some of our members as well as students.