Honey bees play a vital role in pollinating many agricultural crops and food sources. They are able to pollinate a wide range of crops throughout the growing season because they live in large colonies and can be concentrated where needed. Migratory beekeepers move millions of beehives across states and fields each year to provide pollination services to farmers and access to nectar for honey production. Without the pollination work of honey bees, the quantity and quality of many crops would be significantly reduced.
Grade 2 School Garden Lesson Plan - Pollination Lesson; Travelling Honeybees ~ Massachusetts
1. TRAVELLING HONEY BEES
Grade Level: Grade 2
Agricultural Background: Honey bees are a vital part of agriculture and food production
Pollination is the first step in a process that results in the production of fruits, vegetables, nuts and
seeds. As pollinating bees and other insects visit blossoms to gather the nectar and pollen necessary
for their survival, they help agricultural crops, home gardens and wildlife habitats flourish.
Honey bees are a critical component of agriculture and food production.
They are the most economically valuable pollinator worldwide. The
U. S. D. A. has estimated that 80 percent of insect crop pollination is
accomplished by honey bees. One mouthful in three of the food you eat,
directly or indirectly, depends on pollination by honey bees.
While other insects can pollinate plants, honey bees play such an
important role because they are available throughout the growing season,
they pollinate a wide range of crops and they can be concentrated
whenever and wherever they are needed.
This concentration of pollination potential is possible, because, unlike other bees, honey bees group
and overwinter in colonies of 20,000 to 60,000. In the spring, thousands of bees are active and ready
to start collecting pollen and nectar. When the fields and orchards come into bloom in the spring, the
sheer quantity of honeybees guarantees the pollination that is necessary for fruit production.
Much honey bee pollination occurs naturally. Bees from a local hobbyist beekeeper’s hives or even a
wild honeybee hive, will travel up to two miles to collect pollen and nectar, pollinating local gardens,
farm fields and fruit trees, as well as the non-cultivated fruits, nuts and seeds that animals depend on
for food in the wild.
Because honeybees live in hives and can be cared for by beekeepers. These beekeepers can choose to
move their hives to locations where pollen and nectar are available for the bees or where pollination is
most needed. Local beekeepers are often hired to bring beehives to farms or orchards to supplement
pollination of apples, blueberries, pears and pumpkins.
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the Massachusetts
Society for Promoting Agriculture.
2. To meet the huge seasonal needs and quantity demands of large-scale agricultural
plantings, special efforts are required. Farmers contract with migratory beekeepers,
who move millions of bee hives to fields each year just as crops flower. About
one-half of the full-time beekeepers in the United States move their approximately
2 million colonies from state-to-state and field-to-field during the year to provide
pollination services to farmers as well as to reach abundant sources of nectar for
honey production.
This has led to the development of a whole industry based around honey bee
pollination. According to a 2000 Cornell University study, the increased yield and
quality of agricultural crops as a result of honey bee pollination is valued at more than $14.6 billion
per year. Without the honey bees’ pollination work, the quantity and quality of many crops would be
reduced and some would not yield at all.
Of the 100 crops that provide 90 percent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by honey bees.
In North America, honey bees pollinate nearly 95 kinds of fruits. Almonds are entirely reliant upon
pollination services by commercial beekeepers. Other crops such as blueberries, apples and cherries,
are 90-percent dependent on honey bee pollination at bloom time. Other crops that require the services
of these migratory bees include: alfalfa seed, avocado, cantaloupe, citrus, cranberry, cucumber,
honeydew, kiwi fruit, pear, peppers, plum, pumpkins, sunflower, vegetable seed and watermelon
Many factors influence the success of a migratory beekeeper. Fuel, labor and equipment are required
to manage and transport bees from location to location — often great distances apart. Migratory
beekeepers may spend months away from their families and homes as they move their bees.
Beekeepers maintain the health of their colonies by ensuring that they have access to adequate
supplies of pollen, nectar and water. As agricultural land, wildlife and natural areas are reduced, so is
the foraging area for bees. As they move their bees, beekeepers must closely monitor pesticide and
herbicide treatments used on nearby crops — treatments that may harm or kill beneficial insects,
including bees.
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the Massachusetts
Society for Promoting Agriculture.
3. TRAVELLING HONEY BEES
Follow-up Lesson to “Busy Bees”
Grade Level: Grade 2
Season: Any
Lesson/Activity Description
In this lesson, students will learn about the importance of
bees to the pollination of plants. Then they will write a
story where they imagine travelling to different plants as a
honey bee.
Guiding Question
Why are honey bees important to plants? What do they do
for plants?
Big Idea
Honey bees are crucial to the growth of plants through
pollination.
Learning Objectives
- To understand why honey bees travel between different plants and why the pollination that occurs
from this travel is so important.
Materials
• Papers
• Pencils
• Colored Pencils, markers or crayons
Preparation
Review Background material above
Introducing the Lesson
Talk about honey bees and pollination. Especially what happens when a honey
bee visits a flower and why this is important to the plant.
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture.
4. Activate prior knowledge
Talk to students about honey bees. What do honey bees do?
Are honey bees important?
Engage Student Interest:
Explain that you are going to learn about the importance of
honey bees and the role that they play in pollination. Let
them know that they should listen carefully because after the
lesson they will have the opportunity to write a story where
they imagine themselves as a honey bee.
Procedure
Total time approx. 30 minutes
1. Introduce the lesson; use the background information
to explain to the students about bees and why they travel
between the plants.
2. Give the student a paper to write on and a paper to draw
a picture. Ask them to write a short story from the point of view of the bee as it travels from different
flowers and plants. What does it see? What attracts it to different flowers? Then have the students draw
a picture of a scene from their story.
3. When the student have completed their stories, have a few students share their stories and discuss
the adventures of their bees.
Wrap Up
Talk about why pollination is important to the production of food. Without pollination we would not
have fruits and vegetables, therefore bees help us with food production.
Assessing Student Knowledge
Ask the students to recount the day in the life of a bee. Talk about how the bee pollinates the flower.
How do the flowers get pollinated?
Extensions
Have the students research other pollinators. What are other ways plants are pollinated?
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture.
5. * Some of the Massachusetts Department of Education Standards in this lesson *
Writing 3:
Write narratives in which they recount a well
elaborated event or short sequence of events,
include details to describe actions, thoughts,
and feelings, use temporal words to signal event
order, and provide a sense of closure.
Writing MA 3:
Write stories or poems with dialogue.
Speaking and Listening 5:
Speaking and Listening 5 Create audio
recordings of stories or poems; add drawings
or other visual displays to stories or recounts of
experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas,
thoughts, and feelings.
Books and Resources
Busy Bees: The lesson to be used before this one.
http://aginclassroom.org/School%20Gardens/School_Gardening_Lesson_Plans/School_
Gardening_Lesson_Grade%202%20Pollination.htm
National Honey Board
www.honey.com
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture.