Unbee-lievable Facts about Bumblebees
- The word ‘bumblebee’ is a compound word (bumble + bee). The word ‘bumble’ means to hum, buzz, drone, or move ineptly or flounderingly.
- Bumblebees can fly very quickly. They can reach ground speeds of 15 kilometres per hour (km/h).
- Bumblebees can do more work and carry more pollen than other bees, including honeybees. In fact, they can do 50 times as much work as a normal honeybee.
- The number of bumblebees is declining in New Zealand due to a number of factors, including industrial agriculture and climate change . [insert any two causes of the declining number of bumblebees].
- The number of bumblebees is declining in New Zealand due to a number of factors, including the wasps.
Hi Auckland,
ReplyDeleteIt's Leslie here, a member of the Summer Learning Journey team. Aren't bees amazing? Imagine a little insect like this doing so much work and able to fly so fast!! You've said that they can fly as fast as 15 km an hour but, in fact they can fly as fast as 54 km an hour. That's as fast as a car - wow!!!
Have you seen many bees around your neighbourhood this summer? We have worries about our bee populations in Canada, too. We've been seeing fewer and fewer bee colonies in our area and so people have started to plant more and more plants that are food sources for them. I have many gardens around my house now, filled with perennial flowers that can provide food for bees because if we don't have bees, we won't have food. They're very important to us because they pollinate our crops.
Hopefully the bee populations will increase in the future!!!!
I hope that you're having good summer weather and that you're happy to be back at school now. You certainly worked hard on these Summer Learning Journey activities. Good for you! Now it's time for you to have a rest and go back to school -- or not?
I'll continue to enjoy reading your blog.
Cheers,
Leslie