One bright sunny day Haley had a surprise for the kids that came to Nature Camp! When they got off the bus, she told them that they were going to take a hike through the woods to a secret destination and they would see something amazing!
Haley took the group on a trail through Medford Forest, the trail followed the Black River. They walked on the trail a long time, and about a half hour later they came to the top of a small hill that overlooked a field of apple trees. Haley told the kids that this was their neighbors apple orchard, and that the neighbor had told Haley that she could bring the group to the orchard, and they could each pick one apple.
Before they went down the hill, Haley told them to pay attention to her because she had to warn them of a danger in the orchard. At the bottom of the hill there were several unusual looking large boxes that were making noise! The noise was like a loud buzzing! Haley told them that their neighbor kept bees in his orchard, and those boxes were the beehives! Haley told the kids that they needed to stay away from the beehives and not do anything to upset the bees. The kids crowded around Haley so that they could see the beehives, and Haley stepped close to the edge of the hill so that the kids would have more room.
Then it happened! The ground until Haley’s feet crumbled, and she fell down the hill! Haley was screaming, rolling, turning summersaults, and even did one cartwheel! At the bottom of the hill, Haley crashed into the nearest beehive! The beehive did not tip over, but the bees came swarming out of the hive and they were not happy!
The kids all ran to the river and jumped into the water, but Haley was not close to the river, she was in the orchard! One of the bees stung her right on the end of her nose! The swarm of bees were buzzing around Haley’s head, and she jumped to her feet, started waving her arms around, and began to run and scream! She ran into a tree branch and fell over backwards, but she immediately jumped to her feet and kept running and screaming! She slipped on a mushy apple that was on the ground and fell on her face, but she rolled to her feet and kept going!
Haley remembered that the river would be a place of safety, so she ran up the hill, still waving her arms and screaming! The kids saw her come over the top of the hill, and it was truly a terrifying sight! All the kids in the river began to scream and get out of the way! Haley did a bellyflop into the river, and suddenly everything was very quiet. The bees kept buzzing around Haley for a while, but she kept ducking her head under water, and eventually the bees went back to their hive.
Nobody wanted to go back to the orchard to get an apple, so after the bees left, they all went back to the farm. The end of Haley’s nose was swollen and bright red, she looked like a clown in the circus! Joe got a pair of tweezers, and he got the bee’s stinger out of the end of Haley’s nose and gave her an ice pack to put on her nose. Joe said that bee stings are very painful, and that some people who are allergic to bee stings can even die from a single sting. Joe said he had checked the medical forms that their parents had signed to make sure none of them were allergic to bees before he allowed Haley to take them to the orchard.
Joe taught them about bees. He told them that his neighbor kept honeybees in those hives because they helped to pollinate the apple trees when they bloomed in the spring so that they would have a good crop of apples. Bees pollinate many flowers, fruit trees, and vegetables, but there are also other ways for plants to get pollinated: the wind pollinates some plants, birds and other insects pollinate some plants, and some plants are self-pollinating.
Honeybees live in hives. Some hives are in hollow trees, hollow fence posts, in abandoned buildings, or in man-made hives like they saw in the orchard. There is one female queen bee in each hive, a few hundred male drone bees, and a few thousand female worker bees. The female worker bees are the ones who leave the hive and gather nectar and pollen from plants and bring it back to the hive to make honey. When a female worker bee finds some plants that are blooming, she communicates this information to the other worker bees by doing a dance when she gets back to the hive. The dance tells the other worker bees what direction they need to go, and how far they must go to get to the flowering plants. The male drone bees stay in the hive, and the female queen bee stays in the hive and raises young bees. The male drone bees do not have stingers, but the female queen bee has a smooth stinger that she uses to sting other bees! The female worker bees have a stinger with a barb on the end. When they sting a person or an animal the barb catches in the person or animal and the stinger breaks off the worker bee. The worker bee dies when it stings a person or an animal. Honeybees make enough honey to feed the queen bee and the worker bees through the winter, and they make enough extra honey so that people can harvest the honey to use in our food! In the winter the queen bee and the female worker bees huddle together in a tight ball to keep warm and eat honey to keep themselves alive. The male drone bees are put out of the hive when winter begins, and they die.
Joe also told the kids that we can learn some things about God from honeybees.
There are several ways that believers are like honeybees.
- The hive has one leader: the queen bee. The Church of believers has one leader: Jesus Christ.
In the Bible in Colossians 1:18 it says:
Christ is also the head of the church, which is His body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So He is first in everything.
- Believers are supposed to be like worker bees, they are given jobs to do, and Jesus expects us to use the gifts and talents that He has given us.
In the Bible in I Corinthians 12:4-7 it says:
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
- The bees in the hive work together for a common cause, the believers in Jesus (the Church) are also supposed to work together for a common cause. Each person in the group has a gift from God, and each person is equally important.
In the Bible in Romans 12:4-6a it says:
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.
There are also several ways that honeybees are different from believers:
- Drone bees do not leave the hive, they never go out and do the work. Many believers try to live like this; they want to just go to Church sometimes, but do not want to become involved and do anything for God.
In the Bible in Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus says:
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
In Matthew 9:37-38 Jesus also says:
Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His fields.”
- Bees carry a venom in their stinger that causes pain or can even cause death. Believers carry the Word of God to the world; we bring life not death. Believers are the light of the world!
In the Bible in John 6:68-69 it says:
Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”
In the Bible in Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus says:
You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds, shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Joe encouraged all the kids to learn from the honeybees and live their life as a ‘worker bee’ for God! Bring the light and life of Jesus to those around you!