First Step

ABUZZ: A couple weeks back, the MPA crew attended a lecture about bee keeping near SeaTac airport, which is close to our 'campus.' Inspired by the presentation, we have since acquired a hive, which sits in a pile of pieces in our basement at the present.

We are gearing up to get it going this spring. In the meantime, we've started learning more about bee keeping. An online resource, "The PerfectBee Introductory Beekeeping Course," seems a great place to start. 

This morning, we began with Section 1.1 The Science of Bees. Lesson 1, "Why Bees Rock," was an engaging overview about just how interesting and important bees are.  For example, bees are a perfect example of 'mutualism,' defined as "A way for two organisms of different species to share a mutually-beneficial relationship." Clearly, the honey bee and flowering plants represent one of the most successful examples of mutualism in nature, the lesson points out.

Here are a few things CJ learned today. ...

The activities of honeybees in the creation of honey is often referred to as "eusocial." According to PerfectBee, eusociality "is characterized by strong levels of collaboration and often a division of labor putting humans to shame!" Honeybees working in eusociality are able to produce honey in an extremely efficient manner.

The smallest known bee species in the world is Perdita Minima, a species native to the southwestern United States. On average, Perdita Minima bees reach a size of two millimeters. Meanwhile, Megachile Pluto, a species native to Indonesia, can reach a size of a whopping thirty-nine millimeters, making it the largest known bee species in the world.

While the image of hives is widely associated with bees (especially honeybees), most species of bees live in solitude. Species of bees that usually live in solitude include Carpenter, Leafcutter, and Mason bees.

And here are a few things Annabelle learned. ...

Bees are responsible for the majority of our diets. While they most obviously produce honey, they also pollinate many of the plants we eat, allowing them to spread and grow at a much higher rate than if they had to rely on the wind. In fact, almost 75% of plants around the world depend on animal pollination, most of which comes from bees.

The average worker bee female will produce 1/12 of a tablespoon of honey in her lifetime. That may not sound like much, but once you add up the shear number of bees in a single hive, a single colony can produce 100 pounds of honey or more in a single year!

The honey that bees produce is extremely good for your well-being, including many vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. The substance they use to make their hives - propolis - is also believed to be good for one's immune system. 

BACK TO THE STACKS: In our ongoing 'let's visit the library' phase, yesterday we checked out the White Center branch of the King County Library system. 

Photo: King County Library System

The kids spent two hours playing a Smash (Nintendo video) game with other teens. I took the time to work on our taxes and read a book.

Huge fans of the musical "Hamilton," we just couldn't pass this picture book up when we saw it on a shelf.

It was an engaging book, and we learned a couple of things about Eliza that we didn't know, including the fact that the Hamiltons were foster parents to a couple of children. From the musical, we knew she had founded an orphanage after Alexander was shot and killed, but we didn't know she had also started a school bearing his name (Hamilton Free School). 

SOCKET TO ME: This afternoon's work involved a little wrench-turning. The mailman brought a car part we'd been awaiting, a hydraulic strut that keeps the tailgate door from slamming shut on you when it's open.

I looked at the existing one and the new part, and felt like it was something the kids and I could tackle. It looked like it was just a matter of removing and then reinstalling three bolts.

Honestly, the only challenging part of the project was finding the right socket and wrench to hold said socket. After trying a dozen or so, we finally found that a 10 mm one was the right size.

The actual replacement/repair itself only took 10 minutes. The kids felt pretty good when we were done. I told them that the part was only $35 or so, and can they think of any reason at all why they wouldn't attempt a repair like that themselves rather than pay someone? (I also told them it would likely be a minimum of $50 if they paid a mechanic to make a fix like that.) They said they would definitely think about taking on simple repair jobs by themselves, so yay for that!