“Flight of the Honey Bee” by Raymond Huber, illustrated by Brian Lovelock.
Candlewick Press, Somerville, Mass., 2013, 32 pages, Grades K-2.
Each spring and summer, visitors to gardens will see honey bees flying from flower to flower in search of nectar. This sweet juice is extracted from the flowers by their long tongues. The bees are very industrious and move constantly over lawns, flower gardens and nearby fields.
Since the beginning of recorded history, mankind has been fascinated with honey bees. Drawings of bees can be found in ancient literature and numerous pleasing statements about honey and bees can be found in the Holy Bible. But actually, people know very little about bees. Raymond Huber has written an excellent account of the actions of a scout bee, and this interesting book is entitled “Flight of the Honey Bee.”
The book begins with a young bee, “Scout,” looking out into a large, scary world outside the beehive. While all bees have different jobs in the hive, her job is to fly throughout the area to find flowers. Rapidly fanning her wings, Scout takes off and zooms upward. But where are the flowers the hive needs? She continues to fly over nearby fields until the marvelous fragrance of a field of flowers envelopes her. Quickly she dives but is attacked by a marauding blackbird. The blackbird is more than happy to eat honey bees.
Barely avoiding disaster, Scout hides from the intruder and waits until the bird leaves. Then she sinks near the delightful center of a flower and drinks deeply from the delicious nectar. It helps, of course, that her tongue is shaped like a tiny spoon.
Since Scout is continually brushing against the leaves of the flowers, the pollen, or fine reproductive flower cells, cling to the hair on her legs. When she flies to the next flower or plant, some of the pollen will fall onto the leaves of the second flower or plant, causing it to be fertilized. Though Scout merely is trying to get nectar to make honey for her hive, she is actually carrying out a vital role in food production. It is very simple. If plants don’t get pollinated by bees, they don’t reproduce. If they don’t reproduce, they don’t produce any food.
But Scout’s work has just begun. She begins flying back to the hive but continues to encounter many challenges and problems. It begins to rain and hail on the intrepid bee. If Scout gets too chilled, her wing muscles can be damaged and she will not be able to fly properly. So she waits out the storm, only to look up and see hail starting to fall everywhere. The hail is as large as she is, but Scout luckily avoids being hit by the white pellets. At long last, she takes off and flies back to her hive. But more trouble awaits. There is a robber wasp trying to get inside the bee hive to steal honey and a battle quickly breaks out. What happens to Scout?
Did you know that bees could have so many natural enemies? How do they cope with all of these dangerous events? Have you ever watched honey bees in your back yard? Why do people use the phrase “busy as a bee?” To find out the answer to these questions, go to the library and check out “Flight of the Honey Bee” by Raymond Huber.
This is a very interesting book with excellent pictures of honey bees. You have to admire the diligence of Scout as she carries out her duties despite the dangers she continually encounters. Young children will enjoy seeing Scout hiding from the hailstorm, drinking nectar from flowers and battling with the wasp. The artwork about the bees’ many activities is quite interesting. I think adults will like the book as well and hope you get a chance to read this fine book. Enjoy!
