Sunny

Posted on Nov 18, 2014 in Children's Fiction | 0 comments

Sunny is not the weather forecast nor is it the name of a fluffy little white Bunny.  In this case Sunny is a tiny wisp of a Honey Bee who flies among the flowers to gather nectar to make honey.  This Honey Bee named herself Sunny to set herself apart from the millions of other bees that shared the Hive and did the exact same work and were her twins as they all looked alike.

Her place in the Hive was somewhere in the middle because she was one of the many, many, ordinary bees who, just like her were simple, ordinary female Working Honey Bees.

She did not tend to the Legendary Queen, or her eggs. The male Drones did that work. In fact Sunny was so ordinary that she had never even seen the Queen, even though she had been given to understand that every Hive had to have one Queen in order to exist.

Sunny’s job was simply to go out every day in search of nectar to bring back to fill the empty honey comb cells as fast as they were created by others.

She wasn’t even one of the elder class, who made wax to build the millions of tiny water proof compartments that were built by those trained Worker Bees with more experience, who had been taught by their elders the secret of the Bee’s abdominal glands which produced chemicals to turn the nectar into wax for building these containers.

The Drone’s only took care of the Queen and fertilized some of her eggs, which grew into more Drones.  The rest would automatically grow into female Worker Bees like Sunny. But if any named themselves Betty, Barbie or Sally, she didn’t know which they were as they all looked the same.  Still Sunny knew she was Sunny and that was what mattered to her.

In this Bee house, called a Hive, the myriad of Workers coming and going were busy filling the cells with nectar where they became honey as they sat in the sealed cells, ready to feed those who remained in the hive through the winter.  Only the Queen was fed a special food called, Royal Jelly, which is said to make her grow very large and begin to lay eggs capable of being whatever type of Bees the Hive needed, Drones or Workers, even another Queen.

When a second Queen had been grown by feeding her Royal Jelly, she must leave the Hive with enough young Workers  and a few Drones in search of a suitable area to find their own nectar and create their own Hive.

When ordinary people see a large group of bees traveling together in a bunch instead of each going their own way gathering nectar, they call it a Swarm.  A Swarm of Bees is looking for some place to settle that pleases their Queen who is flying with them.

People often follow an interesting buzzing Swarm to see where they will choose to land. Thousands of Bees altogether is an amazing sight and sound.

But even as Sunny spoke to the new Queen with her suggestion, she was glad she was not a Queen.  Imagine never leaving the Hive and being pampered and fed.  She thought flying free over the lovely green landscape and finding beautiful sweet filled flowers was wonderful, but to never again see the wonderful, outside world after that one time was a sad result for such grand title as Queen.

Sunny was thankful to leave the Hive each morning at Sunrise to fly in the wide sky and look down on the flower covered Earth in search of nectar.  This was indeed a much better duty.  Sunny could easily fly 50 miles without a care. And with her excellent memory she knows every flower she has visited, so she will not waste her time going to empty ones.

Their honey was wonderful stuff.  She heard that one ounce of honey was enough to take a Bee around the whole world.  Even though she had no idea how far that was, only that the Sun much further than that.

And Sunny loved the Sun, which was so important to her because it made the flowers open up and bloom, so Bees could go deep inside to bring out the tasty juice the flowers made.  Taking the name, Sunny was a tribute to that marvelous, bright, out of reach Sun.

Each afternoon Sunny would stand just inside the small opening to their Hive and watch the older, more experienced, returning Bees, do a very interesting dance to create a bee size map to show all Worker Bees where they had found lots of flowers in a garden worth revisiting the next day.

The dances were fun to watch and Sunny soon learned that the dance maps were very useful.  Maybe someday she would try to dance one… but for now she only watched and memorized them.

Gathering was her job, her only job, but this single Bee, was made special by giving herself the name, Sunny and daring to aspire to wanting more in her short life.

What Sunny wanted was a friend.  Not a Bee friend, no, she had lots of those.  Sunny tried and tried to get close enough to one of those big people as she hoped to make a human person a friend.

She didn’t even want one of the gigantic adult ones.  She just wanted one of the smaller ones to notice her and let her stay close and learn about people things. She learned their language by listening and trying to speak their words.

But sadly every time she buzzed up close to one of those little big people, they would hear her buzz and suddenly go all silly and wave their hands fast in the air, making it all windy and hard to fly in, as they screamed and dashed away.

“What was that all about?  Yes she knew she had a stinger and if she poked it into one of them it would hurt a little bit and they didn’t like that.  But it was far worse for the Bee.  The human did not die, but the Bee always did.  The Bees all knew that the stinger was a one time deal and after it was gone, they would quickly die!

Well a friend is no good after you are dead, so we would only use it when we had to to defend the Hive from a bad animal attack, one who might harm our Colony.  But we would never waste it on a friend.   But there you are. That is the catch, we can’t get close enough to explain that to even one person.

On this day Sunny landed on a lemon tree blossom and stayed on the outside looking down at a cute small person who was sitting at a table, next to the walkway, by the side of the lemon orchard, with ice and sweetened lemonade in a large jug next to a smaller pouring pitcher and some paper drinking cups.

Sunny learned that her name was Beverly because her sign said so.  It was written in bright colors and said,  “BEVERLY’S LEMONADE 25 CENTS.”

But if her name was Beverly then, why did almost everyone who stopped to chat call her, Bunny?  Sunny hung around to learn about this girl.  So instead of getting the honey nectar from the lemon blossom she was sitting upon, she just sat and watched the little person, Beverly, called, Bunny.

Bunny smiled and said a bright “Hello” to everyone who came by.  But they were either not thirsty or didn’t have the 25 cents, whatever that was. Bees didn’t use money. They didn’t have pockets in their striped, velvet, jackets.

Sunny noticed that Bunny was friendly and never swatted a bug or an insect.  They were often flying around her from the lemon trees.  But she just waved them off if they got close to her ice cold lemonade jug.

“Bunny, your lemonade is ice cold and delicious.”  A big man said, after drinking it,

“Thank you Daddy.” Bunny answered with a smile.  She was so polite.  Wouldn’t it be fun if Sunny could be her friend?

A rather interesting spider came down from a tree on a long shiny web and just hung there in the soft breeze reading the  “Beverly’s Lemonade,” sign.  When Beverly saw him, she let him read it.  Then as he pulled back up into the tree, she smiled and began to sing a song about an “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”  The spider waved two of his legs to say, “Thank you,” and disappeared into the Lemon tree leaves.

A Spider is not an insect.  It is called an Arachnid.  They are a different species who are all born with 8 legs.  We insects only have 6 legs. But Bees are friends with all of the Earth’s creatures and have no enemies to fight, even though some run away in fear of that tiny stinger.  But it is their only weapon as they do not have teeth.

Sunny was afraid that if he flew down to land on young Beverly’s shoulder, so she could hear when she spoke close to her ear, the girl would certainly go screaming into the house.  Others about her size always had, so Sunny just sat on the lemon blossom wishing she knew the way to let Bunny know she was not going to use her stinger and die to meet her.

Her Mother came out to bring her some extra cups.  But the ones she had were still all in a row and the jug was still full of lemonade.

“Have you not sold any yet, Bunny?”  her Mother asked surprised.

“I sold one to Daddy and he liked it.”  She smiled a very sweet smile and brushed her long dark curls back from her pretty face,  “But I will, so don’t you worry Mommy.  I know we want to earn the money for a good cause, so I am not giving up. ”

“Well, maybe your brother Jake will bring some of his friends by for some Lemonade after his baseball game.  Anyway, other folks will soon see that you are here.  Don’t give up just yet.”  Mother went in taking the extra cups with her.

Beverly was pretty sure Jake’s friends didn’t all have a quarter, but she would give them a lower price if necessary.

Sunny sat there wondering how she could chase some people in Bunny’s direction so they would see her ice cold lemonade and buy some.  If only she could help Beverly the girl might become her friend.

She soon flew off without speaking to her, to gather enough lemon nectar to make her daily quota.  Lemon nectar was not as sour as it sounds.  It is as sweet as the lemon blossoms smell and nothing has a more delightful fragrance than new lemon blossoms.

Many of her Bee friends had visited that orchard so she noticed that these blossoms made a very pretty, bright yellow honey, also.

At the Hive, Sunny sat in her little ‘Bee Space’ of exactly 3/8 ths of an inch, as is the rule inside the Hive, so they won’t get too crowded. But she didn’t sleep, as her mind was trying to think of a way how she could help Bunny make more money with her lemonade.  Mother had made it sound important that she did… so it must be true.

For a few seconds Sunny wondered what it would be like to have a Mother who took care of you and loved you.  Of course everyone has to have a Mother.  The Queen was everyone’s Mother in the entire Hive, but she did nothing for her hundreds and hundreds of children.  That would be asking far too much of her, Sunny was sure.

That night she noticed that a large mound of bees had gathered by the door.  Over night it grew as Drones and Workers gathered in this tight crowded ball, no Bee Space in this spot, except where a new Queen had been carried to the exit where she attracted a large mound of very young workers.  Now they were preparing to surround this new Queen and create a new Hive in a new place, so they buzzed into a growing pile of eager bees… a Swarm.

That gave Sunny an idea on how to help Bunny attract customers.

She worked her way into the middle and spoke to the new Queen. Wow! She thought those Queens really are big.  She was almost as large as a big, black, beetle, maybe larger, but she still wore the same uniform all the rest of us wore: A velvet yellow and black striped coat, her shiny silver wings were larger too, because they needed to support that extra weight on her single flight to locate her own Hive.

For a moment Sunny was almost afraid to speak to her.  She certainly looked like she was Royalty!  But to help her new friend, Beverly, she got up the nerve and was surprised that the large Queen was very soft spoken and considerate.

When Sunny had explained the distance and the wonderful location to this Queen, who listened as Sunny explained.

“If you have not sent anyone out to select your new location yet, may I suggest a very nice one beside a very sweet smelling lemon orchard?”

“Do lemon blossoms give good looking honey juice?”

“The very best!”  Sunny told her.  “It is a very nice shade of yellow and has a flavor to die for!”

The Queen gasped.

“Oh no!”  Sunny said,  “ Not really die, that is just a saying, “to die for” people use to say it is… “Heavenly good.”

‘Sorry I didn’t know.”  The Queen admitted, So Sunny continued to try to convince her to the plan she had worked out.

“Tell all of your followers to fly behind me and, Do Not, I repeat, Do Not let them sting anyone! You will soon attract a crowd of big people. But that is okay they are just watchers and that is what we want.  Stinging even one would scare them all away.”

Stay in a tight ball and land where I say… then just buzz up a storm.”  The Queen gasped again . “Oh dear we can’t do anything in a storm”  She cried.

“That is just a saying people use that means… “get a lot of noisy attention!” Don’t worry about rain or anything it’s not a real storm.   You will immediately smell the heavenly Lemon Blossoms and know that this is where you will have good luck with a new Hive.

Since the lemons have two crops of blossoms a year, your Hive will make twice as much honey… lots of that special very yellow honey.”  So now the Queen agreed and Sunny was already prepared to lead.

If things went as she hoped, she would soon have Bunny’s stand making money and she might be able to make a friend… her first people friend.

The very excited Swarm of young bees with their Queen safely clinging deep in the center entered the air and followed Sunny Bee to the lemon orchard.  Sunny had chosen a tall Eucalyptus tree on the edge of the Lemon Orchard just a little way from  “Beverly’s  Lemonade Stand.”

High up, there was a heavy, three, forked, branch, Sunny circled it buzzing loudly until the Queen saw him and brought the Swarm to rest on the middle prong of it.

“Am I high enough to have the Workers build a safe Hive here?”. She asked Sunny .

Yes, you are just right, but don’t worry about the people who have followed your swarm. People love to see where the Bees settle, so they chase until you stay in a good place, then they will slowly head for home. The people are too far down to bother you, but hopefully they will soon see the Lemonade Stand and get thirsty, which is important to the young  girl who has that little business.

Little children followed the hum of the cloud of Bees, looking up at the buzzing swarm.  Big people followed at a distance to try to guess where the new Queen would stay.

Each telephone pole was circled by the swarm.  But nothing that would hold them all seemed suitable.

The high heavy three pronged branch where Sunny flew was just right, so they all landed there and began at once to do what Bees do to make it a home for the cell builders to work in and the Workers Bees to carry nectar to and the Queen’s assistants to make the cells for her eggs and the ones who produced the Royal Jelly she liked to dine upon.

All of those little jobs were happening high above, so there seemed to be nothing more for people to see as they stood about looking up.

The ice Cold Lemonade Sign reminded them that they had been rushing after the swarm and now they were thirsty.

Very soon Bunny had sold out all of her drink and had called Mother for some more.  Jake came running out with more of everything.  His game was over and his friends would be here soon.  Jake would see that there were enough cups and new lemonade drink for them all.

“My goodness!  How did all of these people get here so fast?”   Jake asked as he carried the heavy jug to the table.  Bunny refilled the pitcher as Jake dashed back for more paper cups.

“Did you notice the Bee Swarm.”   she said, pointing up for Jake to look at them..

“Oh my goodness!”  Aren’t you afraid to be here with all of those scary bees right over your head?”   Jake asked backing away from the large ball of bees still settling high in the tree.

“No.  They don’t bother me.”  Beverly said, “Besides they brought all of my new customers to me. So I like both the Bees and the people here.”

Sunny heard that and flew down to Bunny’s shoulder and just stayed there whispering in her tiny Bee voice.

“I brought them here for you, Bunny, because I wanted you to be my friend. My name is Sunny.  If the noisy swarm does not frighten you, then neither will I.  May we be friends?”

Beverly looked to the left where she heard the tiny voice, and sure enough a live Bee was there close to her ear.

Then Jake shouted out,

“Careful, Beverly!  There is Bee on your shoulder. Stand still and I will swat it off.”

Beverly backed up fast.  With table full of Lemonade and cups in front of her, Jake’s  swat missed and Beverly told him in a very stern but polite voice.

“No Jake! This is My Bee.  She won’t hurt me.  This one Bee is my friend.  Her name is Sunny.”

“Are you kidding me? “ Jake replied, “I have never heard of a Pet Bee before.”

So Beverly explained as she walked over so Jake could see Sunny up close.

“Don’t you remember how our Aunt Betsy always has a whole yard full of Pet Bees?  I only have this one. So I must be careful of her, as she is very tiny.”

“I was pretty little when Aunt Betsy showed them to you. I know you got to climb the ladder to see the Hive in the trees, I kind of remember watching you go up.  I wanted to but I was not allowed. I do know you have never been afraid of Bees since that day.”  Jake put a finger out to touch Sunny as she sat on Beverly’s shoulder.  Sunny stood still but was a little wary as Jake’s finger tickled her fuzzy coat.

Jake finally asked, “ If you find another Pet Bee may I have it?”

“You are standing there.  Ask her.”  Jake looked surprised,

You mean the Bee can talk?”

“She spoke to me and said her name was Sunny. And asked to be my friend and I thought it sounded nice. So I said yes.”  Jake was further away and Sunny had to shout, but he heard her explain.  “I will ask around and see if another Bee wants a friend.”

“Thank you. “  Jake answered far too loud.  Then Jake walked back to the kitchen to get some of his Mother’s Cookies to go with Beverly’s lemonade and watch for his friends to arrive.  Would he be able to explain a Pet Bee to his friends?  Most of his friends ran from bees.  This would be a first!  Maybe he would tell Beverly to tell her Pet Bee that he would wait a bit before getting a Pet Bee of his own.  He was very busy with Baseball right now.

Soon Bunny had served all of her new customers and her Mother said the lemonade was still coming. We have a whole orchard, full of lemons, but I need to buy some more sugar.

“I’ll send Jake to the store for more. He won’t be long on his bike.”.

Bunny asked Sunny “How can I tell you from all of the other Bees?”
Bunny held out her hand and Sunny flew down to it.  Beverly looked Sunny over.  She had the six legs of an insect and her large two eyes were fuzzy with hairs that protected them when she went deep into a flower to reach the nectar.

“Did you notice that I have three eyes on top of my head?” Beverly looked carefully,

“Yes now that you told me, but do all of the other Bees have five eyes too?”

“We are all the same.  I’m still working on finding an easy difference.”

“I can see you very plainly up close.”  Beverly told the Bee.   She looked her over, but she did look just exactly like all of the bees she had ever seen.   She was too small to wear a hat or even a ribbon.  “Hmm, What could she do to look more… If only she wasn’t yellow and black.”  So she asked,  “If I brought some red food color out here and put a little in a paper cup could you roll in it and turn your yellow to red or maybe orange?”

“I can try, but then I could not go back to my Hive.  We have guards who sit outside of the entrance and quickly kill off strangers who try to get into the Hive. I would instantly become a stranger.”

“Oh dear! Then that won’t do.  I must think of something else.”  Maybe when you get back tomorrow I will have a better idea.”

“I had better get going.  I have to make my nectar quota for today.  Good bye Bunny?  I was wondering if you wanted me to call you Bunny or Beverly?”

“Either is fine. Everyone calls me both.  I guess they are confused too.”

“So Bunny was happy with either.  Which is the easiest for me to say?  She practiced both for two minutes and was no closer to knowing what to say than before she asked.

Jake took off on his bike to the corner store for sugar and was back before his friends all arrived.

“Did you ask about a friend for me yet?”  He asked a bee standing on the lid to the jug.  Since he received no answer, he moved on to a different Bee, standing on the handle of the pitcher.

“Did you…?”

“Not yet Jake.  Ask me when I return tomorrow.”  The real Sunny Bee told her.

Before I go would you like me to tell you a short story about why we make Honey.

“Oh yes!”  Beverly and Jake said together.

“The legend goes like this”   Sunny cleared her throat and began.  The children strained to hear her soft Bee voice. … f

“THE LEGEND OF HONEY!”   Sunny announced loudly.

In the beginning God called the Earth’s creatures together to announce a Contest.

“I want you all to bring me something you have created from the Earth’s produce that you think is the most Perfect Food.  You must be able to recreate it yourself from what I have placed on this Planet for your consumption.   And it must be able to keep without spoiling for a very long time.  Return here next full moon to show me what you have made.

On the next full moon, the Black Bird was first in line.  He gently set a tiny loaf on the table flat stone to display it proudly.

“I call it bread.  I gathered seed from your wheat and pecked at them until they were flour.  Then I added water and pushed the dough into a lump, which I baked in the High noon sun until it was crisp and brown.  It will keep until the next season’s seeds are ripe and ready to let make me some more.”

“Can it sustain your new born?”  God wanted to know.

‘Once they can hold it with their beaks and get the crumbs off. Until then we must digest it for them and pass it from our stomachs to their mouths.”

God tasted the bread and pronounced it very good.

Then the monkey came forward.  He placed a tiny heap of round things on the rock and laid a wide round stick beside them, as he proudly announced

“I call them raisins!   I picked the juicy ripe grapes and set them in the hot sand for weeks, turning them often until they were completely dry.   I washed and dried them clean to remove the sand.  Just wait until you taste them.  They are delicious!” He bragged.

“And what is the stick?”  God asked,

“That is a bigger surprise.” The monkey told them.   “We squeezed some juice from the grapes into this hollow stick.  With a piece of bark to close the opening,  we let it sit in the dark until we could smell that it was ready.  Then we all took tiny sips. We call it Wine. It is very strong. So we recommend that each person sips only a little. But the babies must have some rain water mixed into it or they cannot walk well.  But they can eat the raisins.”  He added, cheerfully.

God tasted them both and liked that they kept for a longer time than anything else so far.

It was the Bee’s turn at last.  And the biggest Bee came up and put an odd little hunk of Bee’s wax on the rock .  So far nothing had beat the raisins and the wine.  The coconut was very good tasting when dried, but too hard for babies without teeth. And the cocoanut  milk did not keep once it was out of that heavy almost impossible shell.

The goat brought some great substance called cheese it was made from her own milk. However a green mold had ruined the piece she had with her, which she said did not hurt you to eat it. It was just that if left to grow, the mold changed the flavor and smell of the cheese.  So even with possibilities the cheese presented, the raisins were still the winner so far.  Then Cow entered a green grass salad, which became a yellow straw salad waiting it’s turn, so she withdrew it.

“What do you call that?”  God asked, as he watched the broken hunk of Honey Comb leaking and spreading on the table rock.  The broken cells may leak but they do not when left unbroken.  Anyone can eat the honey.  You will agree when you taste it.  If you put some in a dark stick like the wine, made from the grapes the honey can ferment into what we call, Mead. And is slightly flavored by what kind of flowers are used.  But the honey is full of all of the nutrients needed to sustain life. It is made from the juice deep inside of a flower called nectar.  We sip it out into a spare stomach and carry it back to the hive to be stored in the wax of our own making, we call Honey Comb Cells.   Honey can be used to sweeten any other food choice but it may be eaten right from the Comb.  Even the waxy comb is nutritious. And they cannot spoil… ever   However, Forever is a long time and time would tell.  Also the large Bee explained,  “If you are in the dark and want some light you can roll the wax around a wick and light the end in your fire, if you are able to find one and keep it going like humans can, The candle will give you light for hours.

God had no choice but to declare Honey the perfect food.  He gave the reward to the large Bee.  He declared her the Queen Bee and made her the ruler of the Hive.

When God asked why she was larger than the other Bees,  she said she had been eating a Jelly made from the nectar and it made her big.  So it was declared Royal Jelly!  And was thereafter, only fed to the Queen and future Queens… one to each Hive

Soon the whole kingdom of Earth was searching for that wonderful Perfect Food and the Bees were kept busy trying to produce enough to share.  The Black Bird liked it on her Bread and the Goat like some in her Cheese and man like it so much he tried to make it himself.  But even his best attempts, like boiling bamboo sticks or sweet potatoes or taking the sap from the trees,  man only made good sugars and syrups, but not that one Perfect Food such as the Bees could do.

So people began to help the Bees, to make their work easier, so they could make more honey, men built box Hives and took them to farms where there were many flowers in bloom.  All so the Bees did not need to fly so far or spend as much time making wax, because only the Bees could convert the flower nectar into what God had ordered.  A                     Perfect Food that did not spoil with time.

Man put the sweet stuff into almost everything, like hot water with some dried leaves or fruit pieces, made wonderful tea.  Honey was indeed the best and to think it was presented by one of the smallest of Earth’s creatures… an insect.  Then Sunny Bee took a  small Bee size bow, in honor of those first Bees, who had entered and won God’s Contest and made life sweeter for all on the planet.

“Goodbye until tomorrow, Sunny!”  Bunny called after Sunny as she flew off.  Beverly went back to getting ready for Jake’s Friends.

But re-telling the Legend, something had occurred to Sunny.  Maybe it was worth a try.  This would be Sunny’s last stay at her old Hive.

Sunny slept in her regular space then said goodbye to her Bee friends and left the old Hive before dawn.

At the new Hive with the one Queen she had actually met and talked to, she flew up to the sleeping mound of Bees high in the Eucalyptus tree and went to visit the new Queen.

“Good morning Queen Bee.  Did you rest well in your new Home?”

“Yes it is a fine location with a good view and the sweet fragrance from the lemon orchard is what you would call, ‘to die for’.”

“You learn fast Lady Queen.”  Sunny told her.

“Yes I do.  I have nothing else to do.”  The Queen admitted.

“Very good.”  Sunny began to tell her his new plan.  “When the girl who has the Lemonade Stand below you comes out.  I am going to ask her to paint my yellow stripes red with her food dye.  I will then be the only red and black Bee in the area.   It will be so because I am to be her Pet Bee and she needs me to look different from all of your other bees.  I would like to have the help of all of your new Worker Bees and Drones to recognize me as a friend and let me be their guide as they gather nectar in this lemon orchard.”

“We would like to have your help. Sunny.  You brought us here, so tell me what orders you want given to my group today.”

“Thank you Lady Queen.”  Sunny bowed politely. “Your first duty is to get a Hive made here for the honey.  I have found that it takes about a pound of fresh nectar to add to the abdomen spirits of the Bees to create wax.  They need to make that first as you have no real Hive until there are wax cells to hold the nectar and turn it into honey. So if you tell them all who I am I will send every fourth Bee to making the wax cells.  The other Bees may start to gather nectar to fill the cells as soon as they are made.  When the forked branches are built from one side to the other a wax coating may be washed over the outside of it all to create your enclosed Hive.”

“How long will that take?”  The Queen wanted to know. “I must also quickly have cells to incubate my eggs I need to build my Hive in size and replace those who have come to their end.”

“Yes and you can count to four just as I can.  Have every forth Bee begin creating your nursery as soon as the Hive is protected by a casing with an entrance for your Drones to guard.  It will take about two days with the number of Worker Bees you brought with you.”

“When next time you see me I will be red and black.  Tell your guards.”

The first few Bees made some Royal Jelly to feed their very important Queen and she soon had put her first eggs into the early cells around her.  The length of time they grew into fully mature bees was just days.  And shorter for the ones that were fertilized would become Drone males.  All of the rest would be female Worker Bees.  Worker Bees took a couple of days longer as.  They had to develop that second stomach or pouch to carry the nectar in until they were stuffed full and had to return to the Hive to deposit it.  The wax cell absorbed some of the water and the honey became the sticky very nutritious goo that lots of animals, but especially bears, who could climb the trees to reach in the hive for a claw full of wax and honey to enjoy at the bottom until each sticky paw was claw licking clean.

In fact the Honey Bee was the only insect on the Earth that produced a food for humans.  So they worked very hard to be successful at what they alone could do, which was to create a product that will not spoil and contained everything vital and necessary to sustain life, even water.

It took about 50,000 flowers  to make a pound of honey. At 50 to 100 flowers per day for one Bee, it takes many Bees to make that one pound.  That was why the Queen was so anxious to get started with her eggs.  Her first Workers would be climbing out of the cells and joining the force within the week.  If the Drones kept her warm and happy she would have the Hive Workers doubled in no time.

The added benefit was that the orchard would produce more lemons also as the Bees inadvertently carried the pollen from flower to flower which was what made the lemons and all fruits and vegstables grow.  In fact 80% of all fruits and vegetables were pollinated by the Bees.

Farmers begged Bee men and women to leave their Bee Box Hives in their areas and they both profited.

This natural Hive was in Beverly’s Father’s Orchard, so he would leave it in the tall tree.  Only the wooden boxes with the wood frames full of wax combs would be drained of the honey in a centrifuge and the small wooden boxes reused over and over again. These bees did not need to stop honey production to make a new comb as often as needed..

When Beverly came to her Lemonade stand next,  Sunny was waiting for her.  She told her to get the red food dye and a little brush to paint red on top of the yellow stripe she always wore before she became a Pet Bee.

It turned out to be very pretty. And Bunny was happy to have as her pet the only red and black Bee in town.  Sunny flew up to show herself to the Queen and the Guards so that she may return to that Hive come the night.   During the day her work was very light as she was directing the other Worker Bees as they returned.  Some were told to put their nectar in a little jar on the Lemonade stand table.  Others were still working on the overall Hive and the rest filled the wax cells as quickly as they were built.

This Hive was really humming so everything was happening in Bee fashion all at the same time.  In their short life span and the limited flower season Bees had no time to waste.

Sunny had Bunny draw a sign to read for , Sunny’s newest idea.

“Lemon Honey Sweetened, Lemonade 25 cents.” And when Mother brought out a second jug of ice filled with the juice of six lemons and water, Beverly put three Tablespoons of the pretty, yellow, Lemon Honey from the little jar into the new Jug and the Honey flavored Lemon Drink was ready to sell.

The Queen had produced so many new workers this week that the little jar was soon filled and the next jar was put in place.  When there was a row of six jars on the table, Bunny drew little labels with her marking pens that said

“Beverly’s pure Lemon Blossom Honey.”  $4.00.  The Bees kept filling and Mother bought more tiny jars so that Beverly’s business was bringing in regular customers for both her two lemonades and the little jars of Honey.

At the end of the summer, School was ready to begin again and Beverly would close the now popular Lemonade Stop.  Runners were sure that the honey sweetened lemonade gave them extra strength so bought her jars to made their own this winter.

It had been a lot of work, but with her Pet Bee, Sunny,  on her shoulder, Beverly had enjoyed it.  The Hive would limit the number of Bees for the winter time and the few Drones left would see her through the colder days, keeping the Hive at a comfortable 92 F. no matter how cold the outside temperature became.

The stored Honey would feed them until next Spring for their Queen would live for five years, but the Workers had worn themselves out and would not be replaced until it was almost time to begin the next season.

The Queen  would lay 2500 eggs a day when they were needed to breed new Worker Bees and a few new Drones.  A new Queen would not come from this Hive for a couple of years, yet

Beverly took her Red and black Bee into her house and gave him a tiny place to call his own in her doll house.  But sadly he told her he would not be there next year, but he could arrange for the Queen to produce another Sunny Bee next Spring for her to paint red.  That was left open until the time came.  Beverly may have too much school work if she chose to go to Summer school to get ready for college.

Sunny finally remembered to ask Beverly why she was working so hard to raise money.  He and the Bees had been working just as hard to make Honey because that was what they were born and bred to do, making them very unique.

Besides making food for themselves and humans they had no enemies in the insect world and with the 20,000 types of Bees that lived on the Planet, only four of the species produced that miracle food called Honey while Pollinating 80 % of the entire fruit and vegetable world while they were at it..

But what would Beverly’s money do?  Sunny still wondered.

Beverly explained that in their City they had a started a Hospital that took children with birth defects and debilitating diseases to help them grow up into happy useful citizens, with needed braces and artificial limbs when necessary.

Their teacher had told the children who were lucky enough to be healthy, that they could learn a lot by starting a simple business and see if they could make it bring in money that they could donate to that Hospital at the end of one summer.

Beverly told Sunny,

“Thanks to you Sunny, I have done much better than I ever imagined.  Next week when it is all over, we will send them the profits from my business.  And even more, I have learned a lot from all of your Busy Bees.  Thank you for bringing them to me.”

“Thank you, Beverly Nemeth for the use of your two names, Beverly and Bunny and your brother Jake’s too.  I know I had another good reason for me to gather more nectar for more honey along with more money to donate to  your Hospital.”

THE END OF THE SEASON