Mitch is not a big fan of bees, but he does love honey on his toast. That’s why I took him to the Saint Louis Zoo to learn all about bees!
Keep reading to discover why bees need our help, HOW you can help–it’s super easy–and video directions for a cute bee bookmark you can also use to label your Feed A Bee plants!
This post is sponsored by the great Bee Heros at Bayer and their Feed a Bee initiative.
Bayer, the new sponsor of the Saint Louis Zoo’s insectarium, invited us to visit the zoo and learn about their Feed A Bee program. They were letting kids check out a real beehive and pot a native plant to take home and help feed those bees!
It was great seeing all those kids walking around the zoo later with their plants. Mitch being Mitch, named his plant…
Meet Planty McPlantface!
Planty is now living on our back porch, but he had quite an adventure at the zoo! (Check out his awesome adventures here.)
Feed A Bee
Bees are losing habitat–and wild plants to feed on–if bees can’t find food to eat, they can’t help pollinate our crops. What would we do without apples, cherries and broccoli? OK, Mitch can totally live without broccoli, but you know what I mean!
By planting wildflowers in our communities, we can help Feed a Bee. That’s why Bayer started the #FeedaBee initiative. They’ve helped organizations all over America plant bee friendly habitats with pollinator garden grants in EVERY state!
Plant a Pollinator Garden
We learned that bees need lots of different healthy foods–just like kids. Of course “healthy foods” for bees are wildflowers and flowering shrubs!
If you want to help your local pollinators–both bees and butterflies–then plant native wildflowers. Here in Missouri that could be Purple coneflowers and asters, which look great in any backyard and garden.
You can learn more about planting Missouri native wildflowers at GrowNative!
Don’t want to turn your whole backyard into a prairie landscape? That’s ok! You can set up “snack stand” for bees and butterflies with a cute planter.
How to Avoid Bee Stings
Now you might be thinking you don’t want to plant bee friendly plants in your yard because bees could sting you or the kids. Bees are unlikely to sting UNLESS you threaten them. So the first thing to tell your kids is to NOT SWAT at bees!
If a bee lands on you, stay calm and do not move quickly; if it lingers beyond your limits of tolerance, brush it off gently with a piece of paper. You can further prevent bee stings by avoiding perfumes and other heavily-scented toiletries, brightly colored and patterned clothing, and going barefoot in or near the garden.
Missouri Botanical Garden
Make a Bee Bookmark or Plant Marker
To celebrate bees we made this cute little bee bookmark from fuzzy sticks and a popsicle stick. He can hold your place in a book, or you can write on the stick and use him as a plant marker for your garden.
