Honey Bees My Pet and Me

Hello, welcome to My Pet And Me.

-I'm Rory.

-And I'm Ferne.

We've been hoping you would join us, because we are just catching up

with some much needed cuddles with little Biscuit here.

Yes, we are! She's so cute!

I know, I know.

Lots of animals make brilliant pets and we love meeting you and yours.

We definitely do.

So, what are your plans today, Rory?

I'm glad you asked, Ferne. I'm off to meet some new friends.

And you can come with me, too. Come on, let's go.

-Have fun!

-Bye!

-Say bye-bye! Bye!

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# Down every street

# Are pets to meet

# Some big, some small, some skinny

# Some furry, some keep very still

# Some are always in a hurry

# Some have four paws

# Some have sharp claws.

-# Some quack

-Some bark

-# Some purr

-Some moo

-# Some grunt

-Some squawk

# Some cock-a doodle-do!

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# Have you met my pet and me? #

Today I'm in Cornwall to meet two children and their honeybees.

I'm so excited. Come on, let's go and say hello.

-Hello, you must be Rosie.

-Hi, Rory.

-Which means you're Henry, right?

-Yes.

-And you must be Dad?

-Hello, Rory.

-Hello. Now, I've heard you guys keep honeybees.

-Is that true?

-Yeah.

-They're just down there.

So they are. Look at the hives!

They're like little wooden tower blocks, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-Now, you guys don't have one or two bees, do you?

-How many do you have?

-We have 15,000 in the summer.

Wow, that is a lot of bees.

-I know!

-Bees are social insects which live in nests and hives,

so why did you decide to get bees, Rosie?

-They're not really pets, are they?

-No. They are different from pets

because they don't live in your house,

and you don't want them too close to you.

Of course, yes. You should never approach a honeybee hive

without the right equipment because they can sting you,

so we're at the safe distance just now.

But what do you love about them, Henry?

Eating the honey out of the extractor.

Yes, honey, I can't wait to learn about that later.

Sounds delicious. Now, I can see a few of the bees

flying around the hives just now, and I think I can hear them as well.

What sound to bees make?

Buzz!

Buzz!

Yes, that's right, so how do they make that noise?

Well, their wings, because as they go so fast,

they, like, clap together.

That's right. As they flap their wings around,

they beat together and make the buzz.

-Buzz!

-Buzz!

-Ha-ha-ha!

Those are some very good impressions.

Ferne, can you tell us a bit more

about brilliant buzzing bees, please?

Of course, Rory.

One, there are three different kinds of bees that live in the UK,

bumblebees, honeybees and solitary bees.

Two, honeybees live in hives,

and each hive has one queen bee, who's the

largest in size and the only one who can lay eggs.

The hive also has lots of worker bees to collect all the food from

the flowers, as well as drone bees

who leave the hive to find a new queen bee.

Three, bees have very good eyesight, and they actually have five eyes.

Two eyes at the front of their heads and three smaller eyes on top.

While bees might not be like other pets,

they still need lots of care and attention to keep them happy,

healthy and making lots of honey.

So you should only approach bees if you've got the right equipment,

training and supervision. Then you can get a bit closer.

So, what do we need?

We need a smoker because it calms the bees down.

Yes, they might get a bit upset with us being nearby but the smoke's

there to keep them calm, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Why does the smoke keep them calm?

Because it makes them think that there's a fire nearby,

so they eat as much honey as they can

and it makes them full up, so they get sleepy and they

-can't fly away.

-Just like me after lunch!

-Yeah.

-I get a bit sleepy.

If you do that bit, smoke comes out of the end.

Great, well, I think we definitely want that.

-What else, then, Rosie?

-Tools.

Well, you can use both ends on this.

You twist the frames out at the side if they're stuck together,

and then you hook them up like that.

OK, the frames are inside the hive, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-Cool, well, we'll see those later.

-So, we've got this equipment. Do we need any food?

-Sometimes.

When do you need the food?

Only in winter, because there's lots of flowers

around now and there's not that many in winter,

so they need to have food taken to them.

-And what do you feed them?

-A thick syrup.

-So, it's nice and sweet?

-Yeah.

-And it's full of energy for them?

-Yeah.

-That sounds delicious.

But we don't need that today because it's not winter.

We've got lots of flowers around, so the bees to have something to eat.

-OK, so have we got everything, then?

-Don't forget the bee suits.

Of course, they're important. Let's go.

Ha-ha, check us out, guys!

You guys are looking super cool.

-How do I look?

-Awesome.

-Awesome.

-Thank you very much.

Let's do some beekeeping!

Rosie and Henry's dad is going to meet us up at the beehives.

-Right, Rosie, is your dad going to light the smoker now?

-Yeah.

Smoke will help keep the bees nice and calm so they don't panic.

-Wow!

-These are some of the bees in there.

So, Henry, what is the difference between the workers and the drones?

I don't think there's any drones on this one.

-Are these all workers?

-Yeah.

The thin ones are workers that go out of the hive.

-OK.

-And drones are big, fat, googly-eyed.

Ah, and which ones are boys and which ones are girls?

The drones are boys and the girls are the workers.

Cool. So, we've got lots of workers here.

Look what they're on, they're on the honeycomb here, aren't they?

-I don't know.

-It's a beautiful pattern, isn't it?

-Yeah.

And the bees have made this all themselves?

-Yeah.

-OK, Rosie, what are they up to?

They're eating. It's honey inside and they dip their head in,

-just like this one.

-Oh, yeah, look at it.

It's having a right good feed. Very, very smart honeybees.

-Shall we look further down?

-Yes, I'd love to look further down.

Now, let's look at some frames.

These are the frames? OK.

-Are you going to take one out, then?

-Yeah.

Show me what to do.

So, first of all, you get into the middle bit and you twist.

Then you get your thumb and finger, you lift it up.

As you can see here, there's loads and loads

of honey stores in here.

That looks amazing.

-Look at that.

-And if you want to hold it, like this...

-Uh-huh?

-..you can see how heavy it is.

-Oh, wow, it's really heavy.

Here. They're really clever,

they take the caps off and then they drink the honey.

Oh, wow! What are the caps made of?

-Wax.

-Brilliant.

You can eat the wax from the caps.

Check it out, and there's a bee having a right good drink of honey

-right now.

-Yeah.

-And it smells amazing.

Well, these frames are incredible. I think we should give them to your

-dad to take back to the house and see if we can get some honey.

-Yeah!

Bye, bees!

Oh, your bees are great, guys, but if they could do anything,

what do you think they'd do?

If my bees could do anything,

they'd all board an aeroplane and fly to Flower Land.

They would suck up the nectar from the flowers...

..and make pretty dresses out of the petals.

They would have a bee party and dance around in the air.

And make pretty pictures in the sky.

So, your dad's got all these frames from the hive.

-I think it's time to get the honey out, don't you?

-Yeah!

What do we need to do first, Rosie?

We need to take the frame out and get the caps off.

Oh, yes, the caps from today that you showed me.

-Yeah.

-So...

-You need to get your knife and just take them off.

-Very carefully.

-So you can see the honey.

-Right, how am I doing, Rosie, is this good?

-Really good.

-This is the first time I've done this.

-It looks delicious.

It's tempting to just get in there and eat all of it!

Well, we have to wait, don't we?

Bees make honey so they don't get hungry in the winter

when there aren't many flowers around, but they make lots extra

so there's plenty for us to take as well. Right, that's looking good,

-so what's next, Henry?

-The extractor.

-OK, what does that involve?

-Putting two frames in this part,

two frames in that part and you twist this one round.

-OK.

-And then the honey rolls into the bottom.

Delicious. Right, let's pop this in now, Henry.

-I'll turn this over.

-Oh, this looks like darker honey!

-It does, doesn't?

-Darker honey is because they use different plants.

That's right. The honey colour can change depending on what nectar

-they've been getting.

-Yeah.

-Right.

Ready?

Let's have a look. Slow it down.

OK, let's see how you've done.

Oh, wow! This one's empty.

That's great. So, now a very important job for you, Rosie.

We're going to lift this up and you're going to turn the honey gate

-open...

-Yeah.

-..and what's going to happen?

-Honey will come out.

Yes!

A bit slower, a bit slower.

-That's it. Look at that lovely runny honey.

-Wow!

So, what do you do when you've filled up lots of jars?

We sell them on the end of our road.

Oh, excellent. Right. That's full. Let's go and sell some honey.

Roll-up! Come and get your delicious honey!

Roll-up, today, fresh honey!

Fresh from our own bees!

-We've got some customers.

-Roll-up, roll-up.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-How many jars would you like?

-One, please.

-There you go.

-That's £1, please. Thank you.

-Bye!

-See you.

-How many jars would you like?

-Just one, please.

-Excellent.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much, see you later.

Bye, enjoy your honey.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

-Oh, excellent.

-Thank you, guys!

-Thank you very much.

Guys, look at this, look how much honey we sold!

-Wow!

-Great job. High fives! Yeah!

That is delicious. What a day I've had.

I've learned so much about honeybees.

They are absolutely amazing, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Thank you, Rory, for coming and helping with the bees.

Thank you both are having me and, as a special thank you to your bees,

I got them a present.

-Some flowers.

-Thanks, Rory!

-Thanks, Rory.

You're welcome.

-Hi, Ferne.

-Hi, Rory. You look like you've had a great day.

-What have you been up to?

-Oh, Ferne, I had an awesome time.

It was so much fun with my new friends.

Oh, fantastic. Well, I'm just giving Sunny a bit of a brush

-because he was a bit mucky from earlier.

-Oh, I can see that,

-and he looks spectacular.

-Thanks!

Pets are brilliant but, remember, you shouldn't touch an animal

unless the owner says it's OK.

But two pets you can definitely play with are ours.

Go on the CBeebies website and play the My Pet And Me game.

Thanks for joining us. We hope you had fun, too.

# Today we met

# A lovely pet

# We see how much you care for them

# Thank you so much for sharing them

# Time for us to

# Just remind you

# After you've played with your pet

# Wash your hands, don't forget!

# It doesn't matter what pet you've got

# You might have one, you might not

# It's still fun finding out

# What having a pet is all about

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# My pet, my pet and me

# Come back and see my pet and me. #

Bye!