I discovered with this one that different types of bees carry pollen differently, there are two main ways. One important thing to remember is that in spite of what you may see in movies, most of the pollen collecting bees are girls and any pollen that is spread is by accident – the bees would much rather take it home to eat.

Pollen

Pollen is a plant protein, it’s a bit like the meat or milk we eat. So bees use lots of it to feed their babies (larva). Bee larvae are like our babies – they are growing very quickly, so they need lots of protein to help them.

There are two main ways of carrying pollen. One is fairly simple and involves long branched hairs on the bees’ legs or tummies. It makes something a bit like velcro, and when the bee rubs over the pollen it gets caught in the hairs and the bee can carry it back to its hive.

Many bees have curly hairs on their legs or tummy that the pollen is tangled in. Photo by Alexander Klink.

Other bees including honey bees and bumblebees have something called ‘pollen baskets’ on their legs. This is a large flat space or hollow on their hind legs surrounded by hairs to make the ‘basket.’ The inside of their legs have lots of hairs that make brushes or combs. After they have climbed around a flower and have lots of pollen stuck to them they run the combs over themselves to pick up the pollen. Then they mix it all together with a bit of nectar to make it sticky and pack it into the pollen basket.

The big yellow blob on the back leg is pollen in the pollen basket. Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim.

Nectar and Honey

The other thing bees collect is nectar, which is sugary water with other things in. Flowers make it to attract bees so they will visit and spread pollen around. Nectar is their other food because it gives them energy. They use it to make honey that they can eat over the winter when there are no flowers around.

When a bee is drinking nectar it goes into a special stomach called the honey sac or honey stomach. When she goes back to the hive she gives the nectar to another bee who keeps it in her mouth. There are things in her mouth called enzymes that start breaking it down, just like your saliva breaks down food like yoghurt in your mouth. Then they spread it out into the honeycombs and fan it with their wings to make it dry out. Once lots of the water is gone and it’s thick, it is honey.

Honey in cells of the comb. Photo by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

The answers to Friday’s quiz.

1. The Milankovitch cycles are a series of regular changes in the way the earth revolves and orbits the sun that have a measurable impact on climate. This is because they change the amount of sun the earth receives and where it is most direct.

2. Titanium dioxide is used in most paints as a bright white pigment.

3. The only domesticated insect is the silkworm. It is actually a moth, the caterpillars spin their cocoons out of silk threads. They were domesticated in China thousands of years ago.

4. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The original lasers were actually masers using microwaves, but visible light and microwaves are part of the same spectrum. Lasers produce beams that stay straight, rather than spreading out to form a cone. This makes them very good at projecting energy over a distance.

5. The photo is from an electron microscope and shows part of a fruit fly’s compound eye. Each of those bubbles is a tiny lens, the fly’s brain puts them together like pixels to create an image.

I hope you enjoyed the quiz, play along next week!

I’m taking a break from lists. Sort of. After almost 100 lists and a free book I think it’s time for something new so I’m going to start handing over to you with some quirky quizzes. They are aimed just a little bit above toddler level, unless you happen to have the same interests as me you’ll probably need Dr Google to help with them. I’ll add answers later, feel free to fight it out in the comments!

1. What are the Milankovitch cycles?
2. What chemical is used to make bright white paint?
3. What is the only domesticated insect?
4. What does laser stand for?
5. What is the picture above? (Image credit to Olaboy)

of the dinosaur survey is Catherine Butcher. I will be in contact to find out which t-shirt you would like

Thankyou to everyone who completed the survey, the results are very useful and hopefully the dinosaur book will be out soon.

This post is part of the Science@home Teach/Learn carnival, May’s theme was Outside so I’ve got quite a list of things to do there. It’s freezing cold but sunny here, so we’re trying to rug up and do lots of outdoors play. Here are some ideas.

1. Make crystals, it’s beautiful weather for evaporating.
2. As a change from painting, try dying or reverse dying.
3. Get into the sandpit and make a volcano.
4. Make a Water wall.
   
5. Or how about this Fizzing Sidewalk paint from Quirky Momma?
6. While you’re in the sandpit you can build some landscapes.
   
7. And then it’s just fun to run around or fly kites.
   
8. If you want to go even faster, go for a ride on your bike.
   
9. If you have a pool or even a tub of water you can play with balls.
10. And if your weather isn’t as dry as it is here how about playing in the rain.
11. Maybe go for a walk and take along your field journal.
12. Or if there’s nothing growing near you, you can sprout your own peas.
13. And after all that, you can even Clean up.

Have fun getting outside today! Have a look at Childhood 101′s We Play linkup for more play ideas.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

Some things are fixed, but there are lots of things little kids can do to change shapes as well.

1. Squeeze – playdough, water balloons, cornflour goo, sponges full of water ( or a fun painting project!)
2. Fold – paper for aeroplanes or origami, material for beds and clothes
3. Cut or tear - paper, ribbon, playdough with nice cutters, hole punches, biscuit dough
4. Stretch – elastic, balloons, clothes, chewing gum, blutac
5. Twist – ribbons and ties, coloured doughs, doll/robot arms and legs, plaiting hair
6. Bend – spoons, people, branches, dough, pipecleaners
7. Squash – balls, balloons, dough, soft toys, sponges, pom poms,
8. Fill – balloons, hot water bottles, bags, using air, water, rice, sand
9. Wrap – babies, presents, caterpillar cocoons, dragon eggs, food, treasures using paper, material, quilts, plastic
10. Scrunch – paper, ribbon, plastic, rubbish
11. Tie – hair, shoelaces, belts, bag straps, buckles, streamers
12. Glue – wood, paper, beads, glitter, cork, macaroni, rice, material
13. Thread – beads, shoelaces, twigs, leaves, grass, flowers,

I’ve been avoiding this post because it means making a decision.

The first random draw is nice and easy, congratulations to Sabrina who I will be contacting to check what her little girl is made of.

After that it gets tricky.  The last time I did a competition that wasn’t random I changed the rules, made it random, and vowed never to do it again.  Because it’s just so hard to choose.  I shortlisted to eight and roped my husband in and we still couldn’t choose.  So I’m taking the easy out and giving two.

Congratulations to Sophie for working out a way to include the periodic table, that instantly recognisable bit of scientificalness, and Phoebe because we’re teachers, and like the idea of including kids in a highly intelligent group.

Thankyou to everyone who entered and said nice things about the designs, there are more coming as I get time to work on them.

Hello once again to people from the Great Cloth Nappy Hunt – it’s about so much more than nappies   This one is open to people in Australia, New Zealand and I think Oceania, there is another for North Americans.  It is an online scavenger hunt run by the Australian Nappy Network hence the name, but there are all sorts of stores involved including information (that’s me ), skincare, clothes, toys, chocolates – you name it, anything you can buy online.

About Science@home:

Science@home is my site about science for babies, toddlers and little kids.  I have 4 posts a week with activities, information, lists and photos all about the science you can and already do at home.  Some of my favourite examples are Kid Questions: Why do we have noses? and my series of geeky Christmas presents in 2010, including Beautiful Bottles.  My kids’ favourites tend to involve the sandpit like Building Landscapes, or Running Around.

I have a free ebook for you to download called ‘Young Scientists‘ that can get you started, and I’m working on some new things to come out in the next few months.  To stay up to date and get all my posts, sign up for my RSS feed or weekly email newsletter or Like me on Facebook or Twitter.

Products:

I have just launched my first product in time for the hunt, geeky science t-shirts, and in the first week I am running two competitions for free t-shirts.  It’s all explained in that post.

I try to make some money through advertising for other WAHMs or businesses, all the information is there if you are interested or contact me.  Plus I am available for free-lance writing and consulting on science and education.

Get to the important stuff!

Now you’ve read the obligatory ‘about me’ and have promised to come back and browse , have a look over on your right and you will see your first clue.  There aren’t any hints until the 5th, but after that ask away in the Hint Thread.  And of course, feel free to chat there or here any time.

Enjoy the hunt!

Squee!  I’ve been invited to submit something for possible inclusion in an Australian science writing anthology.

So what’s a blogger to do but ask her readers for their favourites?

Do you have a favourite post that you think will get me in?  Please let me know in the comments today or tomorrow because I have to be quick, don’t worry about links just give me a vague idea and I’ll find it!

Edit: I’ve been asked to put together a shortlist, I’ve made it into a poll to make it nice and easy for you, you can vote for 3 different posts.  And of course you can add your favourites if they aren’t here.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Today is the next step in my plans for world domination teaching the next generation to love and understand science.  It was quite unexpected and is thanks to my lovely readers, so I wanted to share it with you.  You see thanks to you guys who have encouraged me that there is someone out there interested I met someone on Twitter, who introduced me to some people on Facebook, and someone recommended me to someone else, who checked out Science@home and offered me some free-lance writing.

Yes, actual honest-to-some-deity paid for writing about science and ways to teach it to kids, my first piece is published today so I’m having a little celebration.

It’s always been part of my plan to turn Science@home into a business but I was looking further into the future when the little girl starts school.  However I’m certainly not going to turn it down now it has arrived unlooked for, there will be some rejigging of plans and ideas.

I am now officially available for free-lance work on science and education, writing or curriculum development