Spring awakening: blossoms and bees
Photo credits: Isabel Sheppard, Y8
After a hard winter, spring is finally here: trees are opening their buds, birds are nesting, and hibernating animals, such as hedgehogs, are waking up for the first time this year. So, how does nature live and adapt when the days start getting longer?
Let’s start with plants. You may already know that plants photosynthesise; this is an essential process which takes place in the plants’ leaves, absorbing carbon dioxide and water from their surroundings and taking energy from sunlight to turn them into oxygen and glucose, their main energy source. In winter, most plants slow down, or stop photosynthesising completely, due to lack of the right growing conditions, meaning that most plants stop growing. However, when spring arrives, the growing conditions that plants need return when the days get longer: sunlight; warmth, which is also provided by the sun; and April showers that won’t result in freezing water. The return of these conditions prompts plants to grow and continue their photosynthesis in full force. Deciduous trees, which shed their leaves the previous autumn, will now develop buds where the old leaves once sat and new leaves will grow. Flowers prepare to reproduce when the favourable conditions of spring return; proteins in the flower prompt it to bloom, revealing vibrant colours which attract insects, such as bees, to pollinate. The bee will land on the flower to collect its nectar - a treat the plant has made specifically to lure bees. During the process, pollen will stick to the bee’s coat, and when the bee visits another flower, the pollen drops off, giving the flower everything it needs to reproduce.
Bees have their own important processes in spring, and it varies between different species. Honey bees, for example, have spent the Winter in their hive, huddling together and living off the honey they made throughout the previous year. The population of the hive slowly reduces to about 10,000, as the queen bee doesn’t lay eggs in the winter and honey bee workers only live for six to eight weeks. However, when spring comes, the hive is back in business. The queen bee starts laying eggs again, which turn into new worker bees that will forage for nectar, travelling vast distances if necessary. Inside the hive, the nectar turns into honey which builds a supply so that the hive can get through the next winter. Bumblebees are slightly different to honey bees. The bumblebee hive dies out every winter, so by spring there will only be a queen bee left, who mated the previous year with a single male bumblebee, but she has enough sperm to lay eggs throughout the spring and summer. When the queen bee awakes from her winter hibernation, she scouts for a suitable nest site, such as underground cavities like abandoned mouse nests. Then, once she's found somewhere, she makes a wax structure and lays her first eggs inside it. The queen bee will be the sole carer for these larvae, feeding them until they spin a cocoon and transform into adult bees; these adult bees become the ones to supply food to the next generation that the queen produces. There are many different species of bee but only a handful are honey bees or bumblebees. The vast majority are solitary bees, which can vary greatly in size, shape, colour and behaviour. Many solitary bees, as the name suggests, will nest alone in a small cavity in spring, and lay their eggs in that cavity, along with enough food to sustain the bee until it turns into an adult.
It is a huge concern that bees are in serious decline. Bees are being killed off by pesticides, habitat loss and many other factors too. To help save bees, it is important to plant a range of flowers in your garden that will bloom at different times of the year. This will help the bees as wildflower meadows are being lost throughout the UK, so bees are becoming increasingly reliant on garden flowers.
Alfie Lovett, Year 10
Part Two, all about birds and mammals in Spring, will be out in the next issue
Let’s start with plants. You may already know that plants photosynthesise; this is an essential process which takes place in the plants’ leaves, absorbing carbon dioxide and water from their surroundings and taking energy from sunlight to turn them into oxygen and glucose, their main energy source. In winter, most plants slow down, or stop photosynthesising completely, due to lack of the right growing conditions, meaning that most plants stop growing. However, when spring arrives, the growing conditions that plants need return when the days get longer: sunlight; warmth, which is also provided by the sun; and April showers that won’t result in freezing water. The return of these conditions prompts plants to grow and continue their photosynthesis in full force. Deciduous trees, which shed their leaves the previous autumn, will now develop buds where the old leaves once sat and new leaves will grow. Flowers prepare to reproduce when the favourable conditions of spring return; proteins in the flower prompt it to bloom, revealing vibrant colours which attract insects, such as bees, to pollinate. The bee will land on the flower to collect its nectar - a treat the plant has made specifically to lure bees. During the process, pollen will stick to the bee’s coat, and when the bee visits another flower, the pollen drops off, giving the flower everything it needs to reproduce.
Bees have their own important processes in spring, and it varies between different species. Honey bees, for example, have spent the Winter in their hive, huddling together and living off the honey they made throughout the previous year. The population of the hive slowly reduces to about 10,000, as the queen bee doesn’t lay eggs in the winter and honey bee workers only live for six to eight weeks. However, when spring comes, the hive is back in business. The queen bee starts laying eggs again, which turn into new worker bees that will forage for nectar, travelling vast distances if necessary. Inside the hive, the nectar turns into honey which builds a supply so that the hive can get through the next winter. Bumblebees are slightly different to honey bees. The bumblebee hive dies out every winter, so by spring there will only be a queen bee left, who mated the previous year with a single male bumblebee, but she has enough sperm to lay eggs throughout the spring and summer. When the queen bee awakes from her winter hibernation, she scouts for a suitable nest site, such as underground cavities like abandoned mouse nests. Then, once she's found somewhere, she makes a wax structure and lays her first eggs inside it. The queen bee will be the sole carer for these larvae, feeding them until they spin a cocoon and transform into adult bees; these adult bees become the ones to supply food to the next generation that the queen produces. There are many different species of bee but only a handful are honey bees or bumblebees. The vast majority are solitary bees, which can vary greatly in size, shape, colour and behaviour. Many solitary bees, as the name suggests, will nest alone in a small cavity in spring, and lay their eggs in that cavity, along with enough food to sustain the bee until it turns into an adult.
It is a huge concern that bees are in serious decline. Bees are being killed off by pesticides, habitat loss and many other factors too. To help save bees, it is important to plant a range of flowers in your garden that will bloom at different times of the year. This will help the bees as wildflower meadows are being lost throughout the UK, so bees are becoming increasingly reliant on garden flowers.
Alfie Lovett, Year 10
Part Two, all about birds and mammals in Spring, will be out in the next issue
