It’s a Bee’s Life
Characters: Nellie Girl, Henrietta Honeybee, Earth Fairy, Nellie Bee, Queen Bee, Nellie’s Mom
Nellie Hi there, Henrietta Honeybee. You sure are busy. You’ve been to every flower in this patch.
Henrietta Honeybee Yes, I don’t want to miss a single drop.
Nellie You must be collecting honey!
Honeybee Honey? Oh no, there’s no honey in these flowers.
Nellie You mean they’re empty?
Honeybee No. I mean flowers don’t make honey. We bees make honey, in the hive. We make it with nectar.
Nellie Nectar? What’s that?
Honeybee It’s a sweet liquid that flowers make. We drink it up until our honey stomachs are full.
Nellie Mmm. That sounds yummy. But why do flowers make nectar?
Honeybee So we’ll visit them, of course. Flowers need us bees – we’re pollinators.
Nellie Pollinators? What does that mean?
Honeybee Well, most flowers need pollen from another flower to make seeds. We bees carry pollen from flower to flower. Just look at the hairs on my body.
Nellie There’s yellow pollen in your fur!
Honeybee That’s right. We pick it up here and drop it off there.
Nellie Oh my, Henrietta, you’d better visit another flower soon. You’ve got big lumps of pollen stuck on your back legs!
Honeybee Those are my pollen baskets. You see, we bees need pollen too. We use nectar and pollen to make bee bread.
Nellie Yum! I wish I were a honeybee. I’d eat bee bread with honey all day long!
Honeybee Beee careful what you wish for, Nellie. Good bye. (exits)
Nellie See you later, Pollinator! (Earth Fairy enters) My, who are you?
Earth Fairy I am the Earth Fairy, here to grant your wish. I will grant you three wishes, so choose carefully.
Nellie Wow, really? I know my first wish!
Earth Fairy Then turn once around and say “Hilloway, holloway, willowy wee,” and make your wish.
Nellie Okay. (turning around) Hilloway, holloway, willowy wee, I wish I were a honeybee! (exits; enter Nellie Bee). Oh, look at me! I’m a bee. I can buzzzzz, and fly, (flies around) and eat honey all day long!
Earth Fairy Perhaps. But remember, you have only two more wishes. You must find Queen Beeatrix for she is in charge of the hive. Farewell, Nellie Bee! (exits)
Nellie Bee Bye and thanks! (queen enters) There’s a bee that’s much bigger than me. Hello, I’m new here. Are you the Queen?
Queen Bee Yes, dearie. I’m your mother, Queen Beeatrix. I’m the mother of all the bees in our hive. It’s hard to remember all my children’s names. Is it Nicki, Nancy?
Nellie Bee It’s Nellie, and I’m ready to make honey, so I can eat it!
Queen Bee Yes, dearie, but you’re not old enough to make honey. As a young worker bee, your first job is cleaning out the cells.
Nellie Bee I’m a worker bee? Are all of my sisters and brothers worker bees too?
Queen Bee All your sisters are worker bees, but all the boy bees are drones.
Nellie Bee What do the drones do?
Queen Bee They mate with the queens, but they’re not much help around the hive. They have trouble feeding themselves, so they hang around a lot, begging for food.
Nellie Bee So girl bees do all the work in the hive, and we feed the drones, too?
Queen bee That’s right. Now, you run along, and I’ll get back to my work. Laying 2000 eggs a day takes quite a while. Now where was I? 945? or was it 946? (exits)
Nellie Bee I might have known there’d be chores…(Henrietta enters) Oh hi, Henrietta.
Honeybee Why, Nellie. You’re a bee now!
Nellie Bee Yes, but I have to work, and I’m not old enough to make honey!
Henrietta Yes, we start with housekeeping duties – cleaning the cells, feeding and caring for the queen and the larvae.
Nellie Bee And then we get to make honey?
Honeybee No, then you’ll be a construction worker, building new comb inside the hive.
Nellie Bee Construction work too? But after that, I’ll get to make honey, right?
Honeybee Yes! And you’ll pack it into cells and cap them with wax. The honey has to age, you know.
Nellie Bee I didn’t know!
Honeybee And you’ll have four days of guard duty by the hive entrance, and then you’ll be a field bee like me, foraging for food outside the hive.
Nellie Bee Cleaning, feeding, building, and foraging? I’ll be so hungry I’ll eat up all the honey!
Honeybee But you’ll have to share the honey with all the other bees in the hive.
Nellie Bee Really? That won’t leave much for me. There must be thousands of us!
Honeybee Yes, around 40,000. We’re a big family! Everyone shares the work and the food. It’s time we both got working! (exits)
Nellie Bee Gosh, I don’t want to be a bee with all that work and not much honey! I want to be me! I’d better wish myself back. Let’s see, turn once around and say the magic words, hilloway, holloway, willowy wee, Oh, Earth Fairy I wish to be me! (exits)
Nellie No wings, no antennae, no buzz. I’m me again! Phew! I’m glad to be back, but I still wish I could eat some honey. Well, I better go home. (walks) Mom, I’m home!
Mom (enters) Good! I just made you a snack. Have some bread and honey.
Nellie Bread and honey? That’s just what I wanted! It’s like magic! Thanks, Mom!
THE END
Nearby Nature 