Emma Honey Bee and
Her Nectar Adventure

by E K Garrigan
(New York City)

Emma buzzed around the hive with her friends, Stacy and Amy. “The Queen Bee wants to see us,” she told them, jumping around the honeycomb.

Stacy and Amy stopped fanning their wings. “Really?” they asked.

Emma nodded. “I think she may send us out to find flowers for the hive. There has been a shortage of good flowers lately. She needs every bee available to find nectar.”

Stacy started flapping her wings again, drying the honey in the wall behind her. “But who is going to test the nectar and dry the honey? That’s our job.”

“The Queen just gave birth to a whole bunch of young worker bees. They’ll have to test the nectar and pack it up,” Emma said.

Emma started to fly towards the Queen’s chamber. “C’mon guys, let’s see what our next job is.” They flew the short distance to the Queen and joined their worker bee friends.

The Queen addressed them as a group. “It’s time for you ladies to go out and find nectar. We’re facing a nectar shortage this winter and we need every bee to work hard. Go out and report back when you bees find something.” She dismissed them with an imperious wave of her antennae. Emma and her friends buzzed out of the hive right away.

“We’ll have to split up,” Amy said. They all agreed and started the search.

Emma flew until her wings ached. She buzzed around orchards and flower beds, looking for the right nectar to make honey with. She had a scare when she almost flew into a spider web, but she ducked around it and got out of there are fast as she could. But she still found no flowers.

“This is so disappointing,” she said to herself, “who has taken down all the flowers?”

Finally, when she thought that she would just have to go back to the hive and see if anyone else found anything, she caught a glimpse of something in the sun. Looking closer, there were bright flowers off in the distance.

Emma danced in the air and flew towards the flowers. She peeked inside. There was plenty of nectar there to take. She lapped up the nectar with her tongue and stored the sample in her special honey stomach.

The taste of nectar was the best thing that Emma had ever had. It was sweet and energized her tired wings. Quick as she could, she flew back to the hive to share the discovery. There had to be a whole field of flowers to tell the hive about, she thought.

Emma was the last bee back to the hive. Stacy and Amy waited for her in the front.

“Did you find anything,” they asked, “because we found nothing. No one did!”

Amy sniffed. “All I found was a toad that tried to eat me.”

Emma gasped, “But you got away!”

Amy nodded. “Stacy came over and distracted the toad. But we didn’t find anything; the people had cleared the entire field! There was only grass.”

Emma smiled to herself. “I found flowers,” she said. She gave a sample of the nectar to one of the new worker bees hovering nearby. The bee tasted it thoughtfully.

“It’s good!” she said. “This will make excellent honey.”

“And there are tons of flowers,” Emma said, “enough for everyone.” Emma danced for the hive, showing all the rest of the bees where to find the flower fields. The Queen nodded from her chamber, pleased with the work Emma had done.

As soon as they could, all the worker bees headed out for the flowers that Emma found and filled up on nectar. Emma was right; there was enough nectar to last the hive for the winter and maybe longer.

All the worker bees brought back the nectar to the hive where the younger worker bees packed it up as honey and sealed it for storage with beeswax. The hive stored up tons of healthy honey for the rest of the season and had a happy winter, thanks to Emma.