To accompany feature “Bee hotels are open for business”

SCIENCE

Before Reading: 

1.  How many species of bees do you think exist in the world?

2.  What sorts of threats do you think bees might face?

During Reading: 

1.    What are two differences between wild bees and honeybees?

2.    When did honeybees first arrive in what is now the United States and how did they get there?

3.    What is a bee hotel?

4.    What does a female bee leave behind after she visits a bee hotel?

5.    What are some good locations for a bee hotel?

6.    Why are diseases a risk for bee hotels? What can you do to prevent them?

7.    What are two types of unexpected guests that Scott MacIvor and Laurence Packer found at bee hotels around Toronto?

8.    Based on what you read, how might making bee hotels with holes that are too shallow harm bee populations?

9.    What can researchers learn from studying the leaves and pollen inside bee hotels?

10.   What are two major problems that wild bees face?

After Reading: 

1.  Why are bee hotels helpful to scientists?

2.  Imagine that you are creating a poster to raise awareness about wild bees. What slogan would you write?