Little bee Hanni is very proud: after busily building combs in the hive over the past few days and caring for the baby bees, she has now been promoted to forager. Finally! Now she is Hanni the honeybee. And she is very excited, because today she may leave the hive for the first time and go looking for colorful flowers. Hanni crawls forward with other nectar foragers … and a little later stands on the small platform in front of the hive and looks around. She stretches her wings into the sun and gets ready to take off. One of her colleagues is just returning from a flight. She lands next to Hanni and begins to dance. That way she shows all the other nectar foragers the route to the next food source. Now Hanni understands which direction she must go. "Hooray, it's finally starting," Hanni calls. It feels wonderful to glide through the air.
A little later she has already reached the beautiful garden her colleague told her about and heads toward a flowering bush. Hanni flies from blossom to blossom, takes up the sweet nectar and carefully packs the pollen onto her hind legs. On her first flight mission Hanni, of course, wants to do everything right. But … what is that? Suddenly she feels a sharp gust of air and sees a huge hand coming toward her. Hanni still tries to get to safety, but she can no longer fly away quickly enough. She is struck by the hand and thrown to the ground. Luckily the grass is soft and cushions Hanni's fall. "Oh, oh, I'm so dizzy," groans Hanni and tries to get her bearings. But she has little time to catch her breath, because she has landed right next to a large shoe in the grass. As fast as she can she picks herself up and crawls away. "Just get away from here!" murmurs Hanni and hides in the shadow of a large clay pot to recover a little from the shock. "Those must be the human monsters the other forager bees warned me about," says Hanni, casting a cautious glance in the direction of the big foot. Fortunately it moves away — in the other direction!
Hanni is still a little afraid. She would most like to fly back to the hive! But then she takes a deep breath and gathers all her bee courage. She tests her four wings and checks her six legs — nothing is broken. Lucky again! Before the person with the big feet comes back, Hanni quickly flies off. At first she is still a bit confused and doesn't quite know which direction to search for new flowers. But then she smells a delicate floral scent and follows it until she finds a beautiful wildflower bed. "Oh, how lovely," Hanni delights. "There are even bigger and more beautiful flowers here than in the other garden. And they are brimming with nectar!" She begins to collect even more diligently than before — after all, she has already lost quite a lot of time. Surely the other foragers are already waiting for her! "Phew, now I've collected enough pollen," Hanni murmurs. "Now I must first go back to the hive and deliver it." Once there, she shows her colleagues which direction they must fly to reach the garden with the beautiful flowers. And she also warns the others right away about the nasty person with the big shoes and hands! When Hanni the honeybee, after a short breather, returns to the wildflower bed herself, she notices two large shadows. "Oh, oh, not again," Hanni cries out loudly and pulls in her wings. She braces herself to be knocked to the ground again. But when nothing happens after a few seconds, she looks more closely and cautiously. Hanni is surprised: the two people are busy watering the flowers and pulling weeds, but neither of them tries to shoo her away. "So there are nice people who like us bees after all," Hanni murmurs with relief and gets to work. Diligently she flies from blossom to blossom and collects pollen — as befits a hardworking honeybee.
Learn more about bees & nature
Anyone who wants to learn more about bees and is interested in tips on which flowers and plants bees particularly like should read our article Interesting facts about bees.
For everyone who would like to help bees gather honey, we have the game "Hanni Honeybee" in our assortment.
Children learn most about nature when they experience their environment with all their senses. This can be done, for example, with small projects in the garden. Children can help with gardening and learn a lot about plants and insects. And when it's not so nice outside, they're sure to enjoy playing with the cute board game "My First Games – First Orchard".
