Honeybees in your daily routine!

If I were to ask you how you thought honeybees affected your daily activities, what would you say? Maybe you haven't thought of it much before, but honeybees have an effect on most everything you do throughout out the day! Let's find out more by taking a peek into the life of a typical elementary school student.

7:30 AM- Wake up in a bed covered in cotton sheets. Honeybees pollinate our cotton crop every year. In some states, you can find cotton honey on the store shelves!

7:40 AM- Shower and use lotion made with beeswax, a product of the hive that helps seal in moisture.

Cotton is honeybee pollinated!

8:00 AM- Get dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, both of which are made of cotton that is pollinated by honeybees.

8:20 AM- Breakfast: Blueberry pancakes and a glass of orange juice. Honeybees pollinate both blueberry bushes and orange trees. Without honeybees, we would not have these fruits.

8:40 AM- Brush your teeth and use beeswax-coated dental floss.

8:45 AM- Catch the bus to school.

9:00 AM- First class is American History. Many of the crops that were very important to our Founding Fathers were dependent on honeybee pollination. Read more about early American farming here. Do you remember the story about George Washington and the cherry tree?

10:30 AM- Snack time: Apples with peanut butter honey dip. You can tell if an apple has been fully pollinated by slicing it in half to look at the "star" inside. If you count 10 seeds, a honeybee has pollinated your apple completely.

11:00 AM- Art class. Many crayons contain beeswax.

12:00 PM- Lunch: Pizza, fresh fruit, and chocolate milk. Honeybees pollinate a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, but they also pollinate clover and alfalfa. These crops are used as feed for cattle. Cows eat clover and alfalfa and they are able to produce milk, which an also be made into cheese for your pizza.

12:30 PM- Scrape your knee at recess. The nurse might give you a cotton bandage coated with honey, a natural antibacterial and antibiotic substance!

1:00 PM- Spelling "bee" in English class.

2:00 PM- Learn about insect metamorphosis in Science class. Honeybees are complete insects that go through all stages of development.

3:00 PM- Break the rules and chew a gumball. Many candies are made with a coating of beeswax.

4:00 PM- Get on the bus to go home. Do your homework worksheeet. Paper is a product from trees. Did you know that trees have flowers, too? Some trees are pollinated by honeybees, ensuring that seeds will form and new trees will grow!

5:30 PM- Dinner: Spaghetti with meatballs, Parmesan cheese, garlic toast, and a glass of apple juice. Honeybees pollinate the vegetables in your spaghetti sauce, the feed for cattle that produce the milk needed to make the Parmesan cheese and the butter on the garlic toast, and also the apples needed to make your apple juice.

The average person is affected by honeybees at nearly every stage of the day! Tomorrow, take some time to think about all of the ways that honeybees change your life for the better and remember the hard work they do!