WEBVTT 00:00:03.235 --> 00:00:07.838 🎵 [music] 🎵 00:00:11.871 --> 00:00:14.768 KIDS: Our World! 00:00:14.770 --> 00:00:17.616 EVAN: Hey Globey, have you ever wondered how flowers are 00:00:17.618 --> 00:00:22.321 pollinated? What’s pollination? 00:00:23.758 --> 00:00:27.626 Pollination is the process of moving pollen. All flowers 00:00:27.628 --> 00:00:31.096 and about 75% of plants need to be fertilized in order to 00:00:31.098 --> 00:00:34.700 reproduce or create more flowers and plants. Insects and 00:00:34.701 --> 00:00:38.003 birds carry the pollen on their legs from one flower to another 00:00:38.005 --> 00:00:40.873 flower. As the pollen drops into the flower, 00:00:40.875 --> 00:00:44.510 fertilization occurs, and the plant forms a new seed. 00:00:44.511 --> 00:00:47.780 So insects such as honeybees, and other animals like bats and 00:00:47.781 --> 00:00:51.450 birds, play important roles in our ecosystem as pollinators. 00:00:51.451 --> 00:00:54.553 In this show we’re going to concentrate on honeybees. 00:00:54.555 --> 00:00:58.758 Honeybees are part group of arthropods called insects. 00:00:58.760 --> 00:01:02.461 All insects have six legs, one pair of antennae, 00:01:02.463 --> 00:01:05.298 three body sections, and wings. 00:01:05.300 --> 00:01:09.135 Honeybees actually have 2 pairs of wings and five eyes. 00:01:09.136 --> 00:01:12.571 The honeybee can fly about 32 kilometers per hour which is 00:01:12.573 --> 00:01:15.008 the same as about 20 miles per hour. 00:01:15.010 --> 00:01:17.710 Did you know that honeybees have been on Earth for about 00:01:17.711 --> 00:01:22.215 30 million years? A bee’s habitat is very large. 00:01:22.216 --> 00:01:24.983 It includes the place where the bee lives and the fields and 00:01:24.985 --> 00:01:27.520 forests where the bee searches for flowers. 00:01:27.521 --> 00:01:30.156 Honeybees live in beehives that can hold as many as 00:01:30.158 --> 00:01:34.760 50 to 70 thousand bees. If these bees were people, 00:01:34.761 --> 00:01:37.263 that would fill up an entire football stadium. 00:01:37.265 --> 00:01:39.465 RICHARD ANTCLIFF: Bees are actually very important to 00:01:39.466 --> 00:01:41.935 our food systems. EVAN: Richard Antcliff works 00:01:41.936 --> 00:01:44.803 for NASA and he’s also an amateur beekeeper. 00:01:44.805 --> 00:01:47.973 RICHARD: About 30 % of what we eat is actually dependent upon 00:01:47.975 --> 00:01:50.876 bees because they pollinate the plants. So all of the apples, 00:01:50.878 --> 00:01:54.146 and fruits, and vegetables that we eat are dependent upon the 00:01:54.148 --> 00:01:57.150 pollination of the bees. And when I heard a couple of years 00:01:57.151 --> 00:01:59.818 ago bees were starting to decline in this country, 00:01:59.820 --> 00:02:02.588 there was a real concern about that. So I decided to take up 00:02:02.590 --> 00:02:05.125 bee keeping myself to help build up the population and 00:02:05.126 --> 00:02:07.526 frankly they’re a lot of fun. It’s kind of like a lot of 00:02:07.528 --> 00:02:11.630 pets. A typical beehive will have 60 thousand bees, 00:02:11.631 --> 00:02:14.300 so I have 60 thousand pets. 00:02:14.301 --> 00:02:17.636 EVAN: Wow, would you want to bee around that many honeybees 00:02:17.638 --> 00:02:22.508 all at once?, Uh ok, that was just a bad joke. Sorry. 00:02:22.510 --> 00:02:26.880 Honeybees help pollinate approximately 130 agricultural 00:02:26.881 --> 00:02:29.615 crops in the United States each year. 00:02:29.616 --> 00:02:33.285 This represents more than 90% of all commercial crops. 00:02:33.286 --> 00:02:37.490 Some of these crops include berries, apples, cherries, 00:02:37.491 --> 00:02:41.126 oranges, watermelons, nuts, and vegetables. 00:02:41.128 --> 00:02:44.096 These crops even feed cows, which in turn produce milk 00:02:44.098 --> 00:02:46.431 and ice cream for us. 00:02:46.433 --> 00:02:49.468 So you can see how important honeybees are to humans. 00:02:49.470 --> 00:02:51.971 Unfortunately though, the population of the honeybee in 00:02:51.973 --> 00:02:54.673 North America is declining. There are fewer bees here than 00:02:54.675 --> 00:02:57.410 there were in the past. And scientists aren’t exactly 00:02:57.411 --> 00:03:00.946 sure why. Let me explain one of the reasons scientists think 00:03:00.948 --> 00:03:04.316 the honeybee is dying. Honeybees feed all year off the 00:03:04.318 --> 00:03:06.853 honey they produce in the Spring. One of the main 00:03:06.855 --> 00:03:09.821 ingredients for honey is a sugary liquid called nectar. 00:03:09.823 --> 00:03:12.858 Nectar is produced by plants and flowers, and honeybees 00:03:12.860 --> 00:03:15.328 collect this nectar and then bring it back to the beehive 00:03:15.330 --> 00:03:17.596 where they make honey. 00:03:17.598 --> 00:03:20.933 Unfortunately, nectar is only produced by flowers at certain 00:03:20.935 --> 00:03:24.503 times during the year. Honeybees have an internal 00:03:24.505 --> 00:03:26.906 instinct that tells them when to go out and collect this 00:03:26.908 --> 00:03:29.108 nectar. But here’s the problem. 00:03:29.110 --> 00:03:31.911 Our Earth is experiencing climate change. 00:03:31.913 --> 00:03:35.381 Things are warming up, so each year the flowers’ production of 00:03:35.383 --> 00:03:38.316 nectar starts a little bit earlier then the year before. 00:03:38.318 --> 00:03:41.553 In the Northeast for example, flowers produce nectar about 00:03:41.555 --> 00:03:45.358 one full month earlier than it did back in the 1970’s. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:48.861 So honeybees get confused by this changing time and they 00:03:48.863 --> 00:03:51.563 usually end up with less time to collect the nectar. 00:03:51.565 --> 00:03:54.166 This results in the honeybee collecting less nectar than it 00:03:54.168 --> 00:03:57.103 needs to. The less nectar, the less honey. 00:03:57.105 --> 00:04:00.440 The less honey, the less food the honeybee has all year long. 00:04:00.441 --> 00:04:03.141 This lack of honey adds stress to the honeybee, 00:04:03.143 --> 00:04:05.378 and the end result is that we are seeing the number 00:04:05.380 --> 00:04:07.546 of honeybees get smaller. 00:04:07.548 --> 00:04:10.450 RICHARD: Bees in the wild are disappearing very very fast. 00:04:10.451 --> 00:04:13.420 We’re not seeing bees in trees anymore, or out in the open 00:04:13.421 --> 00:04:15.888 anymore. So, it’s important for people the actually get 00:04:15.890 --> 00:04:18.725 into bee keeping such that we have enough bees in order to 00:04:18.726 --> 00:04:21.226 have the population to do the pollination. 00:04:21.228 --> 00:04:23.596 EVAN: Fortunately, NASA is trying to help solve the 00:04:23.598 --> 00:04:26.733 problem. NASA is using satellites measure climate 00:04:26.735 --> 00:04:29.135 change and predict the time when the flowers’ nectar 00:04:29.136 --> 00:04:33.440 production will begin. NASA is also partnering with beekeepers 00:04:33.441 --> 00:04:36.641 in the United States to help with this study. The beekeepers 00:04:36.643 --> 00:04:39.245 are weighing their beehives to determine how much honey is 00:04:39.246 --> 00:04:42.115 being produced by the honeybees. If the honeybees 00:04:42.116 --> 00:04:44.716 are making a lot of honey, that means the beehives will weigh 00:04:44.718 --> 00:04:47.420 more. But it also means the honeybees are getting to the 00:04:47.421 --> 00:04:49.921 flowers’ nectar in time in order to make the honey in the 00:04:49.923 --> 00:04:53.826 first place. The beekeepers become citizen scientists and 00:04:53.828 --> 00:04:56.963 submit the information about their beehives to a website at 00:04:56.965 --> 00:05:00.300 Goddard Space Flight Center called HoneyBeeNet. 00:05:00.301 --> 00:05:03.001 So NASA and other beekeepers can track whether or not 00:05:03.003 --> 00:05:06.071 honeybees are collecting the nectar they need to survive. 00:05:06.073 --> 00:05:09.441 It’s amazing how humans, animals, and insects are all 00:05:09.443 --> 00:05:12.211 dependent on each other to survive. Without the little 00:05:12.213 --> 00:05:15.248 honeybee, our crops would be much smaller, and we would not 00:05:15.250 --> 00:05:18.985 have as much food to eat. Wow Globey, let’s hope that NASA 00:05:18.986 --> 00:05:22.455 and beekeepers across our country work busy as bees to 00:05:22.456 --> 00:05:26.193 help solve this problem of the declining honeybee population. 00:05:28.301 --> 00:05:31.900 ? [music] ? 00:05:36.305 --> 00:05:40.446 KIDS: Our World! 00:05:43.623 --> 00:05:46.405 .