BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

Air Bee N Bee

By Katelyn Bruce, age 14 and Camila Kinsel, age 15 | January 27, 2025

Click the Buzz Me button to receive email notifications when this writer publishes a new article or a new article in this column is published.

HONEY HONEY Katelyn Bruce, a freshman at Westbury Christian School, and Camila Kinsel, a freshman at Kinder HSPVA, recently completed their Silver Award project, which focused on solitary bees. The project involved designing and building a bee hotel, creating a collection of coloring pages, and making an informational webpage about solitary bees.

What are solitary bees, and why are they important? This was the question we asked ourselves when we first heard about these special kinds of bees. Solitary bees are a type of bee that does not live in a hive with other bees and prefers to live alone. Most people believe that honey bees are the main pollinators, when in reality, a single solitary bee can pollinate as much as 100 honey bees. This is why solitary bees are very important, and we must help their dwindling population.

When we heard about their importance, we decided to make our Girl Scout Silver Award focus on solitary bees. We also worked with Bellaire City Council to execute our project. We came up with the idea of making a “bee hotel.” A bee hotel is a special habitat made for solitary bees to keep them safe and provide them shelter from different weather situations. They are made with all-natural materials, so it does not harm the bees. Since solitary bees do not live in a hive, the need for a place for them to live is even more pressing.

The first thing that we needed to do was find a project advisor and a suitable location for the bee hotel. Fortunately, we found an amazing project supervisor, Joyce Gigout, who is part of the Bellaire Environmental Sustainability Board, a Master Naturalist, and a bee expert. She guided us through the process and ensured that we were making a habitat that would last a long time and would attract many solitary bees. As for the location, we decided on putting our hotel in Mulberry Park. We chose this location because there are many flowers nearby, plenty of space, and a surplus of natural resources.

We learned about the importance of pollinators, but we also learned life skills, such as communication and working with others, that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

Want to be a Buzz Kid? Email approximately 350 words, a high-resolution photo and caption to [email protected].