The sun shone brightly through the hive, waking Binx. She yawned and kicked her little sister, Beetrice.
"Time to wake up, Beetrice. We need to get to work."

Since Binx was older than Beetrice by a couple of seconds, she liked to take charge.

"Not now Binx," replied Beetrice, "I'm dreaming of a great big flower."

"Beetrice! You need to clean the empty hive cells so the Queen can lay more eggs. And I need to help feed the older larvae."

"Shucks, I wish I was a Nurse Bee and could help take care of the young larvae."

"In time Beetrice. Bee patient."
When Binx and Beetrice got to work, the Queen was waiting.

"Congratulations little bees," buzzed the Queen. "You've been promoted!"
Beetrice was really excited. She'd only been working for five days and was going to get her dream job.

"Nurse Bees report to cell 8," commanded the Queen.

The first day on the job was tough. Beetrice and Binx worked hard to produce royal jelly, a high protein substance used to feed the young queen larvae. But after a few days, the work became easy. Beetrice loved her job, but Binx was bored.

The next week, Queen summoned Beetrice and Binx. "Beetrice and Binx, you have proven yourself hard-working bees. I am now promoting you to Building Bees." Beetrice and Binx eagerly walked to their new stations. Now their job was to produce wax comb. Beetrice and Binx made cells with six sides in the shape of a hexagon. The walls of these cells were about 2/1000 inch thick, but could support 25 times Binx's own weight! Older working bees made honey to put in these cells. After they were done, Beetrice and Binx made wax lids which cover the comb honey cells to store the honey.

Another part of Binx's and Beatrice's job was to help control the temperature of the hive. If the hive got too warm, Binx and Beetrice would fan their wings to keep it cool.

One day Beetrice was tired and bored. She was now 14 days old and couldn't wait for her wings to be strong enough for her to fly from flower to flower. Suddenly she heard a lot of buzzing nearby and wanted to know what was going on. While on her way to find out, Binx flew up behind her and buzzed, "Beetrice! Beetrice! I've got great news!"

Beetrice turned around to see what Binx was so excited about.

"Beetrice! We're going to be Guard Bees! The Queen said our stinger has finally developed. Now we can help defend the hive!"

"Oh! How fun! When do we start?" asked Beetrice.

"Right away," said Binx. "The hive is under attack!"

Binx ran off to report for duty and Beetrice followed close behind.
When they reported to their station comb, they found a colony of bees from across the meadow trying to take over the hive. A big bear had knocked the enemy bees' hive off the tree! Binx and Beetrice bravely defended the hive. Luckily, they didn't have to sting any of the enemy bees.

After the invaders left, Beetrice and Binx helped guard the hive from future attacks. Fortunately, all was quiet in the meadows after that.

One day Binx and Beetrice were playing in the hive when they saw an old school bee of theirs. Rubee was a couple days older than they were.

"Binx and Beetrice!" exclaimed Rubee when she saw them. "It is so nice to see you. I heard that you are working as guard bees now."

Binx and Beetrice nodded their heads "yes".
Rubee circled around them showing off her wings.

"Well, that's nice. I just got a job as a Honey-Making Field Bee and today I saw the most amazing thing! It's a big metal thing that spins honey out of our honeycomb. My boss told me it's called an extractor and humans use it to take the extra honey we don't use! It makes work sooo easy. I must get an extractor for myself."

"Sounds like a real cool invention, Rubee," said Binx, trying to figure out what a bee would do with an extractor.

"Of course it is, and I will get one, you'll see. Not that I need it. I'm number one in my group for visiting flowers. Today I collected nectar from 89 flowers! Well, I must be going. Buzz, buzz for now." Rubee flew away.

" Rubee thinks she's so good! I wish my wings would develop so I could get assigned as a honey maker!" buzzed Beetrice.

Binx answered. "I know, Beetrice. But our time will come."

The next day, Binx woke up and stretched out her wings. Something felt different. She was now 20 days old. Binx began to flutter her wings and suddenly, she began to fly! Beetrice opened her eyes. "Look Beetrice!" exclaimed Binx. "I'm flying, I'm flying!"

Binx began to fly toward looked the light coming in through the hive. "Wait for me!" yelled Beetrice as she began to flutter her wings. She was also flying.

For the first time Beetrice and Binx flew out of the hive in search of flowers. "Look Beetrice! A flower!" Said Binx as she did a bee dance to let Beetrice know where the flower was. She then flew to the flower.

"Now, where is that nectar?" Binx searched the flower.

"Binx! That's the pistil. It's the flower's central organ. The nectar is hidden down inside the flower, past those sticky stamens. Remember what we learned in honey class?"

"Oh right!" Buzzed Binx. "Stamens produce the pollen. I'm looking for the anther which is where the pollen is developed and stored. Thanks Beetrice."

Binx crawled into the flower. "I found it!" She exclaimed, and a couple of seconds later she came back to the flowers petals with the prize nectar.

"Look Binx," said Beetrice as she looked around the meadows with all five of her eyes. "There are flowers everywhere! Bet you can't visit 100 of them today!"

Binx grinned mischievously at Beetrice. "I'll race ya. On your marks, get set, BUZZ!"