What’s happening in the hive? Drying down honey

honeybee on a flower

A few years ago, we saw a mass of bees collected around the hole that led outside from the indoor bee hive. We thought the bees might be swarming — leaving the hive, which usually occurs when there are two queens raised and one leaves with half the hive — and were nervous that there Read More »

Read More

Four recipes that highlight honey

It’s sweet. It’s healthy. It never goes bad. Honey is really an amazing food. (Read “Save the Bees, Save the Honey”) We talk a lot about the importance of bees as pollinators, but sometimes you just have to appreciate the simple fact that they make a wonderful product. It’s easy to incorporate honey into your Read More »

Read More

How does a hedgehog roll up?

hedgehog

Pretty much every time that we pick up the hedgehog animal ambassador, she rolls into a ball. Her pointy spines stand erect, and you can’t see any other part of her. (See a video of Honey the hedgehog here.) The reason that hedgehogs do this is the same reason that turtles will pull their appendages Read More »

Read More

The nocturnal animals of Iowa

Graphic with nocturnal animals

“Where is the hedgehog?” or “What is in the cage below the salamanders?” These are two questions we often get at the Dickinson County Nature Center, because what is in the cage below the salamanders in our lower level is an African pygmy hedgehog named Honey. And Honey is usually buried beneath one of her Read More »

Read More