Nothing is sweeter than a good book. Or maybe a fun board game. Or maybe a spoonful of honey?
(Did you know one bee will make one tablespoon of honey in its entire lift!)
Combine all three and you have something special! Yes, I love bees. I know they can be scary to some people, but honeybees are vegetarian and they feed themselves without harming or killing another living thing. In fact, they help create more plants in the act of foraging! Can you say you help out nature that much?
To really appreciate how sweet bees are and how much we need to help them, start by reading these two books.
Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candace Fleming
This award-winning book is a masterpiece in nonfiction.
The Broken Bees’ Nest by Lydia Lukidis
Lydia is a friend and a critique partner. She loves bees!
Once you’ve learned to appreciate how special bees are, it’s time to really see things from their perspective and play Honey Buzz.
Honey Buzz was recommended to me by Phil, the owner of our local gaming store, Game Masters. Phil knows how much I love science and nature based gaming. He suggested I get the premium edition of Honey Buzz. One reason was because it comes with fuzzy worker bees – and he was right! I loved those fuzzy buzzy little girls.
This game has only two parts to every turn, but there are lot of jobs to do – just like in a real beehive!
I don’t keep bees, but I did take a beekeeping course during the pandemic. And my oldest son and I did an intro to beekeeping lesson at a local college. I was really amazed at how calm he was taking the combs in and out of the beekeeping boxes.
View this post on Instagram
I’ve always wanted to write a book about bees, maybe playing this game will help me!
As always, if you want to learn how to play, I recommend checking out “Watch It Played” on YouTube. Also, BoardGameGeek offers a lot of great recommendations and Q&A.
Once you decide you want to buy a game, please look around for a local board game store!
For more book recommendations, I ALWAYS recommend visiting and buying from your local bookstore. One way you can buy online and support a local store is by shopping through Bookshop.org.