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Inside the Hive: Nectar Becomes Honey

7th grade nonfiction passage about how bees make honey: 224 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

7th grade nonfiction how bees make honey 224 words

Inside the Hive: Nectar Becomes Honey

A honeybee visits dozens of flowers on a single trip, sipping a watery, sugary liquid called nectar. She stores it in a special stomach, separate from her food stomach, called a honey stomach, and carries it home to the hive. But nectar is not honey yet. It is thin, contains a lot of water, and would spoil quickly. The colony must change it.

Back in the hive, the forager passes the nectar mouth to mouth to a younger worker bee. During these handoffs, the bees add enzymes from their bodies. The enzymes break the complex sugar in nectar into simpler sugars, which gives honey part of its sweetness and helps it keep.

The next job is to get rid of extra water. The bees spread drops of nectar into the wax cells of the honeycomb, where a large surface lets water escape into the air. Other workers stand near the cells and fan their wings, pushing warm air through the hive to speed up drying. When the honey is thick enough, the bees seal the cell with a cap of wax.

Honey with little water is thick and resists spoiling, because few microbes can grow in it. That is why it can feed the colony through winter, when no flowers bloom. Beekeepers take only part of the honey and leave enough for the bees.

Questions

  1. Where does a honeybee carry the nectar on her trip home? in the text

  2. What do the enzymes do to the sugar in nectar? in the text

  3. How do the bees get rid of extra water in the nectar? in the text

  4. What do the bees use to seal a finished cell? in the text

  5. Why does the colony need stored honey in winter? think about it

  6. Why does nectar spoil more easily than honey? think about it

Words to know

nectar
the sweet liquid inside flowers
forager
a bee that goes out to find food
enzymes
natural substances that cause chemical changes
honeycomb
the wax cells where bees store honey
colony
a large group of bees living together
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One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 199 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.5

A honeybee visits many flowers on one trip. She sips nectar, a sweet, watery liquid. She keeps it in a honey stomach. This is a special stomach, apart from her food stomach. She carries the nectar home to the hive. But nectar is not honey yet. It is thin and full of water, and it would spoil fast. The colony must change it.

In the hive, the forager passes the nectar mouth to mouth to a younger worker bee. The bees add enzymes from their bodies. The enzymes break the complex sugar into simpler sugars. This gives honey some of its sweetness and helps it keep.

Next, the bees must get rid of extra water. They spread drops of nectar in the wax cells of the honeycomb. The water can escape into the air. Other bees fan their wings. This pushes warm air through the hive and dries the nectar. When the honey is thick, the bees seal the cell with wax.

Honey has little water. It is thick, and few microbes can grow in it. So it can feed the colony all winter, when no flowers bloom. Beekeepers take only some honey and leave enough for the bees.

▲ This passage · 224 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.2

A honeybee visits dozens of flowers on a single trip, sipping a watery, sugary liquid called nectar. She stores it in a special stomach, separate from her food stomach, called a honey stomach, and carries it home to the hive. But nectar is not honey yet. It is thin, contains a lot of water, and would spoil quickly. The colony must change it.

Back in the hive, the forager passes the nectar mouth to mouth to a younger worker bee. During these handoffs, the bees add enzymes from their bodies. The enzymes break the complex sugar in nectar into simpler sugars, which gives honey part of its sweetness and helps it keep.

The next job is to get rid of extra water. The bees spread drops of nectar into the wax cells of the honeycomb, where a large surface lets water escape into the air. Other workers stand near the cells and fan their wings, pushing warm air through the hive to speed up drying. When the honey is thick enough, the bees seal the cell with a cap of wax.

Honey with little water is thick and resists spoiling, because few microbes can grow in it. That is why it can feed the colony through winter, when no flowers bloom. Beekeepers take only part of the honey and leave enough for the bees.

■ Harder · 251 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.2

On a single foraging trip, a honeybee visits dozens of flowers, sipping a watery, sugary liquid called nectar. She stores it in a special organ known as the honey stomach, which is separate from the stomach she uses for her own food, and carries it back to the hive. Nectar, however, is not yet honey. It is thin, it contains a great deal of water, and it would spoil quickly, so the colony must transform it.

Once inside the hive, the forager passes the nectar mouth to mouth to a younger worker bee. During these handoffs, the bees add enzymes produced by their own bodies. The enzymes break the complex sugar in nectar down into simpler sugars, which contributes to honey's sweetness and helps it keep for a long time.

The next task is to remove the surplus water. The bees spread droplets of nectar across the wax cells of the honeycomb, where the large exposed surface allows moisture to escape into the air. Other workers station themselves near the cells and fan their wings, driving warm air through the hive and hastening the drying. Once the honey has become sufficiently thick, the bees seal each cell with a cap of wax.

Honey that contains little water is thick and resists spoilage, because very few microbes can grow in it. That is why it is able to sustain the colony through winter, when no flowers bloom. Beekeepers harvest only a portion of the honey and leave enough behind for the bees.

Download as one PDF

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put nectar, forager, enzymes, honeycomb and colony on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 2 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 5 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Inside the Hive: Nectar Becomes Honey"?

It was written for 7th grade. It has 224 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 6.2. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are six. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 2 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 2 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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