The Role of Kookoo Birds in Bees

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Adult bees consume nectar, developing bees consume pollen. Typically it's the female parent bees that are feeding them. But then there's also bees that are kleptoparasites. They're like kookoobies. So they'll go into the burrow of their host bee, they'll lay an egg in there, their egg will hatch. It'll either kill the egg or the larva of the host species and then eat all of the pollen. And so do kookoo bees love that kind of drama? There's no real taking care of them. Most bees that are non-kookoo bees would actually just lay the egg. They'll provision some

Honeybees get all the attention, but native bees are the underbugs to root for. Photographer, author, and National Geographic Explorer Krystle Hickman shows us the wonders of indigenous bees through her lens focused on conservation of bees and their habitats. She covers their lifecycles, tunnels, turrets, fuzzy butts, frat house cuddling, and sexual dimorphism. We also chat about taxonomic fisticuffs, bee hotels, the mustard blight, monocultures, the teeniest livestock, and how to appreciate and photograph all of the marvels you’ve been overlooking. So grab a sunhat, order her deck of native bee flashcards, fill up your water bottle, and let's stare into the bushes to meet some tiny new friends.

Get Krystle Hickman’s gorgeous native bee flashcards, Native Bees of the Western United States, Volume 1

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Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

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