Members of The Naturalist Club of the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Slatington, were promised they would be doing real science when the club was formed.

On Jan. 20, four young people joined Anita Collins to learn about bees and to prepare some of them to be sent to the Department of Agriculture.

There is also a slight chance one or more of the bees could make it into the Smithsonian Institute.

The bee would have to be a new species or a very rare one.

Collins, a genetics professor at Kutztown University, began working with bees.

After she retired, Collins began working with native bees.

She explained The Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through conservation of invertebrates and their habitat, teaches farmers and gardeners to aid pollinators such as bees by creating nesting sites for them by using native plants.

Collins said east of the Mississippi River there had been no study of bees for 100 years. They begin to fly when average temperatures reach 45 degrees in spring.

She told the club members Tom Zukowski, Nate Cunfer, Wyatt Trantham and Kelci Knirnschild they were going to help wash the captured bees.

This process includes putting out cups colorfully painted on the inside to imitate flowers.

The cups have soapy water in them and are left out for 24 hours.

The soap, Dawn Blue, which has no additives, prevents the bees from escaping the water.

Collins places the cups nine strides apart.

She also explained the common honey bee is not a native but was brought over by early settlers who knew they were good pollinators.

Club members were able to name many of the native bees including wool gatherers, polyester, orchard mason, carpenter, bumble, leaf cutter, sweat and cuckoo.

The cuckoo is a parasite that lays its eggs in another bee's nest.

In an earlier study, there was a cuckoo bee found in 1922 and named nomada lehighensis. The bee, named for the Lehigh Gap where it was found, has not been seen since.

Pollination is a byproduct of the bees' collection of nectar, a carbohydrate food, and pollen, a protein food. Bees have fluffy hair on their legs that collects the pollen.

"Nectar is nectar," said Center Director Dan Kunkle. "But pollen is specific to certain bees."

There are 4,000 types of bees in North America and 20,000 in the world. Many have not been named but 345 in Pennsylvania have been identified.

The females lay their eggs; place a mix of pollen and nectar in the nest; and leave. Most bees will not sting, though some bite.

Collins gave each youth a packet of insects with a label showing where and when they were captured. The packet contained some alcohol to preserve them.

The alcohol was poured off and the bees placed in a 1-cup jar with a drop of Dawn and water, which is then shaken.

By turning the jar upside down, the bees fall to a screen in the top and are placed in a net bag where they are dried with a hair dryer.

Collins said they have to be thoroughly dry because checking the hair is part of the method of identification. Many of the insects in the packets are wasps or flies. One packet did not contain any bees.

Bees have two pair of wings, cones (where they carry pollen) and spurs.

Club members decide whether they are bees or another insect. The bees are pinned and placed in a box with a label. When a bee is too small to pin, it will be glued to the pin.

Collins does the initial identification but even she has been stumped occasionally.

She expects they will begin to find rare bees because the Nature Center is planting rare plants that may attract them.