Flammi was sitting at the breakfast table, just as he does every morning. He spread jam on his bread and thought to himself, “How lucky we are at the Feuerstein! We always have such tasty food – crispy bread, yoghurt, muesli and even honey!”
Flammi gazed fondly at the honey jar. Wait a minute – what was that? Flammi could hardly believe his eyes – a bee was buzzing around in the jar! “What are you doing in there?” he asked inquisitively. “Helpzzzzz, helpzzzzzz, I can’t get out.” Flammi opened the jar quickly and out buzzed the bee in a swooping arch out the door. Flammi followed the bee as he was dying to find out where the honey came from, but along the way, he lost sight of the bee.
He bumped into Paul the hiker, and asked him, “Hello Paul. Do you know where honey comes from?” Paul answered “Yes, Flammi, I do! But go and find out for yourself. Just run up behind the chalets on the hill and you’ll get your answer.” Flammi ran off excitedly. Suddenly, he heard a loud buzzing sound, and at that moment thousands of bees swarmed around him. Flammi was scared still. And then one bee called out to the others, “Stop! Stop! That’s no enemy. This salamander saved my life!” “Oh, was that you? No problem at all, it was my pleasure,” said Flammi, visibly relieved. The bees flew on, and Flammi caught sight of a little house. “That must be it!” he cried. The bees interrupted him: “Hold on Flammi!” said one. “The Queen Bee wants to speak to you. She heard about your good deed and wants to say thank you.” Just as he finished speaking, another bee, much bigger than the rest, came out from the little house. It was the Queen Bee. She said to Flammi, “Thank you for saving one of my bees today. I wanted to give you a jar of honey to say thank you.” The happy Flammi said “Oh how nice! I love honey! Thank you very much indeed!”
Now Flammi knew where the honey came from, but he didn’t know how it was made. And so, he asked the Queen Bee, “Could you possibly tell me how honey is made?” “Of course,” she answered kindly, and told him all about it as Flammi listened attentively, his ears pricked high. “Thousands of bees fly from flower to flower every day to gather nectar. They put it into the beehive together with a little bee juice, where it rests for a while until it turns a beautiful yellow and is so thick that you can spread it on your bread. Then the farmer comes along, takes the honeycombs away and spins it in a special machine. He puts the honey into jars and takes it to the shops so they can sell it.”
And now Flammi knew where honey came from, and even before he went to sleep that night, he was excited about waking up the next morning to eat some delicious, dripping honey.
