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Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
Miggy & The Busy Bees 🪻🐝 Children's Bedtime Story
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- [00:11]
Ailie
Hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, your podcast of original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime a dream. Welcome to the Koko Club, Millie and Leo from Warloong, South Australia where they live with their 20 plus animals. We couldn't name them all here otherwise the intro will be longer than the story, but I gotta say it sounds idyllic. Also like to say a really big thank you for subscribing to Ailie and Olivia from California who has a golden retriever called Sunny. Great name. Can you imagine how confused Hector and Sunny would be if they joined you on a dog walk? Before we begin, a quick message for the grown ups. If you'd like to support our podcast, enjoy ad free listening, unlock four bonus stories per month and much, much more, you can join Koko Club subscribe in just two taps via the link in the show notes, but now here's a quick word from our sponsors. Hey parents, if your little ones love learning as much as they love story time, I've got something special for you. ABC Mouse is the award winning and super fun learning adventure app made just for kids aged 2 to 8. It's packed with over 10,000 awesome activities across reading, maths, science, art and more. Your little explorer can dive into magical puzzles, colourful books, exciting games and catchy songs all created by expert teachers to help them learn at their own pace while having a blast. It's safe, ad free and designed to keep your child engaged without any interruptions. Whether you're enjoying some family time together in the evenings or looking for something educational to explore during the day, ABC Mouse is a brilliant screen time solution. You can try it out for free with a one month trial and after that it's just £14.99amonth until cancelled or choose an annual membership for just 45 a year until cancelled. Head to www.abcmouse.com koalamoon to get started today. You'll also find the link in our latest episode Show Notes to make it extra easy. Hey parents, Spring is in the air and we have an eggciting treat for you. From April 7th through the 21st, all new Koko Club members can enjoy 14 days of premium completely free, just in time for the Easter holidays. That means your little ones can drift off to sleep night after night with ad free stories without you spending a single penny. And to celebrate Easter, we have some very special bedtime adventures coming up such as Coco and Kira's Cosy Easter and a brand new Coco Club exclusive Hector and Sunny and the giant Golden Easter egg. In this instalment, the doggy duo head to Storybook Land where they enter an egg hunt to win a golden egg laid by a magical goose. This offer is only available for a limited time, so don't miss out. Start your free trial in just two taps on Apple Podcasts or head to cococlub.supercast.com for Yoto and Spotify. The link is, as always, in the show notes, sweet dreams and Happy Easter.
- [03:41]
Kelly
Heya sleepyheads. I'm Kelly, the host of Koala Shine, the perfect daytime adventure show for long car journeys, school runs and lazy Sunday mornings. I'm popping up here on Koala Moon because I've heard you want more Koala Kid stories and I'm here to deliver Beep beep. Special delivery. Koala Shine is a tiny bit different from Koala Moon as it's designed for daytime listening. So after a great night's sleep with a story from Abby, you can have a big old stretch and tune into Koala Shine joining your favorite characters on crazy adventures around the world. With new episodes every Friday, we'll follow Hector and Sunny on a daytime safari, explore the big city with Munchie the Raccoon, and visit the circus with Super Soul. You'll also hear cool facts, jokes and learn about the world we live in. Plus, there's a chance for your voices to be featured on the podcast too. Koala Shine offers mindful fun entertainment on the move designed to spark curiosity. Search Koala Shine now on your favorite podcast platform and be sure to hit follow so that finding your next adventure is easy peasy lemon Squeezy. Hope to see you there Koala Shine.
- [04:52]
Ailie
Now for all of those of you enjoying all of our Easter stories so far, I want to tell you about a very exciting tale Kelly just read over on Koala Shine. It stars our favourite magical siblings, Lily and Jake Jupiter. Open up Koala Shine and search for the Jupiter Twins Easter Dragon Egg Hunt for more Easter related fun here and now, we are back with Miggy the Rainbow Troll in Rainbow Town where she's collecting honey from her honeybee buddies to share with her friends. When chatting with the bees, she learns how important and magical their jobs are and how they help all sorts of wonderful flowers to grow. So she sets out on a to grow far off seeds with the help of the bees and to make the most delicious honey to ever exist. This really tests her patience. Do you think she manages to wait it out? Let's relax back into bed. Imagine a sunny day with flowers on tall stems Waving in the warm balmy breeze against the bluest of skies. Breathe in and out and I'll begin. Miggy and the Busy Bees By Luke Prendergast Spring had come early to Rainbow Town. The snow that usually capped the top of the neighbouring mountain had melted, and the rainbow that arched over the top of it and gave the town its name was bright and brilliant. Meanwhile, the Rainbow Trolls who lived in Rainbow Town were busy doing all the things Rainbow Trolls must do once winter has loosened its grip. If you were to fly over the town, looking down, you would see tufts of hair in red and green and blue and yellow moving around as they went about their business, rolling up the shutters, laying out the street market, unrolling the blankets from from the trunks of the most sensitive of trees, doing a spring clean. But it was not only the Trolls themselves who were busy. There were all sorts of creatures living in the woods and fields and foothills surrounding Rainbow Town. And they too were waking from their hibernations and tootling into springtime action. When Miggy walked out to the river for her morning swims, Paul went to collect fallen firewood from the forest. She saw squirrels out collecting nuts, rabbits renovating their warrens, mother deer encouraging their baby fawns to totter about on their legs. Spiders spun their webs and fish flew flashing out of the water. And once she even saw a big brown bear scratching its back on a tree. But one of the busiest animals of all, and the ones Miggy was most interested in, were the bees. For a long time, Rainbow Trolls and bees had lived in happy harmony. The Rainbow Trolls built wooden hives for the bees to live in and made sure to keep other insects who might want to sneak into the beehives and make life difficult for the bees as far away as possible. In return, the bees made honey enough for themselves and the trolls. And once a week, one of the trolls would go around collecting honey from the beehives and putting it in jars and distributing it around Rainbow Town so that everyone could enjoy the delicious sweetness of the honey. Today it was Miggy's turn to go and collect the honey, so she put on her bee suit. Then she made her way out into the meadows where the hives were collected. One by one. She lifted the special lids of the hives, saying hello to all the bees living inside them, and scooped out the honey, storing it in a big jar. Soon enough, she was done. The big jar was full, full of golden honey, and Miggy was ready to make her way back home with it. She unzippered the top of her bee suit and made her way back across the meadow, the long grasses and wildflowers brushing her feet and ankles. She had almost made it back to the other side of the meadow when she heard a buzzing sound beside her. Looking down towards her knees she saw that her friend Bumble, the honey bee, was hovering just next to her. Oh hello there Bumble, Miggy said. Bumble gave out a merry buzzing noise. Hello Miggy, he said. I almost missed you. I was out and about in far off meadows and when I came back I saw you heading off back to Rainbow Town and I thought, whew, I can still catch up with her so I buzzed on over here to say hello. Miggy was very pleased that Bumble had caught her in time. He was the friendliest of all the honey bees who lived nearby and he had a soft rich coat of black and golden stripes. Many times in the past Miggy had lain down in the grass along with Bumble and they'd watched the other insects go by and play the game of picking shapes out of the patterns on butterflies wings. What were you doing out in those far off meadows? She asked him. Well, he replied, looking for unusual flowers of course, to find new pollen for our honey collections. Miggy frowned a little and glanced all around her. The field they were standing in was brimming with wildflowers, red poppies and blue cornflowers, flashes of purple thistles and the hanging bells of yellow cow weed. Why these nearby fields were practically a feast of flowers. Surely there was plenty of pollen to be getting along with here. Why did Bumble need to go searching for more flowers elsewhere? Because, Bumble explained to her, not all pollen is the same. The pollen from different flowers has a big effect on the honey that we produce. The flavour, the texture, the colour of it. The honey we make from lily pollen for example, is very different to the honey we make from acacia pollen or from the pollen of bright red roses. So I was off across the meadows flying around trying to find new and unusual pollen to make new and unusual honeys. That way you trolls living in Rainbow Town can have a much greater variety of sweet honey. Goodness. Miggy sort of blinked at him in surprise. She had never thought about the actual way that the honey was made before or what effect the flower pollen was having on it. This was brand new information to her and she had to admit she found the whole thing rather fascinating. You mean, she said, that all the different flowers let you make lots of different types of honey? How helpful those flowers are. Oh yes, replied Bumble buzzing happily, for he loved it when people were as interested in the honey making process as he was. But it's not only the flowers who help us. We help the flowers too. For as we go from flower to flower, collecting up the pollen, we pass the pollen between the flowers from where it's got stuck on our hairy bee bodies. That's how we make their flower seeds. Then they drop their flower seeds and new flowers grow. They couldn't do it without us. So, Miggy said, the flowers help you and you help the flowers. Bumble nodded. That's right. And we also help the plants that grow food. The more flowers, the more bees, and the more bees, the more food grows. So we help the environment and all the creatures living here, too. Miggy marvelled at the idea of was very much like how the trolls helped the bees by making their hives and the bees helped the trolls by giving them honey. Maybe everything in the whole world, all the little parts of nature that you usually thought were separate from each other and just concentrating on their own lives were in fact joined together in rings of care and support, like an endless chain of interlocking hugs. That means, miggy said, that if we get hold of flowers that aren't around here, you can make honey that tastes completely different from honey you've made before. Bumble nodded again. Yup, that's right. This gave Miggy an idea. Instead of going straight home first she went to the Rainbow Market that stood in the middle of the town. Here shopkeepers set up their stalls with their canvas roofs and their tables displaying all their produce. You could get all kinds of things from the Rainbow Market. Miggy's dad even sold the arty engravings he made at a little stall there at the weekends. But today Miggy was aiming for one stall in particular. Hello, Mrs. Green Thumb, she said to the lady, an old troll with a big rush of green and purple hair who sat behind a stool covered in potted plants. I was wondering if you could help me. And so Miggy explained to Mrs. Green Thumb that she was looking for unusual plants, ones that didn't grow from anywhere around here. Was that possible? She asked. Well, dear, said Mrs. Green Thumb, the fact is we can't offer far off plants and flowers at this stall here because it's too far to transport them from distant lands. The plants would not fare very well on that long journey. But what I can suggest, she added, seeing the disappointed look on Miggy's face, is that I can order a collection of strange seeds for you. Seeds that have been collected up from all over the world and stored in a bag. That way you can plant the seeds yourself, and then the far off plants and flowers you're searching for can be growing in a patch of grass right behind your very own troll cave. What do you think? Mickey thought that was a brilliant idea, and she put in an order for a bag of strange seeds. Then she walked back to her cave, feeling very satisfied. In no time at all they would have some unusual flowers so that the bees could make unusual honey. The following week Miggy went back to the rainbow market, and Mrs. Green Thumb handed her a drawstring cloth bag. The weight of the bag in Miggy's hand filled her with a feeling of wonder and mystery. She peered inside and saw a rubble of little tan and brown specks. How unassuming. How ordinary looking, like dust. And yet here they were, the strange seeds from which would grow strange plants and flowers. Miggy wandered back up to her cave, where she met Bumble the Bee in her back garden. Here they are, miggy said, showing Bumble the drawstring bag. The seeds have arrived. Let's plant them in the soil here, and then in a few days we'll have all kinds of wonderful flowers. At the sound of her words, Bumble emitted a stream of buzzing laughter. He clasped his little arm over his mouth to stifle it. Miggy looked at him a little confused. What was so funny? She asked. Oh, Miggy, he said, I shouldn't laugh. I suppose there are lots of things that you about that I don't, and you teach me about them all the time. But I really ought to let you know it doesn't take just a few days for flowers to grow. Oh, said Miggy, it doesn't? Bumble shook his head. Oh, no, he said. Some flowers take weeks, others take months. And these ones, he said, flying around the bag of seeds to read the little tag hanging off the bottom, it says here that these ones need to be planted in autumn and they won't flower until next s Spring. Autumn, Miggy repeated in surprise. Next spring? Oh, yes, said Bumble, nodding wisely. Nature moves at its own pace. I'm afraid this flower growing business is going to require a fair amount of patience. Oh, dear, patience. Miggy had never been very good at being patient, but she tried her best. Every day she woke up and the first thing she thought about was the bag of strange seeds sitting in the corner of her cave room. She would do her best to put them out of her mind, but she often found herself counting down the days until Autumn on her fingers. In the meantime, she tried her best to distract herself with the rest of life. She studied hard at troll school and helped her parents when they decided to do some redecorating to their cave. She went on the swings with her brother and helped her dad sell his artworks at the Rainbow Market stall. Flowers budded all around. The grass grew long. Baby foxes and panthers and little baby mice got born and grew up. The hot summer sun shone down on them, and by the time autumn came around, Miggy had almost forgotten about the strange seeds. It took Bumble arriving at the entrance to her cave one purple evening to remind her. It's time, he said. Let's get sewing. And so the two of them took the bag of seeds out to the back garden, where Miggy had already made a flower bed. She had turned over the earth with a trowel, exposing the rich soil hidden beneath the grass. Now, under Bumble's helpful instruction, Miggy poked little holes in the soil and filled each one with a little sprinkling of strange seeds. Then she covered up the holes and gave them a little water. When the job was done, Miggy and Bumble stepped back to admire their handiwork. All the seeds were planted in neat little rows, and Miggy's hands were caked in a satisfying layer of earth. And now, said Bumble, we wait for s spring again. Oh, wonderful, Miggy replied. More patience. Well, she was only joking, really. As it turned out, she was getting used to this patience thing. Besides, now that the strange seeds had been planted, there was more to do with them. No longer was it simply idle waiting. Miggy had to make sure the seeds were getting enough water down in the earth, but not too much. So she would check how damp the soil was and give it a little sprinkling of water whenever it was needed. Then, before winter crept upon them, she bought a bag of seed food from Mrs. Green Thumb at the Rainbow Market and sprinkled that on top of the flower bed. Then she took some blankets from the cupboard in the cave and laid them over the soil. Bumble said that a hard frost could damage the seeds, so it was best to keep them nice and snug, just like trolls in their caves and bees in their hives. Then winter came and left the trees and the grass encrusted with frosty diamonds. And one morning Miggy woke up to discover that a thick blanket of snow had fallen, rising all the way up to her knees, and they had to spend the day with shovels digging roots from the cave down into the Rainbow Town. It was a particularly snowy winter. They built snow trolls and had snowball fights. And once again Miggy almost forgot about the bag of strange seeds. Until the snows melted and the frosts thawed and in the new grass little white snowdrops and purple crocuses lifted their heads. It's almost springtime, Bumble the bee said to her one fresh morning. It must almost be time for our flowers to bloom. We should give them a few more waters to make sure they've got plenty of energy to grow. And so Miggy gave the flower bed a sprinkling of water. And the next day she gave it another. And the next day another. And the next day. Well, my, oh my. The next day she discovered hundreds of little sprouts popping their heads up through the soil. She headed straight off for the meadow to tell Bumble the news. And they returned and stared down fondly at the little seedlings with their tender green heads. With spring, the seedlings began to grow fast. It seemed they grew an inch a day, their stems elongating, leaves budding off, a big bulb of a bud appearing at the top of each stem and then cracking open like a nut. From out of the buds bloomed some of the most beautiful flowers Miggy and Bumble had ever seen. Pink and purple orchids, bright orange birds of paradise and others that Miggy had no idea the name for. Red flowers shaped like big bells, little multicoloured daisies. And now, said Bumble, it's time to start collecting the pollen. By the sounds of it, he couldn't wait. Bumble brought a whole team of his honeybee friends to Miggy's back garden and together they began to collect the pollen off the far off plants, which of course were no longer so far off, but right here with them. Then they took the pollen back to their beehives and began the mysterious work of honey making. A work that remained hidden behind the walls of the hives while Miggy waited outside. Soon enough, the honey was ready. Bumble buzzed out of the hive bearing a little thimble sized cup of honey for her to taste. Miggy took it gratefully and raised it to her mouth. Mmm. A sigh of appreciation escaped her lips. Before she could help it, the honey was runny and sticky on her tongue and tasted so utterly different from the honey the bees usually made, it was still very clearly honey. It had that honey taste. But over that honey taste she could make out all kinds of wonderful subtleties. Sweet floral flavours and something deep and dark and rich. Wow. She whispered. That is Some really delicious honey. I can't believe how good it tastes. Bumble and the other bees smiled and buzzed. I bet it will sell great at the Rainbow Market, Bumble suggested. Oh, definitely, Miggy agreed. Then she had another idea. But first I want to do something else. Miggy collected up all the new honey in a great glass jar and carried it down into the centre of Rainbow Town. She set up a long table in the town square. And then she asked the town message senders, a flock of friendly robins, to fly around and tell everyone to come down to the square and to bring with them bowls of porridge and slices of warm toast. Soon enough, the trolls of Rainbow Town descended on the town square. They all had similar expressions on their faces. Confusion mixed with intrigue. To be called down to the square bearing bowls of porridge and slices of toast. That was a fairly peculiar occurrence, not one that happened every day. But they trusted Miggy. She always had something up her sleeve. She never let them down. Once they were all gathered, Miggy thanked them all for coming. She said, as you all know, I have spent a whole year being very, very patient indeed. Last year my friend Bumble the honey bee and I planted a bag of strange seeds gathered from all kinds of far off places. We watered and cared for those seeds and waited for them to grow. Just last week they bloomed. And this, she said, breaking into a big smile and raising the jar of golden honey high above her head, this is the first jar of honey the wonderful honey bees have made in their hives using the far off flowers. I wanted all of us to enjoy the first jar at the same time. Murmurs of happiness went around the trolls gathered there. Thank you, Miggy. A few of them called out, and Miggy caught sight of her mum, red faced and teary with pride. The trolls formed an orderly queue and one by one they slathered the new strange honey onto their toast slices or into their bowls of porridge. Then a peaceful silence settled over the square of Rainbow Town. The kind of silence that only exists when a group of people are merrily eating something very delicious indeed. Birds twittered overhead and a gentle breeze rolled through the town. Everyone gathered there that day agreed that the new strange honey was some of the most delicious honey they had ever tasted. A lot of the trolls there lined up again and took second helpings. They thanked Miggy and the honey bees for bringing the strange seeds to Rainbow Town and growing them into such wonderful honey making flowers. And after that the strange seeds became a staple, not only in Miggy's back garden. But in the gardens all across Rainbow Town, Mrs. Green Thumb called in seeds from all kinds of unknown and distant places, and the trolls took handfuls of seeds and sowed them in the soil. Now, when spring comes around, there is always a whole new crop of far off flowers for the honey bees to sample. And Miggy can often be found rolling a cart through the town, the jars and jars jingling about as she delivers the golden honey to the townsfolk of Rainbow Town.