Facts about Honey Bees

Honey Bee Facts

Who is ready for some trivia and learning? Which is not a type of Honey Bee found in a hive? (A.) Queen, (B.) Wasp, (C.) Drone, or (D.) Worker.

Continue reading to learn some facts about the honey bee!

Let me tell you a little about the hard-working Honey Bees! Did you know that the Honey Bee has five eyes and six legs? The two big eyes on the Honey Bee are called compound eyes and they are on both sides of its head and the other three eyes are called ocelli eyes and they are on the center of the Honey Bee’s head. A Honey Bee has three body sections: The head, thorax, and abdomen. The thorax is the midsection of a Honey Bee and that is where its six legs are attached.

 

Facts about Honey Bees:

1. Honey Bees have two pairs of (4) wings. The wings are attached to the thorax. The two forewings are larger than the two hindwings. Their wings are made out of a material called chitin. Honey Bees use their wings to cool the temperature down in the hives and of course for flying to collect pollen to make honey!

2. Honey Bees live in large groups called colonies. The colonies (hives) consist of three kinds of adult bees: drones, worker bees, and a queen bee. There are hundreds of drone bees. A drone bee is a male Honey Bee. The role of the drone bee is to mate with the queen bee. There are over 20,000 plus worker bees. The worker bees are female. The role of the worker bee is to take care of the young bees and the queen bee. They also clean and make the hive bigger. They hunt for food and bring it back to the hive. They make the honey. Worker bees work hard.

3. Drone bees are not capable of stinging. Some people are allergic to bees. Bees can sting you so be careful around them. It is best not to go near them unless you know what you are doing. When a bee loses its stinger, it will die.

4. Bees can fly about 20 (MPH) miles per hour.

5. A Queen Bee can lay over 2500 eggs per day. When the queen bee lays eggs the Worker Bees choose about 15 to 20 of the fertilized eggs and the Worker Bees feed the larva royal jelly and whichever larva matures the quickest will become a queen bee.

6. Worker Bees make honey by flying to hundreds of flowers a day to get nectar. They hold the nectar in their stomach which is called a honey sac. Worker bees have two stomachs one for food and one for storing nectar until they return to their hive. They also have hairs on their hind legs (pollen basket) that allow them to carry pollen on them. When the worker bees return home the pollen is used to feed the larva and the rest is stored until used. The nectar is used to make the honey. The worker bees pass the nectar to the younger worker bees who chew the nectar for a while and then it is stored in the honeycomb where it will become honey.

7. Bees are very important to humans because they pollinate our food crops. Pollination is where bees or other insects move pollen from one plant to another. The pollen fertilizes the plant, and the plant is able to produce vegetables, fruits, and seeds because of the pollination. Give a big thanks to the Honey Bees and other insects that move pollen from one plant to another.

8. There are over 18,000 species of bees in the world and over 3500 of them come from the United States.

Can you share a Honey Bee fact with us?

 

Books about Honey Bees:

1. The Way of the Hive: A Honey Bee's Story by Jay Hosler

2. The Life and Times of the Honeybee by Charles Micucci

3. Flight of the Honey Bee by Raymond Huber

4. The Secret Life of Bees: by Moira Butterfield

Parents make sure all books are child friendly before reading them to your child/children.

Short story alert:

Once upon a time there was this tiny little honey bee that loved to fly way up high above the flowers. We will call her Swoopy! She would swoop down and land ever so lightly on a beautiful flower and get all covered in pollen. Once she is done collecting the pollen she flies way up high and swoops down upon another flower. When Swoopy lands on the flowers she is collecting pollen. Some bees collect both pollen and nectar, but Swoopy just collects pollen. Swoopy has to transfer pollen from one plant to another so the bees will be rewarded with nectar. Without pollen or bees like Swoopy, plants would be unable to reproduce. Bees like Swoopy are pollinators. Swoopy loves to to carry pollen from plant to plant. It is her job to do so. She works very hard at what she does. Swoopy is a worker bee and she gets the job done. When Swoopy has finished collecting enough pollen in her pollen baskets which are located on her hind legs she flies back to her hive and unloads the little balls of pollen she has collected. The pollen will feed the bees in the hive. Swoopy and the other worker bees make lots of daily trips to flowers to collect pollen and nectar to feed the baby bees and themselves. THE END!  by Mimi Jones