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Bee | Definition, Types, & Facts | Britannica

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Also known as: Apoidea

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University of Massachusetts Amherst - Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment - A Review on Bees (Feb. 26, 2024)

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What is a bee?A bee (superfamily Apoidea) is any of more than 20,000 species of insects in the suborder Apocrita (order Hymenoptera), which includes the familiar honeybee (Apis) and bumblebee (Bombus and Psithyrus) as well as thousands of more wasplike and flylike bees.What is the difference between bees and wasps?The principal biological difference between bees and wasps is that bees (except for parasitic bees) provide their young with a mixture of pollen and honey, but wasps feed their young insects or spiders. And whereas wasps are covered with unbranched hairs, bees have at least a few branched or feathered hairs to which pollen often clings.Do male bees collect pollen?Male bees are usually short-lived and never collect pollen, nor do they have other responsibilities providing for the young. Female bees do all the work of nest making and provisioning and usually have special anatomical structures that assist them in carrying pollen.Do all bees live in colonies?Most bees are solitary, or nonsocial, in habit, and do not live in colonies. Among such bees, there are no castes. Some solitary bees make chimneys or turrets at the nest entrance, and others nest in wood or the pith of twigs or canes.Why are bees important?The practical value of bees as pollinators of crops is enormously greater than the value of their honey and wax production. There is no doubt that bees and the flowers that they pollinate evolved simultaneously.bee, (superfamily Apoidea), any of more than 20,000 species of insects in the suborder Apocrita (order Hymenoptera), including the familiar honeybee (Apis) and bumblebee (Bombus and Psithyrus) as well as thousands more wasplike and flylike bees. Adults range in size from about 2 mm to 4 cm (about 0.08–1.6 inches).plasterer beeClose-up of a plasterer bee (Colletes daviesanus)(more)Bees are closely related to certain types of wasps, the principal biological difference between them being that bees (except for parasitic bees) provide their young with pollen and sometimes honey, whereas wasps feed their young animal food or provision their nests with insects or spiders. Associated with this difference in food preference are certain structural differences, the most essential being that wasps are covered with unbranched hairs, whereas bees have at least a few branched or feathered hairs to which pollen often clings.

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nectarA honeybee (Apis) drinking nectar from a flower.(more)Roles of bees and flowers in European woodlandsLearn about ecological relationships between bees and various woodland flowers. Plant-pollinator interactions are not always mutually beneficial and can include nectar-robbing and deception.(more)See all videos for this articleHow do bees make honey?Overview of how honeybees produce honey.(more)See all videos for this articleBees are entirely dependent on flowers for food, which consists of pollen and nectar, the latter sometimes modified and stored as honey. There is no doubt that bees and the flowers that they pollinate evolved simultaneously. As bees go from flower to flower gathering pollen, a small amount is rubbed from their bodies and deposited on the flowers they visit. This loss of pollen is significant, for it often results in cross-pollination of plants. The practical value of bees as pollinators is enormously greater than the value of their honey and wax production.sweat beeBicolored striped sweat bee (Agapostemon virescens) foraging on a coneflower.(more)Male bees are usually short-lived and never collect pollen, nor do they have other responsibilities in connection with providing for the young. Female bees do all the work of nest making and provisioning and usually have special anatomical structures that assist them in carrying pollen. Most bees are polylectic, meaning that they gather pollen from a wide variety of flowers. However, some bees collect pollen only from flowers of certain families, others from flowers of certain colours. Oligolectic bees gather pollen from only a few related kinds of flowers. The mouth parts of bees, like the pollen-collecting and pollen-carrying devices, seem to be adapted to different flowers.blue mason beeFemale blue mason bee (Osmia caerulescens) flying into an insect box in a garden, carrying leaf mastic (chewed leaf sections) to seal nest cells.(more)Most bees are solitary, or nonsocial, in habit and do not live in colonies. In these species each female makes her own nest (usually a burrow in the ground) and provisions it. Among such bees there are no castes. Some solitary bees make chimneys or turrets at the nest entrance, others nest in wood or in the pith of twigs or canes. Most solitary bees are short-lived as adults. Some species may be in flight only a few weeks of the year, having spent the rest of the year in their cells as eggs, larvae, pupae, and young adults.Solitary bees provide all of the food the larvae require to complete development when the cells are sealed. Social bees, such as the bumblebee and the honeybee, feed their young progressively. For the life cycle of social bees, see bumblebee; honeybee.

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red mason beeClose-up of a red mason bee (Osmia bicornis). (more)Learn how invasive species and habitat destruction have threatened Hawaii's yellow-faced beesLearn about conservation efforts to help the endangered yellow-faced bee, whose populations are threatened by habitat loss and invasive plant and animal species.(more)See all videos for this articleThe Apoidea includes seven families: Colletidae, which are primitive wasplike bees consisting of five or six subfamilies, about 45 genera, and some 3,000 species; Andrenidae, which are medium- and large-sized solitary mining bees, including some parasitic species; Halictidae (mining, or burrowing, bees), the best-known of which is Dialictus zephyrus, one of many so-called sweat bees, which are attracted to perspiration; Melittidae, bees that mark a transitional form between the lower and the higher bees; Megachilidae (leaf-cutting and mason bees), noted for their elaborate nest structures; Stenotritidae, a small family of Australian bees; and Apidae (bumblebees, honeybees, carpenter bees, cuckoo beeds, and digger, or mining, bees).

Africanized honeybee and European honeybeeAn Africanized honeybee (left) and a European honeybee on a honeycomb.(more)The so-called killer bee is a hybrid between an African subspecies and a subspecies of European honeybee. The Africanized honeybee resulted from the accidental release of African honeybees in Brazil in 1957and their subsequent crossbreeding with local European honeybees. Although it is not more venomous than the European form, it reacts much more quickly to perceived threats to the colony, attacks in number, pursues for a longer time and greater distance, and takes longer to calm down. They have been considered responsible for hundreds of deaths. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello.

Honeybee | Characteristics, Habitat, Life Cycle, & Facts | Britannica

Honeybee | Characteristics, Habitat, Life Cycle, & Facts | Britannica

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honeybee

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honeybee

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IntroductionApis speciesHoneybee sexes and castesLife cyclePolyandryHivesDiseases of honeybees

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University of Missouri Extension - Honey Bees as Pollinators, Their Habitats and Products

University of Delaware - Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium - Honey Bee Biology

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University of Missouri Extension - Honey Bees as Pollinators, Their Habitats and Products

University of Delaware - Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium - Honey Bee Biology

Live Science - Here's all the buzz about honeybees

National Geographic Kids - 10 facts about Honey bees!

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honeybee - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Also known as: Apini, honey bee

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honeybee

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Animals & Nature

Also spelled:

honey bee

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Charles Henry Turner

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Apis

black dwarf honeybee

dwarf honeybee

giant honeybee

Eastern honeybee

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University of Georgia Extension - Honey Bees and Beekeeping (Feb. 23, 2024)

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domestic honeybeeDomestic honeybee (Apis mellifera).(more)honeybee, (tribe Apini), any of a group of insects in the family Apidae (order Hymenoptera) that in a broad sense includes all bees that make honey. In a stricter sense, honeybee applies to any one of seven members of the genus Apis—and usually only the single species, Apis mellifera, the domestic honeybee. This species is also called the European honeybee or the western honeybee.honeybees: queen, worker, dronenectarA honeybee (Apis) drinking nectar from a flower.(more)All honeybees are social insects and live together in nests or hives. The honeybee is remarkable for the dancing movements it performs in the hive to communicate information to its fellow bees about the location, distance, size, and quality of a particular food source in the surrounding area.

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The following sections provide an overview of the different honeybee species, honeybee biology, and diseases of honeybees. For more detailed information on honeybees, their colonies, and diseases, see the articles beekeeping and colony collapse disorder. Apis species With the exception of A. mellifera, all other Apis species are confined to parts of southern or southeastern Asia. A. florea, the dwarf honeybee, occurs in southern Asia, where it builds its nests in trees and shrubs. A. andreniformis, the black dwarf honeybee, is native to forested habitats of southeastern Asia. A. dorsata, the giant honeybee, also occurs in southeastern Asia and sometimes builds combs nearly three metres (more than nine feet) in diameter. A. cerana, the Eastern honeybee, is native to southern and southeastern Asia, where it has become domesticated in some areas. It is very closely related to A. koschevnikovi, or Koschevnikov’s bee, which is found only on Borneo and several other islands in Southeast Asia and on the Malay Peninsula. A. nigrocincta is native to Indonesia and Mindanao island in the Philippines. There are also a number of subspecies and strains of Apis. honeybee body planBody plan of a honeybee.(more)A. mellifera is about 1.2 cm (about 0.5 inch) long, although size varies among the several strains of this species. The head and thorax, or midsection, are somewhat bristly and vary in colour according to the strain. Two large compound eyes and three simple eyes, or ocelli, are located on top of the head. Keen eyesight is complemented by two sensitive odour-detecting antennae.

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Africanized honeybee and European honeybeeAn Africanized honeybee (left) and a European honeybee on a honeycomb.(more)Africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellata ×A. mellifera) are a hybrid honeybee that resulted from the accidental release of African honeybees into the Western Hemisphere in 1957 and their subsequent crossbreeding with local European honeybees. They are generally smaller and more defensive than their European counterparts.   Honeybee sexes and castes There are two honeybee sexes, male and female, and two female castes. The two female castes are known as workers, which are females that do not attain sexual maturity, and queens, females that are larger than the workers. The males, or drones, are larger than the workers and are present only in early summer. The workers and queens have stingers, whereas the drones are stingless. Queen honeybees store sperm in a structure known as the spermatheca, which allows them to control the fertilization of their eggs. Thus queens can lay eggs that are either unfertilized or fertilized. Unfertilized eggs develop into drones, whereas fertilized eggs develop into females, which may be either workers or virgin queens. Eggs destined to become queens are deposited in queen cells, which are vertical cells in the honeycomb that are larger than normal. After hatching, the virgin queens are fed royal jelly, a substance produced by the salivary glands of the workers. When not fed a diet consisting solely of royal jelly, virgin queens will develop into workers. During the swarming season, in the presence of a weak queen or in the absence of a queen, workers may lay unfertilized eggs, which give rise to drones. Life cycle honeybee life cycleLife cycle of the honeybee.(more)For all three forms of honeybees, eggs hatch in three days and then develop into larvae that are known as grubs. All grubs are fed royal jelly at first, but only the future queens are continued on the diet. When fully grown, the grubs transform into pupae. Queens emerge in 16 days, workers in about 21 days (on average), and drones in 24 days. After emerging, the queens fight among themselves until only one remains in the hive. The old queen and the majority of her workers typically have left the hive by the time the new queens emerge. The swarm, which typically reproduces during swarming, may form two or more new colonies at different nesting sites. Polyandry A queen will often mate with many drones, a mating behaviour known as polyandry. Polyandry increases genetic diversity within a colony and thereby improves colony fitness and survival. Genetically diverse colonies have characteristics—such as increased population size, foraging activity, and food supplies—that favour the production of new queens and the formation of new colonies. Hives Investigate how honeybees construct combs out of wax to store honey, plant nectar, and bee breadHoneybees (Apis mellifera) use wax produced in the worker bee's body to build a honeycomb composed of two layers of six-sided cells(more)See all videos for this articlehoneybee and irisA honeybee (Apis mellifera) pollinating a blue iris (Iris). Flecks of pollen grains dislodged from the stamens by the foraging bee can be seen on the bee's body.(more)The hive is a series of combs composed of two layers of six-sided cells made of wax produced and secreted by the workers. Food in the form of honey, plant nectar, and so-called bee bread, made from pollen, is stored in the cells. Honey, which the bees produce from the nectar of flowers, was virtually the only form of sugar readily available to humans until modern times. For this reason, honeybees have been domesticated by humans for centuries. The art of caring for and managing colonies of honeybees is known as beekeeping. Besides producing honey, honeybees play an important role in agriculture as pollinators of a wide variety of domesticated plants.

Diseases of honeybees Honeybee colonies are susceptible to a variety of diseases and parasites. Examples of agents that have been particularly devastating for colonies in Europe and North America include the nonnative parasites Varroa destructor and Tropilaelaps clareae. Colony collapse disorder (CCD), which was first reported in 2006 in the United States, caused massive colony losses and presented significant challenges for crop pollination, a major service of the beekeeping industry in North America. The detection of CCD also heightened previous concerns about suspected declines in honeybee populations in the United States and elsewhere. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello.

10 facts about honey bees! | National Geographic Kids

10 facts about honey bees! | National Geographic Kids

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10 facts about honey bees!

Find out all about our brilliant bees!

Calling all budding – or should we say buzz-ing – young naturalists! Join National Geographic Kids as we get the lowdown on one of our planet’s most fascinating insects in our ten facts about honey bees!

Facts about honey bees

1. Honey bees are super-important pollinators for flowers, fruits and vegetables. This means that they help other plants grow! Bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts, allowing plants to grow seeds and fruit.

2. Honey bees live in hives (or colonies). The members of the hive are divided into three types:

     Queen: One queen runs the whole hive. Her job is to lay the eggs that will spawn the hive’s next generation of bees. The queen also produces chemicals that guide the behaviour of the other bees.

     Workers: these are all female and their roles are to forage for food (pollen and nectar from flowers), build and protect the hive, clean and circulate air by beating their wings. Workers are the only bees most people ever see flying around outside the hive.

     Drones: These are the male bees, and their purpose is to mate with the new queen. Several hundred live in each hive during the spring and summer. But come winter, when the hive goes into survival mode, the drones are kicked out!

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3.  What are these buzzing bugs most famous for? Delicious honey! But did you know they produce honey as food stores for the hive during winter? Luckily for us, these efficient little workers produce 2-3 time more honey than they need, so we get to enjoy the tasty treat, too!4. If the queen bee dies, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva (the newly hatched baby insects) and feeding it a special food called “royal jelly“. This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen.

5. Honey bees are fab flyers. They fly at a speed of around 25km per hour and beat their wings 200 times per second!

6. Each bee has 170 odorant receptors, which means they have one serious sense of smell! They use this to communicate within the hive and to recognise different types of flowers when looking for food.

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable ‘Buzz about bees’ primary resource, all about these awesome insects? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

7. The average worker bee lives for just five to six weeks. During this time, she’ll produce around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.

8. The queen can live up to five years. She is busiest in the summer months, when she can lay up to 2,500 eggs a day! 

9. Honey bees are also brilliant boogiers! To share information about the best food sources, they perform their ‘waggle dance’. When the worker returns to the hive, it moves in a figure-of-eight and waggles its body to indicate the direction of the food source. Cool, huh?

10. Sadly, over the past 15 years, colonies of bees have been disappearing, and the reason remains unknown. Referred to as ‘colony collapse disorder’, billions of honey bees across the world are leaving their hives, never to return. In some regions, up to 90% of bees have disappeared!

We can all do our bit to support these brilliant bugs, gang! Why not plant flowers rich in nectar, such as lavender and bluebells, which will help bees find the food they need? And when your family are buying honey, try to choose varieties that are locally made, to support our honey bees and their beekeepers!

If you enjoyed learning about honey bees, check out these insect articles! Learn 25 cool things about bugs, discover cool ladybird facts, ant facts and dung beetle facts, or find out about the butterfly life cycle! 

What did you think of our facts about honey bees? Let us know by leaving us a comment, below!

Images ⓒ Getty Images: Bees on honeycomb, (81154415). Picture of a honeybee on a pink flower: Photograph by Manfredxy, Dreamstime. Picture of a honeybee on a purple flower: Photograph by Daniel Vincek, Dreamstime. Picture of a honeybee on a white background: Photograph by Daniel Vincek, Dreamstime.

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COMMENTS

Honey honey

' Honeybees' Are the best bees! No other bees are better than this.

nice

Emily

Manasvi

Wow!Bees are so interesting! they are the best!

Ellis

Very informative. We are doing our bit with lots of lavender plants and bluebells too. We have even welcomed our first hive to our garden today!

Aarohi. Bansal

A G.

bees R very usefull without bees no fruits flowers vegtables so please take care of bees

Payton

good!

Payton

This website is so good! It helped me fin really interesting facts about honey bees for school!! USE THIS IS TO AWESOME

Payton

This website is really good. It helped me find some interesting facts about honey bees, which I really needed. Use this website for interesting facts!!!! I LOVE ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

pandas

hi

yuggyy

aaa i hate bees

will

Increadible

SPENCER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gurucharan

That was amazing!!

Samuel Prateek

I am enjoying reading these facts. Got some new things about honeybees and it is really interesting

Jeslin keziah

Kavin Sidharth

Dhruvan

liked the facts of bugs

Nancy.Allen

WOW

Cool

Bella

i love this this is so interesting

mck12625

wow that is so cool

Bella

??????

Amazing! It makes me want to protect bees even more!

lonel

poor bees -90%

Joe

ann ek jvddnncd

Chris

It was interesting

Chris

It was interesting

Muhammad Samiullah

Perfect and amazing information. A really deep experiment. I appreciate the keen interest of scientist

aarya singh

wow!

Lacey

Hi nice sight I luv it

james talbot

this is an amazing book i love it so much its intresting.

isla shah

woow

isla shah

OMG this is such a good app to use i am teling all my friends about this

meg

hi

MWYSO

hi

Nathan

I’m researching bees right now and they are cool!

Amelia B.

Love this! So many facts!

TheMeganPlays

i loveee bees! make sure to subscribe!

AYAAN PATEL

HELLO NAT GEO KIDS WEBSITE

AYAAN PATEL

THIS IS ANICE PLACE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ANY ANIMAL

cheetah and mouse

poor honey bees. I have an idea, make posters about honey bees and how we need to save them.

American gold finch

hello

hi

I think this is cool

Nice!

samantha

i love bees im doing a speech this will help so much

iyuiyuiyuiyui

c o o l

Sam

Today me and mum saw a pinkish red bee or wasp and were wondering what it was.

livvie

love it

jeellispow

their they make delicious hunny.

samc

JoelO

Cool!

nobody

bees rule

save them

raging reptile

save the bees

please save the bees

lazy lizard

bees are seriously awesome ! we need to save them

Mayaar

I like it

:)

hello

Lets take action!

Luca

like!

ruby

queenCookie

WOAH! supaaa cool!

Bea

Cool!!

tailaaplays

THEY ARE CUTE ALL LOT FOREVER AND I AM DIEING

so cool

Charity. M

Save the bees!

BROCK

that was cool bruh

erec

interesting

Harry

Hi

elise

So cool

msg card

nice

Dr. Cheese

Cool

Axolotl

I love it!

i love learning about bees with this

E

lol

Sofia Leon

this was pretty helpful for my teacher so I tried it out

kishh0302

WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

i enjoyed this (a bit)

bob

hi

nani

wow, this helped me make fact book of animals and these facts are pretty interesting, thank you SOOOO much for these awsome, amazing and fantastic facts about bee's! By the way, this is my nickname not what in japanese and thanks!!!

nani

woah!!

big bot

bees = YAYYYYY

Gabrial

Great

gobgob

Awesome info, absolutely amazin!

Denise

Ɩɛɬʂ ɬąƙɛ ąƈɬıơŋ ʟєṭṡ ṭѧҡє ѧċṭıȏṅ L▇e▇t▇s▇ t▇a▇k▇e▇ a▇c▇t▇i▇o▇n▇ L e t s T a k e A c t i o n

Teresa Harris

We have seen the decline of honey bee’s this year as our garden suffered greatly . We had slow growth and very few blooms resulting in huge plants with little to no vegetables . We have not seen any honey bees this year.

Basma

That information is going to help for my school project and bees

nevaeho@tkc.wa.edu.au

hii

Tyler

Cool

blakel16

yay!!

wps

pretect honey BEES!

Larzyparzy18

Save the bees!

Billy

Can bees make honey

A.A.Elatik

cOOL

larzyparzy18

save the bees!

Tyler

Save the bee hives’s

Tyler

Save the bees

land of lucas

I love bees

Rory

They're fascinating and I'm thankful for them.

Sephy

Love

Sephy

I love nature

Anna burns

Thnx for the facts☺☺☺☺☺

Max

Let’s take action

Mynameisthis

Nice

Shark boy

Wow

It help my with my assessmnts on Friday.

sashi

wow i thought i knew so much about bees but really i knew barely anything

Mackenzie

Good

sash

cool

I AGREE!!

Tracy Discombe

I have found a honey bee and it has a broken wing. How do I look after it?

Chad

Nice!

dcrsquid

this is realy cool

Harryeet

cool

paige

I love you app

Warrior cat

This really helped my homework on bees! Who new Bees were so cool?!

Paige

I love this i've learnt so much!!

Nisha

Hi I hope I have a great comment

Susan

We have honey. Red s doesn’t plant fibers for them!

Nortonics

#15 - we now know. Quit putting that stuff on veggies, trees, and other fowlage. There is alternatives...

Donald Timpson

Very interesting, they are a wonderful gift to us all, There is nothing like honey. A tsp every day, I do hope that the situation of hives disappearing/bees improves in the near future. Where would we be without the bee.

Tristan

WOW! This is so cool!

David

Bees are important for honey

ASH

i'm a muslim , and there is a chapter in the holy QURAN titled ( the bees ) ? WHAT AMAZE ME IS : IT MENTIONS THE BEES AS FEMALES ? ! WHICH IS TRUE , BECAUSE THE MAJORITY OF THEM ARE FEMALES . THIS IS KNOWN MORE THAN 1400 YEARS AGO ? !

Epic facts right there!!

SANDY BOWER

My grandchildren & I think your facts are brilliant thankyou :):)

lion boy

I have to do a report about bees so I am studying them and bees live in my house they fly around in my back yard.

Lucy

This was really cool I learned a lot of stuff of here about honey bees

Fantastic facts

Ben

This was SO COOL!!!!!

Unicorn

This website was exactly what I needed about these fascinating bees.

Rey Mazola

Great honeybee explanation and great tool full of honeybee facts.

Sarah Hill

your facts are true and fantastic

Emma

I LOVE BEES

Anya

Nice sweet AWESOME!

Sol

Epic

Deano

"10. Sadly, over the past 15 years, colonies of bees have been disappearing, and the reason remains unknown". I think this must evolution happening, I wont have to eat my veges anymore. I am more evolved than a vegetarian.

Sarah

these are awesome facts about bees

lolboss989

Cool!

Ladybird

This was good

rori

this is cool

gabriel16835

Coool

Abby Macnamara

I think that this is a very helpful report for kids and adults.

PANDA

This is a great website.

flynn

that is really good informataon

Charlie

Hi I am Charlie I am 10 years old.i have learned a lot from this fun website and I recommend your website to my friends.thanks for your good work.

Jayden17

Great

ellie

I love your website

sweth

epic

the muzz

COOL

Sam

Cool

beau

that was a very helpful website

i love bees so much

will

i love bees so much!

Greg

Excellent.

Riley

Parasites are killing our bees.

Riley

I love your work on bees

lol

o

ĺioñs

Can you protect the bees in their hives?

Navid

Bees are the coolest bugs on earth. They do so much for us and are really interesting creatures. Bees die after they sting something but the queen bee doesn't. She lives in the brood box and the other bees look after her.

Fraser

Super duper!

Alisha

Why are bee colonies disappearing and honey bees are disappearing away from their own honey colony

pop

cool

karatie kid

good work

Abitha

Super

Alex

aloex

Nebin Babu

This is an amazing This is all i wanted for my revision

Drinkwater

lolololololololololololololololo

Anonymous

COOL

Dan

LOL

jud/jjj

lol

Dan&Jud

COOL

ridge

i like ti a lot

bro

its sad how bee's leave there hive

im dumd

hi my name is jeff

Bea arebella dafny powell

great facters people

Will

LOL LOL

Parker

don't let use down

popsickel

lol

tiffy

yeah

pac man

ssssssssssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

billy bob joe

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dude

chicken

this website is siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccckkkkkkkkkk

bob

sick

linus and jason

lol lol lol=)

Isabella

Cool my name is Isabella

jack

XD

libby

so cool, I didn't know how many eggs a queen bee could lay every day

Ella ward

This website is awesome I can see most likely anything thanks for doing this for us all

woooo

woooooooooooo . three hours later wooo woo wooooo woo wooooooooooooooo

Moirin

I love honey bee's!

madz

hi

lo

lo lo lo lo

ben 10

bee

Pbgfg

Hi

Trinity

you to good

pyepper

LOL

jeff

sup

Haylee

This is a good thing for people that are learning about bees like me.

jeff

hi

so cool man

ya

Aliyah

hhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww

Chloe

Cool

Trinity

Amazing

someone

great info:)

someone

great info.

Lucy

I Love N.G.K

Jenny

LoL

joel

this website is the best thing ever!!!

kaylee

bees are the best

amazing ness

wowwwww

angel1123

the facts are great i love bees

Keira

I am working on a fact sheet about honey and bees this really helped me

W.D Gaster

What is royal jelly for???

De'aisa

This site is amazing!!

Martin

cool

aaniyah

i love this

lily

wonderful

HARMAN

Bees are the best

love it

barby ce

i love bees

XD

Jemma

I like the way bees build their hives!

AMAZING

COOL BEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tana

Wow

Anais

Cool

Mallory

Awesome!

so cool

Savannah

Cool

felena

wow i love bees

billy

awesome

chase

awesome

Llam

Bees are amazing

vhkhhk

lets support the bees

Me

We need to save them!

matthew

wow

cookies13670

I LOVE IT

hg

great

khion

love it and it helped me with my homework

LOL XD

awsome

owen

good facts

evan

awesome

Elizabeth

I love bees

alianna

i love bees

stanley

wow!

Yay

Good

Charles Barnsley

Thank you so much your facts were very useful I learnt a lot and i believe we should take action and protect these bees for a better world. Once again thank you.

cool

cool

c

cool

Amber

Cool! Bees are awesome!

Lily

Can you do one on how bees are endangered

Kyle

That is cool

crazy dodo

honey bees are so interesting

Rhaelani

Hello i really like bees! I hope you will download more facts about bees!

annaylle

i loveBeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Really helpful!

HI

COOL

cooll

alp

awsome

Great!

Cool

Anderson

Awesome

nova

cool

Wow

Wow

Tristan

Cool

dsds

how do honeybees pollenate

Charli

thanks for the information.

28easomc9637

WE NEED HONEYBEES!

kaylee

awsome

rokaya

i love bees

Cool

Emma

cool

nice

love bees

ssddd

cool

Kaela l

I love honey bees .

Kaela l

Good idea to write about honey bees.

Sam663

Save the bees!!!!!

burgini

EPIC!

SCIENCEBUG

BEES ARE AWESOME

chenoa

love it love animals

Santander

Great

isadora

This really helped me with my project . THANKS YOU NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS

anastasia

thank you for this information! it really helped.

Daryn

COOL

kicks08

cool

coya4432

awsome

Me super cool

If a queen bees dies what happened next

yaser

cool

edwardht

wow

Daliah

I love Nat Geo because it is really helpful.

caitlin0311

cool

Tamale

cool

emsy

good for projects

AnimalXplorers

We love your site and awesome information !!

Emily and Miriam

awesome information, specially about the queen bee!!

I loved how bees can flap there wings 200 times per second!

Asofitu

Im so happy

Amisadai

I love working with bees! I am Bristish but I live in Tanzania and we do beekeeping projects in rural villages. I have blogged about th bees on my blog mongergirls.blogspot.com

daniel12365

i like this site

MGGaming

this is a good website

Samuel-Hutson

This website is awesome

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

helpful fats

dinofish

cool

roxy

this is good info!

3JW

WOW!

coolguy22

this was really helpful form me. :-) ;-)

Aadam

Interesting information. TYSM.

sky1212

Wow

Stephanie000009

Brilliant!

Carlie

My dads a beekeeper and from what I have read they are all correct!

Crazyspace hopper16

We should all try to help save the bees

crymaga

i like the artical

Samuel_Barreiro

Wow

crb

I HAVE TO DO A PROJECT IN A WEEK this has helped me so much thank you creators of this

barbara-mcintosh@att.net

The Garden Clubs of MS sponsors a summer nature camp & this year, as part of the National Garden Clubs interest in protecting our pollinators, were studying bees and their importance to our survival. We have a beekeeper doing a program, a "FeedaBee" song video, fun facts to learn & bizzy games were playing with the campers!

WERE ON IT!!!!

Love the info here!

mcmillan

bees are the best

Lochlan

Nice

Cam

Wow

aidenb2003

awesome

no-one-knows

Really, really helpfull :-)

Savethebees6969

Save the lovely bees

JACKCOATES

COOL

Johnny461

Awesome stuff!

Georgeb

So interesting

bobbi

cool web site

Ashlyn10

awesome information

Ninjas

Thank you

Bob

Cool

anamonous

Lets save the honey bees!

alessandro

cool

Max78

Great facts

Simeon

I loved learning about Bees! :) yeah :)

mikiya

sweet

Autumn 1

Amazing facts!

garrbear

cooll

cvon

cool

garrbear

awsome

garrbear

cool

Agustino777

Amazing bees and wonderfull information for us.

liefy

amazing

123456789cat

awsome!

Honesty

Cool facts about all different types of bees and keep up the great work on here.

emr15

AWESOME facts about bees

Fuzz

This was some great info

AuroraD

#SaveTheBees #BuyOrganic

Arman

great

Arman

awsome

Marcela

Amazing

adam20

Cool, I Love it!

maile

cool

kk07

COOL

kid

cool

PrincessP75

Very informative!! ;-)

TAURIEL

AMASING FACTS SAD TO HEAR THAT THEIR DISSAPEARING...

Jack-trennerberg

Wow what an amazing article

ilhan

cool

87654

i love your facts about honey bees

Grace

This is a good website

Glen_Coco

:D this helped me with my assingmant 4 bees!

Xsara

This is very interesting

978816

this website is really useful I love it

jackleen

thanks

Luke

So good

Ashley

Cool

Zoey Liang

Lets help these bees by planting flowers! I know I will!

finster

great facts thanks

aidanw

i love bees3d

guy

wow!

adrian lopez

i love animals

hi

good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

promarde

Brilliant

Gffgfgfgbvv

Wow buzz goes bees

I an

Dunno but awesome

jkdfjifj

lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JHU

LOL!!!!!

Michael 744 -:)

hi

awesome

wow

aidanw

i love bees

Sue

Amazing facts. Some Ill never forget. Its funny how animals sort of connect in a way that seems highly impossible!

Courtney-Marie

we need more info this is not helpful

tgg

tell the bees i say HI !

lanya

hi

Zahara

that helps alot

Zahara

the facts help a lot

Zahara

i am so shoct

Nei

Amazing

maisha

hate your facts

maisha

cool facts

jamyal12

IT ASOME

ertew

hey coooooooool doods.

michjohn744

NONONONONONO

michjohn744

AWSOME

ummmmm

coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!

ummmmm

useful!!!!!!!!!

ummmmm

cool

BeeLover109

These are amazing insects and great facts :)

BeeLover109

These are such amazing insects :)

ugug

bees!!!

ugug

bees!

Jonathan

Awesom

bob

Boo:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:((:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:((:(:(:

Victoria Totten

So cool

1345destiny

I love honey bee,LOL

Alysia

I love it! Thank you!

Nightmare

This very important stuff and it is very good

Alysia

This sight was so informational thank you for making it. I loved the fact how they said the bee does a waggle dance I got extra credit for putting that. XD

Raziya

Great information about bees.

C

COOL

Guy

My friends best friend is a carpenter bee. No kidding.

Hdhdhe

Awesome

JordanR

Wow! These facts were really helpful for a project on bees I had to do for school! I also learned a lot!

sakinah

I am doing a book about bees and this is great for it

fghjjhgdtj

hdgfjfjdhtyhj

tsai

lol stun

fghjjhgdtj

i love bees

fghjjhgdtj

bees are poo

fghjjhgdtj

bees look like poo

tsai

hey david

Hell

Theis facs are so cool

seth barton 33 sdfghjk

it was good

edgar77

xbox is better than playstation

jon.4,,-

xboxes r betr than ps4

perchaun12

yaasss

perchaun12

lame idk what to do

perchaun12

lame idk what to do

dookie

lam

slot

hello mates

MARIASANCHES9999847621936518464

I LOVE IT A LOT IT HELPT ME WITH MI HOME WOURQUE

marielisa

an awsome web site ps i all

ready see your magisienes

puppylover01

This is so helpful

Hammad mobeen

Cool

Puffinlover22

i was buzzing reading this. love bees

Unknown22

Very cool

sierra-lay

I had a honey bee paper to write and I got a lot of stuff off of this web sight.

lunagirl

cool thanks this is really helping

DanInCanada

Cool facts! But note that for #4, ALL the bees are fed royal jelly. Butonly the (future) queen is fed it for more than 3 days.

GiraffeGirl16

Awesome! Very helpful....Tks!!

Rily

Cool stuff

hannah

i like the cool facts

sheltoem

I haft to make an essay for 4H about honey bees thanks for the facts

MayLee

Sup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RRRRR

So cool!! Honey is bee vomit!!! You honey bees for honey just like you milk cows for milk!!!

RRRRR

COOL!!

Aditya

Save the HONEY!!!!!

L

Boo

dolphingirl

these facts are really good! OMG we need to support the bees!

MJB

cool

sally654

very good facts

Janelle

Bees are cool

Steven

Bees are so cool

Janelle

Its cool

Steven

Is cool

Poo

Yes we must help the honey bees!!

Alix

Wow

Poo

Awsome

ginny

cool facts it helped me on my bee report

Abeelia

BEErilliant!!!

Horsewolf

heeyy

Horsewolf

Hey u know I actually like bees. did u guys like know that bee stings are good for u?

willhh

121

Horsewolf

Oh, so cool, but I hate getting stung!

Horsewolf

Neat!!! I am using this for a science project!

pudgie1100

omgosh cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:-)

pudgie1100

cool

Dearbhla

This thing is awsome cool creepy and last but not least excellent

Dearbhla

Cool LOL awsome excellent

nut

bees are cool cows

nut

bees are cool fish

tylor

omg lol so cool

SuperSonic

Are teachers is making us do an essay and were not even helping them.

Jandra

I love this so much and the QUEEN BEE!

Charles22

Amazing!

Mariokart64

I hope bees are being saved right now but we can do are best to help them.

Snow10869

Nice facts.

meh

this is awesome

sportsrock200

LOL i would like bees even more if i was not severally allergic to them and i could die by getting stung in about 30 min.

mcboss1221

Honey bees are so intresting bra

!2

I liked the ten facts it was pretty awesome

Cameron32071

Cool

Boolp

Yay

now

nice bro!

Logan is the best dad

I love honey bees they make us honey

lora

this website is good

from ellie

Apple

Awesome!!!

Plant

Apple

Awesome!!!

Plant

lizziefarm2006

so good really can help you learn its so amazing get you teachers looking at it for a topic

lions123

amazing

aeae

love bees

bnnnnnnn

wow

ashie

needs more facts but cool

Hashah

number 10 is so sad! Wish that didnt happen!

Isabelle Peart

amazing

happiness2244

wow

Dr dragon

This is a good source for information about bees

Monica

Amazing!

ROWENA

I NEED HELP.CAN YOU TELL ME HOW DO BEES LOOK AFTER THEIR KIDS

xxloverbee

reealy epic

good45361

good

um

so cool

melodie123

love the facts !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

09n

love it

burnabb33

thanks for the facts

cool boy stars

so cool

SnowyStar2375

they are endangered D:

kcollier

best bee site

missykix_118

really like this website, use it loads on the geography homework and i would like really recommend it to anyone whose stuck on their homework!!!!

minecraftlover

cool be facts

Jolani

bee-utiful

POOJITHA

SUPER! this is a very good website . we can get nice points about honeybees. thank you very much.

Jolani

Bee-alishios

Jolani

Very important facts!

edward123

those facts rock

danman

it was awesome i will buy lavender

edward12345

cool

edward123

cool

name-is-jeff

GOOD JOB ON FACTS

edward123

great job on those facts

cool123

great job on those fact

coolgirl4

this is cool! i never knew so much before!

VDKSlover26

This was amazing info. Thank you so much. I helped a lot for my essay

Officially_Andrea

Tnx this was a lot of help with my homework! I can always rely on National Geographic!

Sf1234

Really helpful for my homework. Thanks

ta

so good lot of facts

clffrd

thanks this was so helpful im doing a science project on bees

gabi

i want to know what tomato ketchup is made out of.

123Cool dude

Brilliant website

123Cool dude

Brilliant bee facts really helped me with my assanment love this website

SmellyGiantBreath

I love bees, I made a website on them. What me and my friend like to do is help injured bees but so far weve only helped three. But, I think that bees are harmless and there is no chance of them stinging. They know that if they sting they die.

honeybeeprson67

thanks for the facts i need them for my insect research report

sniperandthewiffin

EPIC!!! LOVE THESE LITTLE BEES SOOOOO MUCH, MY DAD CALLS ME A BEE BECAUSE THATS MY NAME!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!!

Minty

Thanks for the facts- we needed them for our libary assinment!!

Minty

Amazing Facts!!!!#LOL

love8

bees sting me!

RG3

This is so fun!!!

leila

i love bees!!! bees are basically our lives

somone

Hey this is the best website, thanks because i was supposed to right 4 facts about it

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13andstillcrazyaboutanimals

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jeepers! what a overload of facts, but I love it!

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Wow, I just love honey bees sooo much! They are the cutest animal ever!

Thanks a bunch, sally and peeps xx

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the first time I know lol!

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Cool facts! My next door neighbour has bees, its amazing to think that honey comes from such a small thing!

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it is cool

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interesting!

bill

nice

kwh

Thank you for your article. We thought it was awesome! We are sad that honey bees are disappearing. We will all help play a role in saving the honeybees by planting more flowers that have plentiful amounts of nectar.

SassyCarrotGirl

This really helped me with school! Thanks!

smarts

I am doing a project about bees

Stephen_Jr

this is interesting

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wow i didnt know honey bees are cool

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these facts are cool

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I like it I did a speech about it

Girlfriend

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bee

bee are the most important ppollinators

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IM GOING TO WIN THE KINDLE FIRE

fruit

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Bees help our environment

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That so cool about the honey bees facts

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I have learnt a lot about bees and got a good grade in topic Im in the top group now

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sup

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AWESOME #dog

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This is a great website to use for facts #dog

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This was good info for my paragraph

I Don't really want to say my name

Thanks so much! I am doing a project on honeybees, so those facts were a great help!

amarhamdan

its awesome...

malikrivers

The reason queen bees are special are because they can control other bees. The queen also produces chemicals that guide the behavior of the other bees. This show using chemicals queen bees can control other bees. To conclude this I think that queen bees are very unique.

GIANNA

So Awesome and Amazing .

AA123

cool

Peyton

That bee keeper had a lot of bees on him

manjot

Beeeeeeeeeee are cool

MAHAILA

Wow bees are soooo cool I wish I could help the any suggestions. If so please post your comment

Elijah

I really love bees so much because they get pollen on their legs.

Ben

Awesome

Zakariya

I am upset to hear that the bees are dying.

So many people like the bees and I like them to.

My grampa works with bees and he gives me honey. I like it!

Zakariya

Bees are so popular all around the world!

They are my favourite!

After watching the documentary called "More than honey" I was so sad to see that so many bees are dying!

JJ

bees are nice and they are cool.

JJ

I liked that the bees protect there home.

Aidan

What do they eat

Nate

Bees are the best Ive been stung 1s buy them

Nate

To day at school we have 2 bees hives bees are the best

boss27

bees can tast with there stinger

silly 23

bees are so cool i wish i had one as a pet!

blake

dude its cool bees

max

I like it

nothing

wow so sad

Cool

Tons of info. Thanks so much

kye

the bee are the best in the wold

kye

l like the bee the bee arethe best

Dylan

I like honey bee and they are so so cute

Moriah

I absolutely LOVE National Geographic Kids! They have so many cool facts, games and cool weird but true things! Thanks so much for the facts about bees! I love bees, wasps and yellow jackets. Im a BIG fan!

Devontae

That bee is so pretty

Randy

This is raw

JJ

Superb Facts.

Jammypig

These facts were great for my homework! I was really stuck and then I came across this website. I didnt need to go on another website. Thank you national geographic kids!

layla.houda

i like this because im learning all about bees

dude

Amazing

Bronson

these are some amazing facts. Thanks.

crizeljoy22032

i think think this facts are awsome!!!

Ayla

I think the bee facts were really interesting!!!!! I will buy my honey in California because thagts where I live :)

Bryant

Thats so cool

Shanzie

Hi

I loved the ten facts for honey bees

cool

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18 May 2022

Story

Nature Action

Why bees are essential to people and planet

Photo: Shutterstock

The greatest pollinators

Bees are part of the biodiversity on which we all depend for our survival.

They provide high-quality food—honey, royal jelly and pollen — and other products such as beeswax, propolis and honey bee venom.

As the landmark 2019 report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) notes, “Sacred passages about bees in all the worlds’ major religions highlight their significance to human societies over millennia.”

Beekeeping also provides an important source of income for many rural livelihoods. According to IPBES, the western honey bee is the most widespread managed pollinator globally, and more than 80 million hives produce an estimated 1.6 million tonnes of honey annually.

And pollinators contribute directly to food security. According to bee experts at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, a third of the world’s food production depends on bees.

When animals and insects pick up the pollen of flowers and spread it, they allow plants, including many food crops, to reproduce. Birds, rodents, monkeys and even people pollinate, but the most common pollinators are insects, and among them, bees.

Bees at risk from pesticides, air pollution

But sadly, bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly under threat from human activities.

Bee populations have been declining globally over recent decades due to habitat loss, intensive farming practices, changes in weather patterns and the excessive use of agrochemicals such as pesticides. This in turn poses a threat to a variety of plants critical to human well-being and livelihoods.

Air pollution is also thought to be affecting bees. Preliminary research shows that air pollutants interact with scent molecules released by plants which bees need to locate food. The mixed signals interfere with the bees’ ability to forage efficiently, making them slower and less effective at pollination.

While the vast majority of pollinator species are wild, including more than 20,000 species of bees, the mass breeding and large-scale transport of pollinators can pose risks for the transmission of pathogens and parasites. According to the IPBES report, better regulation of their trade can decrease the risk of unintended harm.

Taking urgent action

But there are positive signs.

In May 2018, the European Union upheld a partial ban on three insecticides known as neonicotinoids to mitigate the lethal threat they pose to bees and their trickle-down effect on pollination as a whole.

This August, when world leaders gather in Kunming, China, at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15), they are expected to finalize the post-2020 biodiversity framework, which calls for, amongst other things, the reduction of pesticides by at least two thirds by 2030.

“Increasing crop and regional farm diversity as well as targeted habitat conservation, management or restoration, is one way of combating climate change and promoting biodiversity,” says UN Environment Programme (UNEP) biodiversity specialist Marieta Sakalian. “Governments need to take the lead.”

It is precisely to encourage governments, organizations, civil society and concerned citizens to protect pollinators and their habitats that the UN has declared 20 May World Bee Day.

World Bee Day raises awareness of the essential role bees, and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy. The date coincides with the birthday of Anton Janša, who in the 18th century pioneered modern beekeeping techniques in his native Slovenia and praised the bees for their ability to work so hard while needing so little attention.

For further information please contact Marieta Sakalian, Senior Programme Management Officer and Coordinator for Healthy and Productive Ecosystems at UNEP.

This World Bee Day, join the conversation on #WorldBeeDay, and do your part to #Savethebees

Here are some actions you can take to help preserve bees and other pollinators:

Plant nectar-bearing flowers such as marigolds or sunflowers for decorative purposes on balconies, terraces, and gardens

Buy honey and other hive products from your nearest local beekeeper

Raise awareness among children and adolescents on the importance of bees and express your support for beekeepers

Set up a pollinator farm on your balcony, terrace, or garden

Preserve old meadows, which feature a more diverse array of flowers, and sow nectar-bearing plants

Cut grass on meadows only after the nectar-bearing plants have finished blooming

Use pesticides that do not harm bees, and spray them in windless weather, either early in the morning or late at night, when bees withdraw from blossoms

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Key messages on pollinators from the May 2019 IPBES report

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UN Environment 2019 visual booklet on pollinators and pesticides: Keeping our bees safe

Pollinators under threat—so what?

Conservation and Management of Pollinators for Sustainable Agriculture, through an Ecosystem Approach

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see bee.

Leaf-cutting bee (Anthidium)bee, Any of some 20,000 insect species belonging to the superfamily Apoidea (order Hymenoptera), including the familiar bumblebee. Adults range in size from about 0.08 to 1.6 in. (2 mm–4 cm). Bees are related to wasps, but, unlike wasps, which can eat other insects, most bees are entirely dependent on flowers for their food. Male bees are usually short-lived and never collect pollen; female bees make and provision the nest and usually have special anatomical structures for carrying pollen. Most species are solitary. The so-called killer bee, an Africanized subspecies of Apis mellifera (see honeybee), reached the U.S. from Mexico c. 1990; killer bees react quickly and attack in number. See also Karl von Frisch.

honeybee Summary

Honeybee, (tribe Apini), any of a group of insects in the family Apidae (order Hymenoptera) that in a broad sense includes all bees that make honey. In a stricter sense, honeybee applies to any one of seven members of the genus Apis—and usually only the single species, Apis mellifera, the domestic

All About Honey Bees | Ask A Biologist

All About Honey Bees | Ask A Biologist

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show/hide words to know

Efficient: doing a job or task without wasting time or energy.

Gnarl: a rough twisted grained part, also called a knot, on a tree or branch.

Hive: the place where honeybees store their food, find shelter, and house their young.

Larva: the second, "worm-like" stage in the life cycle of insects that undergo complete metamorphosis (like caterpillars).

Pollinate: moving pollen from the male to the female component of a flower as part of the fertilization process in plants. Birds and insects often move pollen from flower to flower when gathering nectar and they are therefore called pollinators... more

Proboscis: a long mouth part found in most insects and some other animals used to suck up food.

Thorax: in general the part of the body between the neck and waist in humans and the central part of an insects body where the legs and wings are attached... more

The World of Honey BeesWhile walking through the park on a warm afternoon, you hear a soft humming in the air. This humming gradually builds into a low roar as you approach the old hollow tree in the center of the park. You’ve walked by this old gnarled willow a hundred times, but today you notice a line of bees. The bees soar back and forth out of the tree like hundreds of little buzzing helicopters. You make a mental note to give this old tree a wide berth. But wonder for a moment what it would be like to join the bee colony and travel inside the hollow.Honey bee collecting pollen from an artichoke flower. Its face is dotted with pollen and the hind legs are packed with pollen. Image by Charles Kazilek.If you were one of the worker bees that collects pollen and nectar you would be traveling in and out of the nest. When inside you see hanging sheets of comb with its hexagon cells. There are bees busy working the honey-filled cells on both sides. Some of the workers are building new cells. Others bees are tending to the young larvae. A very large bee is moving from cell to cell laying eggs. This is the queen. You go to a cell and deposit your nectar that was collected from a flower rich in the sweet fluid. This is just part of the life of a bee and what it is like inside a colony. There is much more that biologists are learning about these insects.Honey Bee BasicsThese hard-working little creatures are a vital part of our ecosystem. Scientists sometimes say that bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. They pollinate so many food plants that make our meals delicious and nutritious, including many fruits, vegetables and nuts. Bees spend their lives collecting pollen, which provide a source of protein to their developing youngsters. As pollen collects on their hairy legs, they move some of the pollen from the male to the female part of a flower. This fertilizes the female flowers and starts the process of making seeds for the next generation of plants.Although most bees and many insects and birds are pollinators, the honey bee is a favorite pollinator by farmers because their hives can be moved to different locations. Bees are extremely efficient in the pollination process. You might have read or heard that honey bees are disappearing and if that is true, our food supply could be at risk. Bee TalkWhat looks like squiggly lines and arrows to you is actually one way bees communicate through dance.Honey bees have an amazing way to communicate with each other. It’s not the same way you would talk to your sister or even to your pet. What do bees do? They dance. It is true. Worker bees returning to the hive with nectar or pollen tell other worker bees how to find the flower through dance. Biologists call it the waggle dance. You can even try it yourself, although your sister might look at you like you’re a little weird. Maybe a better way to learn about the bee dance is to play the Waggle Dance Game.Are All Bees the Same?Did you know there are many more species of bees than just the common honey bee? Scientists have discovered and cataloged thousands of different types of bees. There is even an Africanized honey bee that has a reputation for being more aggressive than its European honey bee cousin. Some bees are social like the honey bee and other bees solitary, like digger bees, and orchid bees.Explore some bee anatomy and become an expert on spotting honey bees. Learn the difference between an antenna and a proboscis.  Perfect your skills at identifying male and female honey bees. Then become a real detective so you can tell the differences between a honey bee, a wasp, a bumblebee and other kinds of bees.There are over 20,000 species of bees. None of these bees are honey bees. On the left is a carpenter bee. In the middle is an orchid bee. On the right is a sweat bee.This section of Ask A Biologist was funded in part by NSF Grant Award number 1556337.Additional images via Wikimedia Commons. Honeybee collecting nectar close up by Bob Peterson.

Read more about: Bee Bonanza

Be a Bee

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Honey and the Hive

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Article: Bee Bonanza

Author(s): Christopher M. Jernigan

Publisher: Arizona State University School of Life Sciences Ask A Biologist

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Date published: June 12, 2017

Date accessed: March 6, 2024

Link: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/honey-bees

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Christopher M. Jernigan. (2017, June 12). Bee Bonanza. ASU - Ask A Biologist. Retrieved March 6, 2024 from https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/honey-bees

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Christopher M. Jernigan. "Bee Bonanza". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 12 June, 2017. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/honey-bees

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Christopher M. Jernigan. "Bee Bonanza". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 12 Jun 2017. ASU - Ask A Biologist, Web. 6 Mar 2024. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/honey-bees

Modern Language Association, 7th Ed. For more info, see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/

Honey Bee collecting nectar from a flower. Learn how bees communicate to each other about the best flower patches in the game The Way of the Waggle Dance.

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1. Busy pollinating bees

Almost 90% of wild plants and 75% of leading global crops depend on animal pollination. One out of every three mouthfuls of our food depends on pollinators such as bees. Crops that depend on pollination are five times more valuable than those that do not.

© Ola Jennersten / WWF-Sweden

2. Honey I’m home!

Social bees, such as honeybees and bumblebees, often live in hives or nests, above or below the ground, while most solitary bees nest in the ground. Bees can be found in so many locations, some surprising. These include marshes, shingle, sand dunes, soft cliffs, heathlands, wetlands, chalk grasslands, quarries, gravel pits, sea walls and even post-industrial land.

© Suzie Hubbard / WWF-UK

3. UK Bees are being helped by a B-Line transport system

Imagine trying to travel around Britain without our road and rail network. Or imagine if nine out of every ten miles of road just didn’t exist – life would be impossible! B-Lines are an imaginative and beautiful solution to the problem of the loss of flowers and pollinators. The B-Lines are a series of ‘insect pathways’ running through our countryside and towns. They link existing wildlife areas together, creating a network, like a railway, that will weave across the British landscape.

Check out your area here

© WWF-US / Clay Bolt

4. Bringing a bee back to life

If you find a bumblebee which appears to be struggling, it may be that it is just resting, particularly if the bee is a queen in early spring. If you think the bee is struggling the best thing to do is gently put the bee onto a bee-friendly flower. 

If there are no bee-friendly flowers around, mix 50/50 white sugar and water to give the bumblebee a one-off energy boost, providing the carbohydrates it needs to fly. Simply offer a drop or two of sugar water up to the front end of the bee on a teaspoon or an upturned drinks cap in a sheltered place and allow the bee time to recuperate.  

(It is not advisable to use brown sugar as it is harder for bees to digest and don’t give bumblebees honey as this can contain pathogens.) 

©

5. Anyone, including you, can help a bee out

We can all do our bit to help bees whether that’s in our gardens, balconies or windowsills. You can also chat to friends and family about how cool bees are and help them to make their wild spaces bee-friendly. 

Plant a range of flowers in your garden so bees have access to nectar from March to October. Bees love traditional cottage garden flowers and native wildflowers, like primrose, foxglove, and marigolds.

© Kari Schnellmann

6. Bees actually have four wings

The two wings each side hook together to form one larger pair when flying and then unhook when they’re not flying.

©

7. Bee Gees

Honeybees have a dance move called the ‘waggle dance’. It’s not actually a dance move at all, rather a clever way of communicating between themselves to tell their nestmates where to go to find the best source of food. It took the researchers at Sussex University two years to decode the waggle dance.

© Martin Harvey / WWF

8. The Brainy Bunch

The buff-tailed bumblebee has a brain the size of a poppy seed. Which is incredible given the fact scientists have managed to train them to score a goal in ‘bee football’ in return for a sugary treat. Quite unbee-lievable!

©

9. They have surprisingly smelly feet

Scientists from the University of Bristol have discovered that bumblebees have the ability to use their ‘smelly footprints’ to distinguish between their own scent, the scent of a relative and the scent of a stranger. This means they can improve their success in finding food and avoid flowers that already have been visited.

©

10. A dinner for Queens

If the queen bee dies in a honeybee hive the workers can create a new queen bee. They do this by selecting a young larva and by feeding it special food called ‘royal jelly’ the larva will develop into a fertile queen.

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IntroductionPhysical CharacteristicsBehaviorEating HabitsPollinationThe Sting and Other DefensesSocial InteractionsSocial BeesSolitary BeesNestsSocial BeesSolitary BeesParasitic BeesLife CycleTypes of BeesHoneybeesBumblebeesStingless BeesImportance to HumansConservationClassification

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Honeybees keep their food in honeycombs, which are made of wax produced by the bees’ bodies.

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Introduction

InteractiveEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.© Wirestock/Dreamstime.comEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Bees are flying insects that are closely related to ants and wasps. There are more than 20,000 bee species, and they are found in every part of the world except in Antarctica. Common bees include honeybees and bumblebees. In Central America and South America many people are familiar with stingless bees. Blue bees are not as well known. However, they can be found in various places, including the United States, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Physical Characteristics© karthik photography—Moment Open/Getty Images

Bees typically have short, thick bodies covered with hair. Most bees have black bodies, many with yellow or brown markings. Others have yellow, red, brown, and metallic green or blue bodies, some with brilliant metallic red or purple markings. Honeybees are dark brown or black with yellow or orange stripes. Bumblebees are usually black with wide yellow or orange bands.Adult bees average about 0.08–1.6 inches (2–40 millimeters) long. One of the smallest bees is Perdita minima of North America. The largest bee is Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto), which is found in Indonesia. It has a wingspan of about 2.5 inches (64 millimeters). Honeybees and bumblebees range from about 0.5–1 inch (13–25 millimeters) long, depending upon the species.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Like all insects, bees have six legs and three body sections: the head, thorax, and abdomen. The head contains the brain as well as the eyes, mouth, and antennae. The thorax is the middle section, and it has three segments. The legs and the wings are attached there. A tiny waist connects the thorax and abdomen. The abdomen contains the digestive and reproductive organs. In bees that produce beeswax to make honeycombs, the wax glands are in the abdomen. In stinging bees, the stinger is at the end of the abdomen.Ordinarily, most bees fly about 15 miles (24 kilometers) per hour, but they can fly much faster. They have two pairs of wings. One pair is attached to each of the last two segments of the thorax. However, the front and back wings are joined so that they look like only one. Bees flap their wings some 230 times per second. The rapid movements of the wings make a humming sound in flight.A bee has five eyes. It has three simple eyes on top of its head and a large compound eye (made of multiple lenses) on each side of its head. Together, the different eyes help bees see color, pattern, and movement. The many tiny lenses of the compound eyes give them a total image in a mosaic of dots. Bees see all colors humans do except red. In addition, they see ultraviolet, which humans cannot. Ultraviolet is often reflected by red flowers. Bees can also detect a property of how light waves vibrate, called the polarization of light, which humans cannot. For example, in a blue sky polarized light forms a distinctive pattern around the Sun. Even when the Sun is behind the clouds bees can perceive that pattern and orient themselves to it.On the lower part of their heads bees have biting jaws (mandibles). They also have a long, slender tongue, called a proboscis, which they use for sucking and lapping. Bees can distinguish slight differences in sweet and bitter tastes, and they can also identify sour and salty tastes. The front legs and antennae, as well as the proboscises, are used for tasting. The antennae are primarily for sensing fragrances. Bees find the perfumes of flowers even more enticing than their colors and shapes. Bees have no ears. However, some, such as honeybees, can sense sound vibrations in the air through their antennae and legs.BehaviorEating Habits© toktanapat/Shutterstock.com

Most bee species drink nectar, the sweet liquid secreted by a flower’s glands. Depending upon its size and the length of its proboscis (tongue), a bee can sip the nectar from many kinds of blossoms.Once ingested, the nectar is stored in a special pouch called a honey stomach. Enzymes in the honey stomach mix with the nectar, and the nectar starts to become honey. After returning to the nest, the bee regurgitates, or brings up, the nectar and passes it into the mouths of other bees. Those bees add enzymes from their saliva, further turning the nectar into honey.The honey is then placed into the cells of the comb within the nest. The bees flap their wings near the nest to remove the excess water from the honey. When the honey has dried and thickened to the right consistency, the bees cap the cells with wax to preserve it. Humans collect and eat the honey that honeybees produce. Other bee species do not make as much honey. All bees that make honey use it as a food source.© Ed Reschke—Stone/Getty Images

Many bees eat pollen, which provides them with protein. Pollen is a group of microscopic spores that causes a plant to form seeds. As a bee collects nectar, it brushes up against the pollen on flowers. The pollen clings to special branched or feathered hairs on the bee’s body. After pollen has accumulated, the bee brushes it off and molds it into tiny balls mixed with nectar and saliva from its mouth. This is beebread, which worker bees feed to the young bees. The bee pushes these pellets into a particular formation of hairs or bristles for carrying them back to the nest. Honeybees have a pollen basket of stiff hairs on the hind legs. Leaf-cutting bees have a dense brush on the underside of the abdomen.Some bees, especially if nectar is limited or unavailable, may eat ripe fruit such as pears and peaches. Others may eat honeydew. Honeydew is a sweet secretion that aphids and other scaly insects deposit on plant leaves. Some bees prefer to eat dead animals, or carrion. These bees include the vulture bees (genus Trigona) of tropical South American rainforests.PollinationEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.© Jon Yuschock/stock.adobe.com

Bees are among the most important insects that pollinate plants. Pollination is the process of moving pollen grains from the stamens (the male parts of the flower) to the pistil (the female part of the flower). Once a sperm cell from the pollen meets an egg cell, fertilization occurs. The fertilized cell then develops into a seed. As bees visit a flower, they pick up pollen. Some of the pollen that clings to their bodies is deposited on the pistil of the flowers they visit, pollinating them.© Welpetz/Fotolia

Bees are attracted by both color and shape. They show a strong preference for flowers with elaborate embellishments and patterns of color, particularly in hues of yellow, blue, and ultraviolet. A more deeply shaded pattern is present near the center of some blossoms. This clearly marked area guides the bee to the nectar. The flower’s petals provide a landing platform for the bees. Often the bee’s weight opens the center of the flowers, exposing the nectar.The Sting and Other DefensesA female bee has an egg-laying structure called an ovipositor located at the end of her abdomen. The ovipositor also serves as a weapon and can inflict a painful sting. The bee’s sting has no food-capturing function. Bees use it for defense against animals and humans threatening them or their honeycombs and against robber bees and parasitic bees attempting to enter their nests.Most bees can sting many times without endangering themselves. A female honeybee, however, has a tiny, hook-shaped barb on the stinger that is caught inside the victim. The bee cannot fly away without tearing out her ovipositor and some internal organs—a fatal injury. After the dying bee has flown away, her venom sac and the muscles left attached to the ovipositor keep pumping venom into the victim. If a human is stung, the stinger should be removed as soon as possible without squeezing the venom sac.Africanized honeybees, also called killer bees, are particularly aggressive. They are descended from African bees that were imported into Brazil in 1956. The imported bees escaped in 1957 and began to mate with domestic, or European, honeybees—the kind found in most hives. Although the sting of one Africanized bee is no more dangerous than that of a domestic honeybee, Africanized bees release a chemical when they attack that signals other bees to come and join the attack. These bees may swarm over great distances in pursuit of a raider of their nests. They have been known to attack in such numbers as to kill farm animals and humans. Since 1957 they have been moving steadily northward. The first swarm entered the United States in October 1990. Their range today covers the greater part of the southwestern United States, including southern California, southern Nevada, and all of Arizona. In addition, an increasing number of Africanized honeybees have been observed in other southern states, including Arkansas, Louisiana, and Florida.© marcophotos—iStock/Getty Images

Bumblebees sting when their nest is disturbed, but they are not easily provoked when they are gathering nectar. Sweat bees, attracted by perspiration, may alight on a person’s skin in summer. Their stings are sharp but not as painful as those of the honeybee.Stingless bees bite enemies—including humans—with their strong jaws to defend their colony. The bites of some stingless species contain formic acid, which irritates the skin. Some aggressive species will die before letting go of the enemy. Stingless bees also lay a sticky resin of nectar and pollen outside the nest. The resin traps enemies such as ants, which the bees then kill.Social InteractionsScientists classify bees as either social bees or solitary bees. Social bees live together and cooperate with others to build the nest and to feed and protect the young. Solitary bees are nonsocial and care only for themselves and their immediate brood.Social BeesAdstockRF

Of the more than 20,000 bee species on Earth, only about 2,000 are social. They include honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees. Social bees live in colonies, which may contain as few as 10 or as many as 80,000 bees. They are separated into castes, or groups, made up of a queen, workers, and drones. Each caste performs a specific duty.There are two kinds of females among the social bees, and they look quite different. Each colony has a sexually mature, fertile female called a queen. The queen is long and slender in shape. The other females in the colony are sexually undeveloped and are called workers. They are small and chunky. The workers are the queen’s helpers, acting as housekeepers, nurses of the young, and nest builders. The workers also forage for food and guard the nest from intruders. Only a small portion of social bees are drones, or males. They have no responsibilities other than to mate with the queen.Solitary Bees© Mickis Fotowelt/stock.adobe.com

The vast majority of bees—including leaf-cutting bees, mining bees, and carpenter bees—are solitary. However, they often live as close neighbors to others like themselves. Unlike social bees, each solitary female can mate and lay eggs. She also makes her own nest for her offspring. Since solitary bees live alone, they have no caste system. They are generally nonaggressive because they do not make honey or have a queen to protect.Nests© Peter J. Traub/stock.adobe.com

All bees use nests. A nest serves as a home and helps to keep offspring safe. Bees vary greatly in the type of nest that they use. Nests may be attached to trees or other objects, underground, or in rotted wood. Some bees take over other nests rather than build their own.Social BeesAdstockRF

Wild honeybees build nests in hollowed out trees or under thick, hanging branches or rock outcroppings. Enclosed areas provide shelter from the elements and protection from predators. Darkened interiors help the worker bees to produce beeswax. Beeswax is manufactured in a bee’s abdominal wax glands. The bees collect it and mold it into hexagonal, or six-sided, cells. Multiple cells make up a honeycomb. The cells hold honey and pollen and serve as a home for the eggs as they develop into larvae and then bees. The bees add more cells as the colony grows. Each nest may last for 20–30 years.Like honeybees, bumblebees prefer dark, concealed spaces as nests. Potential nests include ground burrows that other animals made and abandoned and hollowed out trees. Bumblebees may even make their home under thick grasses or branches or in cracks of buildings. After the queen finds a nesting place, she makes rounded pots out of beeswax. The pots are connected but are of various sizes, making a lopsided clump. After filling the pots with nectar and pollen, the queen lays eggs. This is the beginning of the colony, which may reach more than 400 individuals.The males leave the nests during the summer to find queens with which to mate and die shortly thereafter. The colony of female workers prospers until late autumn, at which time the workers and the old queen die from the cold. Only the queen in each colony born during the current year will survive the winter. She hibernates, usually in the ground, and emerges in the spring to begin the nesting process once again.Solitary BeesAndy Sands—Nature Picture Library/Alamy

The numerous species of solitary bees make nests in various ways. Leaf-cutting bees, which are found throughout the world, are noted for building elaborate nests. The female bee searches for a convenient, ready-made space in such places as a hollow stem, rotten wood, or the ground. There she shapes her nest in the form of a long tunnel. She constructs a cell, using circles she cuts from the leaves of plants. (Some species use flower petals.) She lines the end of the cell and the side walls with the leaf pieces. When the cell is made, she stores a mixture of pollen and nectar inside, lays an egg, and closes the cell with more leaves. Then she begins the sequence again, constructing another cell attached to the first one. She continues her activities until the nest is filled.Joaquim Alves Gaspar

A female carpenter bee bores into a plant stem or even into a solid wood building, fence, or post to make a nest. She then makes a few individual cells in the tunnel and fills them with nectar and pollen. After depositing each egg in a cell, she seals the cells with chewed wood pulp. Successive generations of carpenter bees may use the same tunnels, which they expand and widen.© Henk/stock.adobe.com

Mining bees tunnel into hard soil, such as clay banks, to make nests. The female bee begins the nest by digging a short corridor that looks like a cave. She uses regurgitated water to help form the walls. In some species the female lines the tunnel with a secretion from a gland on her abdomen. This secretion helps to make the tunnel waterproof. Short hallways lead off the main corridor to the nursery cells. The bee then fills the cells with nectar for her future young and lays an egg on top. It is common for mining bees to build tunnels close to each other. However, each female is responsible for her own tunnel. Successive generations may use the same nests.Parasitic BeesParasitic bees, or guest bees, have no body parts for collecting pollen and do not feed or care for their offspring. Parasitic bees are so-named because they use the nests of other bees to lay their eggs. This behavior is known as brood parasitism. It is also observed in some birds, such as the brown-headed cowbird and the European cuckoo. (In fact, parasitic bees are often called cuckoo bees because of this behavior.)Some parasitic bees target solitary bees and their nests. The larvae (young form) of these parasitic bees kill the larvae of their hosts and take their place. By contrast, some parasitic bees move into established nests of social bees. There the parasitic bees kill the queen and make the worker bees take care of their offspring. Many species of sweat bees are parasitic.Life CycleEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

During its life, each bee undergoes a complete metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is a series of a changes in the body shape and structure as it develops after hatching or being born. The four stages of a bee metamorphosis are egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The average bee egg is a tiny white sausage-shaped object. Often it is less than 0.08 inch (2 millimeters) long. From the egg hatches the larva (the plural is larvae). The larva is a white wormlike grub with no eyes and no legs. After spending two or three weeks eating in its cell, the grub becomes less active as it enters the pupal stage. In some species the grub first spins a cocoon around itself before becoming a pupa. While outwardly still, inwardly the pupa is transforming into the adult bee.The sex of the bee in most species is determined by whether or not the egg is fertilized. Fertilized eggs develop into females, and unfertilized eggs into males. Male bees are called drones. They do no work and exist only for the possibility of mating with the females.Types of BeesHoneybees© Irochka/Fotolia

Honeybees are insects in the genus Apis. They produce honey from the nectar of flowers. Honey was virtually the only form of sugar readily available to humans until modern times. For this reason, humans have domesticated honeybees for centuries. The art of caring for and managing colonies of honeybees is known as beekeeping. The scientific name of the domestic honeybee is Apis mellifera. It is also called the European honeybee or the western honeybee. The domestic honeybee was originally native to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East but is now found on all continents except Antarctica. The other honeybee species are found in Asia.Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz

Honeybees are dark brown or black with thin yellow or orange bands. The domestic honeybee averages about 0.5 inch (12 millimeters) long. Other honeybees are smaller or larger, depending on the species. Honeybees are social insects and live together in nests or in hives that humans provide. Each nest may contain tens of thousands of worker (female) and drone (male) bees but only one queen.Honeybees are noted for their dancing movements in the nest. These performances communicate information about the location, distance, size, and quality of a particular food source in the surrounding area.Honeybees are the only bees to swarm. In a swarm, about half the bees and the queen leave the crowded nest and search for a new home. The old queen establishes the new nest, and a new queen takes over the old nest.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Honeybees are susceptible to a mysterious syndrome called colony collapse disorder (CCD). Scientists first identified CCD in the United States in 2006. The syndrome is distinguished by the sudden death of the colony. The disorder appears to affect the adult bees’ ability to navigate. They leave the nest or hive to find pollen and never return. Although the cause is not known, researchers suspect that multiple factors may be involved. They are investigating problems such as pesticide poisoning, parasite infestation, and climate change.BumblebeesLilyan Simmons

Bumblebees are hairy black insects with wide yellow or orange bands. They belong to the genus Bombus. Bumblebees average about 0.6–1 inch (15–25 millimeters) in length. They are found throughout most of the world. Scientists have introduced them to Australia and New Zealand to help pollinate various flowering plants.Most bumblebee species are social insects that live in organized groups. These groups contain about 50–400 individuals. Bumblebees usually make their nests on the ground, commonly in deserted bird or mouse nests. Each nest has a queen, drones (males), and workers (females). Some bumblebee species are parasitic. They search for the nests of other bumblebees and lay their eggs there. Since the parasitic bees do not have a worker class, they let the nest’s worker bees take care of their eggs and larvae. One parasitic species kills the queen so that the parasitic larvae do not have to compete with the nest’s larvae.Stingless BeesStingless bees are widespread in tropical areas of Mexico, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. They are social bees and live in colonies. Most species produce honey, but they make less honey than honeybees do. When threatened, most species bite.Stingless bees make elaborate nests. Worker bees construct the combs of cerumen, a mixture of wax and plant resin. Most species of stingless bees build inner walls of thin, paperlike cerumen that contain a number of tiny holes as passageways inside the nest. Some species construct long entrance halls. Remodeling of the nests goes on continually. Used cells are rebuilt and walls are moved. The locations of entrances are changed so that additions can be made to the comb. Unlike honeybees, who hang their combs vertically with the cells opening on the sides, stingless bees arrange their combs horizontally with the cells opening at the top. Some combs resemble a spiral staircase, while others are irregular clusters of many-sided cells.Stingless bees form social units that are in many ways as complex as those of honeybees. They communicate using various methods, including sound and smell. Some species make sounds from vibrations in the thorax and with the wings. The sounds provide information on the food source—such as the quality and quantity of the nectar—from which the bees came. Other species leave scent trails to provide directions to a source of food. During the return trip to the nest, they stop repeatedly and rub scent from glands on their bodies onto leaves, stones, and other objects. These marks leave an aromatic trail the other bees can track back to the food.Importance to Humans© Subbotina Anna/stock.adobe.com

Bees are important to people in several ways, including honey production. Humans have used honey as a food for thousands of years. People add honey to fruits to preserve them and to such foods as breads, cookies, and cakes to sweeten them. Honey also has medicinal qualities. People often eat honey to soothe minor throat irritations. It has antimicrobial properties that help to prevent the spread of bacteria. As such, it has been used to treat burns and other wounds of the skin.Beekeeping—the care and management of colonies of honeybees—has been a widespread practice for centuries. Over time people have developed various processes to maintain honeybees. It is common for beekeepers to use wooden boxes called beehives or hives to house bees. Each box contains several frames for the bees to build their nest. The hives make it easy to keep bees in various areas, including cities, farms, forests, and deserts.Some people raise honeybees as a hobby, collecting and consuming their own honey. Others raise honeybees in order to earn a profit. They sell honey and other bee products, including beeswax, either to manufacturing companies or directly to consumers. Some beekeepers charge farmers for the use of their bees as pollinators.Bees are especially important for pollination. Both bees in the wild that make their own nests and bees that use human-made hives act as pollinators. When a bee lands on a flower, pollen sticks to its body. Pollen is a group of microscopic grains that the male structures of seed-bearing plants produce. As the bee travels to other flowers, it transfers the pollen to the female structures of the plants. Fertilization then occurs, and the fertilized cell develops into a seed. Bees help to pollinate hundreds of types of fruit, vegetable, and nut crops. These include blueberries, apples, pumpkins, broccoli, and almonds.ConservationThe numbers of many bee species are declining due to several factors, including habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change. The loss of forests for timber and to expand agricultural land reduces the range of bees. Pesticides kill some of the plants from which bees feed. Bees are further exposed to pesticides that land on plants, in the soil, and in the water. Climate change leads to changing weather patterns that may bring droughts, extreme temperatures, and flooding. In addition, several invasive species threaten native populations of bees. For example, the northern giant hornet from Asia was first detected in southwestern Canada and the northwestern United States in the late 2010s. Just a few of these hornets can destroy all the honeybees in a colony within a few hours. Scientists continue to try to eliminate the northern giant hornets.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists several bee species as vulnerable (under threat of becoming endangered) or endangered. Among the bumblebees, for example, the IUCN classifies the variable cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus variabilis) as critically endangered. It ranks the yellow bumblebee (B. fervidus) and the American bumblebee (B. pensylvanicus) as vulnerable.In 2017 the United Nations established World Bee Day. Celebrated each year on May 20, the day is meant to raise awareness about bees. On that day educators teach about the role of bees and other pollinators and their contributions to a healthy environment. People are encouraged to work toward protecting pollinators and their habitats.ClassificationThe more than 20,000 species of bees belong to the superfamily Apoidea, and, more specifically, the order Hymenoptera. One of the largest of all insect orders, Hymenoptera includes ants, wasps, hornets, and many less-familiar insects. Hymenoptera is classified in the large class Insecta, which belongs to the phylum Arthropoda (invertebrate animals with jointed legs and segmented bodies).© peter/stock.adobe.com

The superfamily Apoidea includes several families of bees. The family Apidae includes honeybees, bumblebees, stingless bees, carpenter bees, cuckoo bees, and mining bees. The family Colletidae includes a couple thousand species of primitive wasplike bees. The Andrenidae family contains medium-sized, ground-dwelling solitary mining bees. The Halictidae family includes the many so-called sweat bees, which are attracted to perspiration. The leaf-cutting and mason bees that make up the family Megachilidae are noted for their elaborate nest structures.

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