The bees are going from flower to flower. They are
collecting a liquid called nectar and yellow grains called pollen. The bees use
nectar and pollen as food. They also do something wonderful as they go about
collecting. The bees take pollen from one plant to another. Some pollen sticks
to a bee’s legs and body. It rubs off when the bee visits another plant. In
this way bees pollinate, or fertilize, plants.
Plants need pollen in order to reproduce. We would not have
many kinds of flowers, fruits, or vegetables if bees did not carry pollen to
plants.
Kinds of Bees
There are about 20,000 species, or kinds, of bees. Bees live
everywhere in the world except on high mountains, in the Arctic and Antarctic,
and on some small islands in the ocean.
Some bees are as small as 0.08 inch (2 millimeters). Some bees are as big as 1.6 inches (4 centimeters). Bees come in many colors—black, gray, yellow, red, green, or blue. Most bees live alone. They are called solitary bees. Some bees live in groups called colonies. They are social bees.
Body of a Bee
Bees are insects. They have three pairs of legs and four
wings. Like all insects, they have a head, chest, and abdomen. They have
mouthparts and a tongue for collecting nectar. They carry nectar in an organ
called a honey stomach.
A bee has special wings that let it fly like a helicopter.
Bees can fly backward, forward, sideways, or stay in one place in the air.
Bees have three regular eyes and two compound eyes. A
compound eye has many lenses. Bees can see colors and patterns. This helps them
find flowers.
Life of a Bee
Bees reproduce sexually. A male bee mates with a female bee.
Female bees lay eggs in nests made of small cells. They lay one egg in each
cell. They put pollen and nectar in the cell for food.
A bee’s life has several stages. A larva hatches out of the
egg. The larva looks a little like a worm. The larva becomes a pupa covered by
a hard case. The pupa becomes an adult bee and breaks out of the case.
Honey-Making Bees
Honey bees are social insects that make honey. They live in
hives, or nests, made of wax. Honey bees are the best-known kind of bee.
Beekeepers raise honey bees for honey and for pollinating farm crops.
Three types of honey-making bees live in each hive—queen,
workers, and drones. Each type of bee has a special job.
The queen is a female that lays all the eggs. There is only
one queen for each hive. The honey bee queen is the largest of the bees in a
honey bee colony, measuring around 2 cm - that's about twice the length of a
worker - drones are slightly larger than workers. As she establishes her
colony, she may lay 1000 eggs per day – one egg every 20 seconds - and more
than her own body weight in eggs!
Worker bees are females that do not lay eggs. Each nest has
thousands of worker bees. Workers build the nest from wax they make in their
bodies. The nest has many cells with six sides. The cells are glued together to
make a comb. The queen lays eggs in some cells. Workers fill other combs with
honey.
Workers collect nectar and pollen, make honey, and make a
food called royal jelly to feed the larvae. Workers guard the hive. They sting
anything that threatens the hive. A worker bee can only sting once. It leaves
the stinger in its victim. Then the bee dies.
Drones are male bees. Drones cannot collect nectar or
pollen. Drones do not have stingers. The only job of a drone is to mate with a
queen.
The queen decides which eggs will become queens, workers, or
drones. Only eggs fertilized with sperm become females. A few fertilized eggs
are put in special cells and fed lots of royal jelly. These eggs become the
queens.
When a honey bee finds food, it tells other honey bees. The
bee comes back to the hive with nectar. It then performs a dance. The bee’s
movements tell the other bees where to look for this nectar.
Bumblebees
If you go on a picnic, a yellow and black bumblebee may buzz
by. Bumblebees have thick, hairy bodies. Their hair helps keep them warm. Only
the queens live through the winter, however. The workers and drones die. Like
honey bees, bumblebees live in colonies. Bumblebees like to nest in ready-made
holes.
Killer Bees
Killer bees are a cross between African honey bees and
European honey bees, the main kind of honey bee in the United States. Researchers
brought African bees to South America. The bees escaped in the 1970s and mated
with European honey bees. The killer bees they produced will attack in swarms.
They will sting and kill large animals and people.
Killer bees spread north into Central America and the
southern United States. Beekeepers worry that the killer bees could harm their
honey bees and threaten the important work that honey bees do.
(Adapted from Encarta encyclopedia and Internet Resources)
