Then, they store the nectar in a separate stomach from their main stomach. While there, they collect nectar from the blossom by sucking it out with their tongues. Honey bees create honey, which is their food, by visiting flowers. Pollinators like honey bees allow us to eat! Do All Bees Make Honey?Īs its name suggests, the honey bee creates honey! ![]() Of the world’s 115 most important crops, 87 require pollination in order to thrive. Pollinators are responsible for the transport of pollen to plants, which allows fertilization to happen. Honey bees are vital to our ecosystem, as they are protected pollinators. Queen bees, on the other hand, may live two to three years or more. Worker bees have a relatively short life span of around six weeks during honey production seasons. The queen bee, royal and important as she may be, cannot survive alone, because she can’t solely produce honey or pollinate flowers by her lonesome. The life cycle of honey bees depends on a number of factors, as well as the survival of the individual bees within the hive. When the bee pulls away from its victim, the stinger and venom sac are left behind, which causes the bee to die. When the worker bee stings something, the barbs in its stinger become embedded in whatever they have stung. The queen bee will typically use her stinger on other rival bees, but worker bees have barbed stingers they’ll use on most anyone when it comes to protecting their hive.įor the worker bee, stinging is a suicide mission. Both worker bees and the queen bee can sting. Honey bees do indeed have stingers, and they will use them when they feel threatened. Some honey bees are mainly black in color, but most all honey bees have varying striations that vary from dark coloring to light coloring. Typically, honey bees are oval-shaped with golden-yellow colors and brown bands around their bodies. Their thorax is where their wings are six legs can be found, and their stinger is located at the end of their abdomens. On their head, they have a pair of antennae and mouthparts. Most simply put, honey bees have a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. The bees will actually shiver to increase the temperature inside the hive through thermoregulation. Honey bees are also able to withstand a variety of climates, including the cold. They can thrive in natural habitats, as well as agricultural areas and urban parks or gardens. Honey bees typically prefer to live in areas where flowering plants are abundant, like gardens, meadows, and woodlands. And of course, there’s the queen bee, who lays about 1,500 eggs per day, and only leaves the hive once in her life in order to mate. These worker bees handle all of the duties within the hive except for reproduction, so their jobs include tasks like scouting, guarding, caring for the queen, producing honey, and building honeycomb. Then there are female worker bees, who outnumber male bees significantly-there are approximately 100 female worker bees for every 1 male bee. Their sole purpose in life is to mate with the queen bee. Within the hives, honey bees have specialized roles. Where do honey bees live? Well, honey bees are social insects, and live amongst one another in hives. Learn about the differences between these species you’re likely to encounter in your own backyard! All About Honey Bees Honey Bee Habitat There are two common Long Island bee species in particular which are commonly mixed up-honey bees and bumblebees. ![]() Drones are produced when the queen lays an unfertilized egg in a comb cell.With over 20,000 different species, it’s no surprise it can sometimes be difficult to tell bees apart! Different bee species vary in the bees’ physical characteristics, habitats, pollination habits, and general behaviors. Drones have large eyes to aid in mating while in flight. Mating takes place in flight in drone congregation areas. The males are larger, do not have a stinger and their only function is to mate with queen bees. They may live up to a few months during the winter time. The worker bees are the smallest in size and have a life span of about 4 to 6 weeks in the spring and summer. The worker bees guard the nest, clean the nest, raise the young bees (brood/larvae), tend to the queen and gather water and food (nectar and pollen from plants). The females are responsible for building the wax honeycomb that is the nest. The majority of the colony consists of females. An average size colony or nest may contain 30,000 to 35,000 bees with some nests getting as large as 80,000 bees. Honey bees live in a colony consisting of one queen bee, drone bees (males) and worker bees (females).
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