Bees

(From Kids InfoBits Thomson Gale, 2005)

Bees are insects. They belong to the same family as wasps and ants. There are about 20,000 types of bees.

A bee's body is divided into three sections. These sections include the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The head is connected to the thorax and the thorax is connected to the abdomen.

Bees have large hind feet. Each back foot is covered with stiff hairs that are used to gather pollen. Bees also have feathery hair on their heads and bodies.

Bees eat nectar found in flowers and fruits. The nectar is converted into honey while still in the bee's digestive tract.

One of the most common bees is the bumblebee. Except for the queen, bumblebees die in the fall in areas that have seasons. In the tropics, bumblebees can live for many years. The tropics are areas that have hot and humid weather.

Another common bee is the honey bee. This species builds nests of wax called honeycombs. If a honeybee uses its stinger, it will die.

A bee colony has three levels of bees. These levels include the queen, thousands of workers, and a few hundred drones. The workers are females, and the drones are fertile males.

Female bees have stingers at the tip of their abdomens, or bodies. It is connected to the poison gland. A queen bee will only sting other queens. Her stinger is smooth, but worker bee stingers are spiked.

Queen bees produce the eggs. Worker bees keep the colony running by gathering pollen and storing honey. They build honeycomb cells and clean the hive. Workers also feed and care for the queen and larvae. Larvae are just-hatched baby bees. Worker bees live through the winter if they are born in the fall. Otherwise, they live only for about six weeks.

Drones do not have stingers. Their job is to mate with the queen so she will produce more eggs. Drones live for four to six weeks.

Sometimes a hive becomes overcrowded. When this happens, the old queen takes a swarm, or group of bees, with her and starts a new colony. The old colony still contains several baby queens. Whichever one hatches first stings the others to death. She mates and spends the rest of her life laying eggs. Queens live for up to five years.