European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
Honey bees make honey from pollen and nectar collected from flowers. They live in large colonies with one queen, many sterile females workers and some male drones. In the wild honey bees nest in hollow trees.
When a new queen emerges, she embarks on a mating flight. On returning to her hive, with help from the workers, she kills the failing, old queen. Alternatively, before the new queen emerges, the old queen may leave with a swarm of workers to form a new colony.
Queens live for several years, but summer-born workers live for only a few weeks. Those maturing later usually survive the winter by huddling together, with the queen, and eating stored food. Drones are turned out of the hive in autumn and left to die.
Honey bees are important flower pollinators. They sting once and only attack when threatened. But, as with wasps, the 'smell' of a bee’s venom causes other bees to attack.
Bees have been created honey for over one hundred and fifty million years. To make one pound of honey, bees fly over 55,000 miles, or in other terms, 2.2 times around the world.
European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
Honey bees make honey from pollen and nectar collected from flowers. They live in large colonies with one queen, many sterile females workers and some male drones. In the wild honey bees nest in hollow trees.
When a new queen emerges, she embarks on a mating flight. On returning to her hive, with help from the workers, she kills the failing, old queen. Alternatively, before the new queen emerges, the old queen may leave with a swarm of workers to form a new colony.
Queens live for several years, but summer-born workers live for only a few weeks. Those maturing later usually survive the winter by huddling together, with the queen, and eating stored food. Drones are turned out of the hive in autumn and left to die.
Honey bees are important flower pollinators. They sting once and only attack when threatened. But, as with wasps, the 'smell' of a bee’s venom causes other bees to attack.
Bees have been created honey for over one hundred and fifty million years. To make one pound of honey, bees fly over 55,000 miles, or in other terms, 2.2 times around the world.