Bees: Year 8 Agriculture: Welcome

Bee Culture

• :Recent Evolution of Western Honey Bee - Casey McGrath, (2020 December 11)
• First Map of Bee Species - Cell Press (2020 December 3)

American Bee Journal

• Seeking Her Majesty - Sebestyen, Tina. (2019 June 1)
• Beginner's Beekeeping Recommendations - Nabors, Ray (2017 May 1)

• All worker bees are female.

• A bee produces a teaspoon of honey (about 5 grams) in her lifetime.

• To produce a kilogram of honey, bees fly the equivalent of three times around the world in air miles.

• The type of flower the bees take their nectar from determines the honey’s flavour.

• Male bees (drones) have bigger eyes to help them find the Queen Bee.

• Bees mate high in the sky. Afterwards the male bee loses his reproductive organs and dies.

• A Queen Bee can produce 2,000 eggs a day. Fertilised eggs become females and unfertilised eggs become males, with the help of pheromones.

Bee Facts for Kids

• Beekeepers use smoke to calm bees when they are collecting honey or relocating a hive.
• Bees make honey to feed their young and so they have something to eat during the winter.
• Killer bees have been known to chase people for over a 1/4 mile once they get excited and aggressive.
• Certain species of bees die after stinging because their stingers, which are attached to their abdomen, have little barbs or hooks on them. When this type of bee tries to fly away after stinging something, part of the abdomen is ripped away.

There are about 20,000 different species of bees in the world. Bees live in colonies that contain the queen bee, the worker bee and the drone. The worker bee and the queen bee are both female, but only the queen bee can reproduce. All drones are male. Worker bees clean the hive, collecting pollen and nectar to feed the colony and they take care of the offspring. The drone’s only job is to mate with the queen. The queen’s only job is to lay eggs.